It is that time of year when people tend to think about what they have done and what they are going to do. I will take it in small steps. My plan is to give some past highlights of 2011 and some probable highlights of 2012, one of each, for a few blog entries.
Among my accomplishments of 2011 is to get to second place when it comes to the most read opinion pieces in SvD (a major Swedish newspaper). To be honest I had not much to do with its writing or the fact that it became very popular but I still list it as one noteworthy thing I did during 2011. It is not every day you can assist an astronaut to take an overdose of sleeping pills.
To see the list of the most popular opinion pieces follow this link.
To read the original piece (in Swedish) follow this link.
Among plans for 2012 I am enlisting to take courses that will hopefully give me a master degree in rhetoric.
Happy New Year!
Saturday 31 December 2011
Saturday 17 December 2011
An obituary of sort
Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011
I am writing this for two sad reasons, the first one is that Christopher Hitchens is dead, the second one is the sad state of the Swedish obituaries.
Maybe he wasn't that big in Sweden, definitely not as big as he was in the US or the UK. We are talking about a man so influential that the New York Times stopped the presses to get his obituary in the paper. I doubt that any Swedish paper stopped their presses. And it is sad that the media in Sweden never understood his greatness; not that he was always right, but he would always argue his point and ask uncomfortable questions and not seldom deliver uncomfortable facts.
But I can understand that he wasn't popular in Sweden since he was a fierce debater in that intellectual stile which appear to be shun by the Swedish media. It would not do to show that intelligence and facts could be used in a debate instead of conviction and opinions. Not that Christopher Hitchens didn't have opinions but he, as far as I can tell, never argued that his convictions in themselves were enough of an argument.
So what about the man himself?
I often didn't agree with him, I have met him, not only heard him speak but actually been at the same party and exchanged a few words with him. I was not starstruck by him although his eloquence is admirable. But I can understand those who idolised him because he was a very unique man, he smoked, and he clearly drank, and he wrote and spoke all with the same uncompromising zeal.
I valued his critique of religion, because as a Christian and secularist, I believe that all religions should be criticized and even ridiculed. A crazy thing as a religious belief deserve ridicule and only people who can stand their believes being ridiculed should be allowed to be religious. I much rather live in an world there people like Hitchens or even people much, much less well spoken than him, can insult religion as much as they want, than in a world there people are under pressure not to offend. It is sometimes argued that the freedom of speech has become a “religion” in the west and that it is necessary to understand that it must be placed on the same level as other religions and learn to “play nice”. That is pure humbug, and I think Hitchens would agree with me on that. (Though since he is dead we will never know.) To listen to people you don't agree with will make your thoughts evolve and if freedom of speech is restricted, humanity will suffer.
That is why I am sad, because a great combatant in the struggle for humanity has passed away. I know that he didn't believe, but I hope he was wrong and although I don't agree with drinking I hope he has found his place at the big bar in heaven.
I am writing this for two sad reasons, the first one is that Christopher Hitchens is dead, the second one is the sad state of the Swedish obituaries.
Maybe he wasn't that big in Sweden, definitely not as big as he was in the US or the UK. We are talking about a man so influential that the New York Times stopped the presses to get his obituary in the paper. I doubt that any Swedish paper stopped their presses. And it is sad that the media in Sweden never understood his greatness; not that he was always right, but he would always argue his point and ask uncomfortable questions and not seldom deliver uncomfortable facts.
But I can understand that he wasn't popular in Sweden since he was a fierce debater in that intellectual stile which appear to be shun by the Swedish media. It would not do to show that intelligence and facts could be used in a debate instead of conviction and opinions. Not that Christopher Hitchens didn't have opinions but he, as far as I can tell, never argued that his convictions in themselves were enough of an argument.
So what about the man himself?
I often didn't agree with him, I have met him, not only heard him speak but actually been at the same party and exchanged a few words with him. I was not starstruck by him although his eloquence is admirable. But I can understand those who idolised him because he was a very unique man, he smoked, and he clearly drank, and he wrote and spoke all with the same uncompromising zeal.
I valued his critique of religion, because as a Christian and secularist, I believe that all religions should be criticized and even ridiculed. A crazy thing as a religious belief deserve ridicule and only people who can stand their believes being ridiculed should be allowed to be religious. I much rather live in an world there people like Hitchens or even people much, much less well spoken than him, can insult religion as much as they want, than in a world there people are under pressure not to offend. It is sometimes argued that the freedom of speech has become a “religion” in the west and that it is necessary to understand that it must be placed on the same level as other religions and learn to “play nice”. That is pure humbug, and I think Hitchens would agree with me on that. (Though since he is dead we will never know.) To listen to people you don't agree with will make your thoughts evolve and if freedom of speech is restricted, humanity will suffer.
That is why I am sad, because a great combatant in the struggle for humanity has passed away. I know that he didn't believe, but I hope he was wrong and although I don't agree with drinking I hope he has found his place at the big bar in heaven.
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Lecture
For anyone who is interested and somewhere around Stockholm on the 7th of Mars 2012 I will give a semi-public lecture. It is a part of a lecture series with the title ”Vetenskap och ovetenskap” (Science and non-science) arranged by Björn Fjæstad for Senioruniversitetet i Stockholm (Stockholm Senior University) together with Folkuniversitetet (The Peoples University).
Beside me a number of very talented and interesting people will be speaking. Anna Bäsén will be talking about alternative medicine (that is treatments that has either not been proven to work, or proven not to work) the week after me. After her Martin Rundkvist will be talking about pseudo archaeology. Martin has been speaking at the lecture series that I arrange for my church in Uppsala and the speaker that follow Martin will as well have been here. CJ Åkerberg will talk about conspiration theories in Uppsala the 12th of January and in Stockholm the 28th of Mars. Everyone mentioned above I know, some more than others. Than there are two more talks one about parapsychology and the other one about the radiation from mobile phones and the so called electro-sensitivity that some people suffer from; the suffering is real although the cause of it is disputed.
If I was older I would make sure to attend this lecture series myself. To attend you have to sign up for the lecture series and pay the fee of 500 crowns.
Beside me a number of very talented and interesting people will be speaking. Anna Bäsén will be talking about alternative medicine (that is treatments that has either not been proven to work, or proven not to work) the week after me. After her Martin Rundkvist will be talking about pseudo archaeology. Martin has been speaking at the lecture series that I arrange for my church in Uppsala and the speaker that follow Martin will as well have been here. CJ Åkerberg will talk about conspiration theories in Uppsala the 12th of January and in Stockholm the 28th of Mars. Everyone mentioned above I know, some more than others. Than there are two more talks one about parapsychology and the other one about the radiation from mobile phones and the so called electro-sensitivity that some people suffer from; the suffering is real although the cause of it is disputed.
If I was older I would make sure to attend this lecture series myself. To attend you have to sign up for the lecture series and pay the fee of 500 crowns.
Thursday 1 December 2011
Stuid and funny people
People who do stupid things are not always funny, and to be funny sometimes require a lot of intelligence. It is not very polite to point out that there really are stupid people not only people that do stupid things.
I must confess that pure stupidity in people I meet, and not just being uneducated, is something I rather not suffer. That is why this web page is something I am at the same time amused by as it makes me fear the future of the human race.
I must confess that pure stupidity in people I meet, and not just being uneducated, is something I rather not suffer. That is why this web page is something I am at the same time amused by as it makes me fear the future of the human race.
Sunday 27 November 2011
To interpret literature II
We were talking about René Girard's triangle, not a proper geometric triangle but a way to view relationships in a text, invented in 1965. Originally it was to show how two individuals in their relationship to the same object, idea, or position also have a relationship between each other. It was later developed to include the type of triangles that people are most prone to think about in a book or a film, the love triangle. But the triangle is much more fundamental than that.
In my own thoughts I began to imagine what interesting forms of topology you would get if you tried to identify all the possible triangles in a text. I started to get an image of many interconnected triangles to describe all the different possible relations. For more complicated stories it would of course not be possible to confine the triangles to just two dimensions, or even three. It is apparent that I am heavily influenced by my background in science.
Our teacher was talking about the triangle and invented an example with a man, a woman and the Bible. She explained how the man's understanding and relationship to the woman was influenced by a book that divide women in two groups Madonna or whore. And the book tell the man that the Madonna is good and desirable while the whore is bad and contemptible.
Now it wasn't the time to get into a long discussion outside the topic, but in my mind I did object to her example. I was surprised that someone that studies literature would use that kind of wording. If she had said “the church” instead of “the Bible” I would have understood it better. Because it is possible to find times and places where the church has indeed interpreted the Bible in this way. It is not even difficult to find these times and places. I would have thought that someone who studies literature would know the difference between what the Bible says and how people interpret the Bible.
There are those that would say that the message in the Bible is rather the opposite. You could read the message in Bible to be that there are no grounds to divide people into groups and assign them different value.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28
In my own thoughts I began to imagine what interesting forms of topology you would get if you tried to identify all the possible triangles in a text. I started to get an image of many interconnected triangles to describe all the different possible relations. For more complicated stories it would of course not be possible to confine the triangles to just two dimensions, or even three. It is apparent that I am heavily influenced by my background in science.
Our teacher was talking about the triangle and invented an example with a man, a woman and the Bible. She explained how the man's understanding and relationship to the woman was influenced by a book that divide women in two groups Madonna or whore. And the book tell the man that the Madonna is good and desirable while the whore is bad and contemptible.
Now it wasn't the time to get into a long discussion outside the topic, but in my mind I did object to her example. I was surprised that someone that studies literature would use that kind of wording. If she had said “the church” instead of “the Bible” I would have understood it better. Because it is possible to find times and places where the church has indeed interpreted the Bible in this way. It is not even difficult to find these times and places. I would have thought that someone who studies literature would know the difference between what the Bible says and how people interpret the Bible.
There are those that would say that the message in the Bible is rather the opposite. You could read the message in Bible to be that there are no grounds to divide people into groups and assign them different value.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28
Saturday 26 November 2011
To interpret literature I
Since I live in a university city I try to take a few courses now and then. Of course it helps that taking courses at a Swedish university is free. Now I am taking a course in literature with some connection to rhetoric, which is my main topic at the moment. Although I have a background in science I find it rewarding to learn what people do in other areas of academia. It is not always easy to understand what people are talking about before you actually dive into a subject.
When I was studying philosophy I got a very good advice from a teacher. “Just because you don't understand what someone is saying doesn't mean that they are stupid and what they say is nonsense. “ One very important point that he didn't mention is of course that to not understand someone does not exclude the possibility that they are stupid and talk nothing but nonsense. What is important is to give people the benefit of a doubt. In debates you often see how people interpret their opposition's opinion as negative as possible. But this is not the ideal in academia, here you should always extend the best possible interpretation to the text you study.
It is probably even more important for sceptics than for many others to not assume the worst reading of a text. Some sceptics appear to think that just because a text uses terms that they are unfamiliar with, a convoluted form of reasoning, or concern a topic that they consider unscientific the text must be without merit. Since sceptics often encounter texts that have all the above characteristics and that really are nonsense we may to some degree be excused, but non the less it is better to always begin with the assumption that it is your own fault if you don't understand how brilliant a text is.
Now this tirade about strange complicated texts that still may have some kind of understandable message and even value, is not a critique of the course I am taking. Although some theories in the study of literature strike me to be more opinion than tools to reach understanding. This is just the background to my simple observation during our most recent class in the course.
When I was studying philosophy I got a very good advice from a teacher. “Just because you don't understand what someone is saying doesn't mean that they are stupid and what they say is nonsense. “ One very important point that he didn't mention is of course that to not understand someone does not exclude the possibility that they are stupid and talk nothing but nonsense. What is important is to give people the benefit of a doubt. In debates you often see how people interpret their opposition's opinion as negative as possible. But this is not the ideal in academia, here you should always extend the best possible interpretation to the text you study.
It is probably even more important for sceptics than for many others to not assume the worst reading of a text. Some sceptics appear to think that just because a text uses terms that they are unfamiliar with, a convoluted form of reasoning, or concern a topic that they consider unscientific the text must be without merit. Since sceptics often encounter texts that have all the above characteristics and that really are nonsense we may to some degree be excused, but non the less it is better to always begin with the assumption that it is your own fault if you don't understand how brilliant a text is.
Now this tirade about strange complicated texts that still may have some kind of understandable message and even value, is not a critique of the course I am taking. Although some theories in the study of literature strike me to be more opinion than tools to reach understanding. This is just the background to my simple observation during our most recent class in the course.
Thursday 24 November 2011
Flattering surprise
I did not expect this but I found out this morning via a friend on facebook that I have a fan-club there. It is not a big fan club but non the less 82 people have decided to click “like'” so far. Since I have no idea who has made the page I guess that it is my unofficial fan-club.
To me fan-clubs are something that happen to other people but I can't help to be a little flattered although I guess the people who have joined are not too serious.
To me fan-clubs are something that happen to other people but I can't help to be a little flattered although I guess the people who have joined are not too serious.
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Opinions and knowledge
This is a reflection concerning a course I am taking at the moment between me and a fellow student and another friend. Sorry those of you that don't read Swedish, but I think you are better of not knowing the state of Swedish academia.
Jag: Du har rätt det var kursen jag tänkte på även om jag försöker låta bli. :)
Vän 1: Ledsen att jag påminde dig Per Johan Råsmark ;)
Vän 2: Vad läser ni för kurs?
Vän 1: Genusperspektiv vid textanalys
Jag: Det är inte en otrevlig kurs men det är väldigt mycket tyckande och väldigt lite vetande.
Vän 1: Det kan vara väldigt snurrigt också. Ibland vet man inte om de själva vet vad de försöker säga - och ibland förstår inte ens lärarna det heller (har läst lite i ämnet tidigare).
Vän 2: Låter kreativt, lite på lösan sand så där... ;)
Jag: Du har rätt det var kursen jag tänkte på även om jag försöker låta bli. :)
Vän 1: Ledsen att jag påminde dig Per Johan Råsmark ;)
Vän 2: Vad läser ni för kurs?
Vän 1: Genusperspektiv vid textanalys
Jag: Det är inte en otrevlig kurs men det är väldigt mycket tyckande och väldigt lite vetande.
Vän 1: Det kan vara väldigt snurrigt också. Ibland vet man inte om de själva vet vad de försöker säga - och ibland förstår inte ens lärarna det heller (har läst lite i ämnet tidigare).
Vän 2: Låter kreativt, lite på lösan sand så där... ;)
Tuesday 15 November 2011
An unexpected phone call
For some time now I have been one of the contributors to a sceptical column in the local newspaper Uppsala Nya Tidning. Yesterday I got a call from one of the readers who just read what I had written about dowsing. He said that he appreciated what I had written and it is of course nice to have people telling you that they like what you do. But it was unexpected to get a phone call.
We had an interesting conversation about his experiences living next door to a man who worked as a dowser for about 60 years and had a very different technique. Instead of using a rod or a pendulum this man used only his arms and sometimes he could feel the “force” or at least something, so strongly that it could knock him over.
It would have been interesting to learn more about this dowser and what he did but unfortunately he was already dead (The worked as a dowser for 60 years should have been a clue.) Apart from the unorthodox method the dowser appeared to behave as many other in the business. He didn't charge for his services but gladly accepted what people gave him. It also seemed as he was specialised on finding water.
We had an interesting conversation about his experiences living next door to a man who worked as a dowser for about 60 years and had a very different technique. Instead of using a rod or a pendulum this man used only his arms and sometimes he could feel the “force” or at least something, so strongly that it could knock him over.
It would have been interesting to learn more about this dowser and what he did but unfortunately he was already dead (The worked as a dowser for 60 years should have been a clue.) Apart from the unorthodox method the dowser appeared to behave as many other in the business. He didn't charge for his services but gladly accepted what people gave him. It also seemed as he was specialised on finding water.
Monday 14 November 2011
Chines whispers
A friend of mine is in China at the moment and after my travels in that country I have an opinion about what to see and what to do. An opinion that of course is not based on a scientifically sufficient material just on my own experiences.
Putting together a few ideas in a mail to my friend I found the web page of one of the best guest houses for backpackers that I have ever been to. Not just one of the best in China but one of the best I been to anywhere. After I found the web page I also found on the page some interesting pictures (3) in the guest house's album. It is nice to see that one makes an impression. I mostly did card magic at that time and not that much mind reading. In addition it was easier to communicate using the cards than the tricks of the mentalist.
If you ever find yourself in Chengdu you should stay at Mix's guest house. Mix is absolutely one of the nicest people I have ever met and his friendliness has become the foundation of his guest house. This is not a Chinese whisper but first hand information about my opinion.
Putting together a few ideas in a mail to my friend I found the web page of one of the best guest houses for backpackers that I have ever been to. Not just one of the best in China but one of the best I been to anywhere. After I found the web page I also found on the page some interesting pictures (3) in the guest house's album. It is nice to see that one makes an impression. I mostly did card magic at that time and not that much mind reading. In addition it was easier to communicate using the cards than the tricks of the mentalist.
If you ever find yourself in Chengdu you should stay at Mix's guest house. Mix is absolutely one of the nicest people I have ever met and his friendliness has become the foundation of his guest house. This is not a Chinese whisper but first hand information about my opinion.
Sunday 13 November 2011
Museidagen 2011 (Museum day 2011)
One aspect of public performances is that you find yourself in the situation that people have come to see you perform. This is actually different from what most magicians and mentalists are used to these days. If you are the entertainment for a private party or the dinner talker at a cooperate event people have not come to see you, they came for some other reason.
I am pleased to say that a number of families apparently came to medicinhistoriska museet to see me today. (For more information of the show see previous blog post.) It was a very mixed audience with regard to age and education and that made it difficult to find a good level. But my first priority was the children and I was told that I found a very good balance in my presentation.
As is often the case in a city the size of Uppsala I ran into some people I know, and also one person that knew me. He came up to me after the performance to talk and apparently we had taken the same course in “vågrörelse lära” (wave theory). But this was a very long time ago, some time in the late 90's. I must say that I am surprised that he remembered me. I must have made quite an impression even at that time.
To be fair it is quite fun to perform for a mixed audience of children and adults. Though I confess that some of the adults probably know how one or two of the effects for the children are done, and maybe some of the children know how some of the effects for the grown ups are done.
I am pleased to say that a number of families apparently came to medicinhistoriska museet to see me today. (For more information of the show see previous blog post.) It was a very mixed audience with regard to age and education and that made it difficult to find a good level. But my first priority was the children and I was told that I found a very good balance in my presentation.
As is often the case in a city the size of Uppsala I ran into some people I know, and also one person that knew me. He came up to me after the performance to talk and apparently we had taken the same course in “vågrörelse lära” (wave theory). But this was a very long time ago, some time in the late 90's. I must say that I am surprised that he remembered me. I must have made quite an impression even at that time.
To be fair it is quite fun to perform for a mixed audience of children and adults. Though I confess that some of the adults probably know how one or two of the effects for the children are done, and maybe some of the children know how some of the effects for the grown ups are done.
Saturday 12 November 2011
Back to work
This will not be much mentalism since the audience is supposed to be mostly children. Though I hope that they will not be too young given that the show is in a museum. But I have a little bit of everything to have something for everyone.
Friday 11 November 2011
11-11-11
Well I guess I had to write something about this day. Although it is not in anyway different from any other day in the history of the universe. This is a day that will have numerologist selling more books and I am sure my old acquaintance Uri Geller have said a few things about today's date. He says that he sees the number 11 so often that it must have some kind of importance.
To realise that for the universe this is not a special time there are many things to consider. I will only point out three:
1 It is not 11-11-11 everywhere on Earth at the same time.
2 If we had a different base for our number system it would just be as any other day
3 The date is supposed to be based on the year Jesus was born, but no one knows for sure what year he was born, it is 0 +/- 7 years (or something like that).
But this doesn't imply that there is not some special meaning with 11-11-11. There is obviously a special meaning with today's date. Several people have decided to get married today, some even hope to give birth at this date (which with a caesarian is not impossible to plan). Meaning is something we humans ascribe to things and thus a random patch of space-time can be given all kinds of mystical meaning.
This is published in the last minutes of 11-11-11 CET (since I wanted to make sure that nothing special happened) making this the first day I publish two blog post on the same day so I guess 11-11-11 is special.
My point is that it is fine to believe that 11-11-11 is special because the belief that it is special will make it so. But this should of course be done with moderation since it is from the universe's perspective just another rotation of the Earth around its axis. But it has the good thing with it that the Swedish and Anglo-Saxon standard for writing dates for once coincide.
To realise that for the universe this is not a special time there are many things to consider. I will only point out three:
1 It is not 11-11-11 everywhere on Earth at the same time.
2 If we had a different base for our number system it would just be as any other day
3 The date is supposed to be based on the year Jesus was born, but no one knows for sure what year he was born, it is 0 +/- 7 years (or something like that).
But this doesn't imply that there is not some special meaning with 11-11-11. There is obviously a special meaning with today's date. Several people have decided to get married today, some even hope to give birth at this date (which with a caesarian is not impossible to plan). Meaning is something we humans ascribe to things and thus a random patch of space-time can be given all kinds of mystical meaning.
This is published in the last minutes of 11-11-11 CET (since I wanted to make sure that nothing special happened) making this the first day I publish two blog post on the same day so I guess 11-11-11 is special.
My point is that it is fine to believe that 11-11-11 is special because the belief that it is special will make it so. But this should of course be done with moderation since it is from the universe's perspective just another rotation of the Earth around its axis. But it has the good thing with it that the Swedish and Anglo-Saxon standard for writing dates for once coincide.
The Bystander effect
In psychology there is phenomenon called the Bystander effect and it concerns the likelihood for people to act in a situation or remain a bystander. (It is called the Bystander Effect because that is unfortunately what usually happens according to the science.)
Psychologist began interesting themselves for the phenomenon after a brutal murder in New York that nobody seemed to want to prevent or get involved with, the story was somewhat exaggerated in its narration but that is a completely different thing. The details of the murder and what the Bystander effect is can be found on Wikipedia.
The reason I bring this up is that today I didn't see the Bystander effect in action. Just entering one of the shopping malls here in Uppsala (more like a Czech pasáž than an American mall) I saw a woman lying on the floor and three people kneeling beside her. Actually as I came in the three people got to the woman so I guess she must have fainted just prior to me entering the mall. Just after I noticed the situation I took out my phone but noticed that a girl coming from the other direction also had her out and was apparently dialling 112. We made eye contact and communicated that she was calling for an ambulance so I put my phone away. The people kneeling by the woman checked her breathing and pulse and laid her on her side. A person passing by stopped and asked if we had everything under control, and if we knew the woman. The passer by turned out to be a doctor and not the useless type that this city is full of. A moment later an other woman stopped by and she was a nurse. A shop assistant from a nearby shop came out with a phone to call 112.
It could not have taken more than a minute, a minute and a half, from the woman fainted for all of this to happen. It was not much like the Bystander effect, rather I got the impression that it was a well oiled machinery. The people closest to the one in need stepped in and did what they could do, not passing her by or waiting for someone else to do something. People around assessed the situation to see if they could be of any assistance. The doctor and the nurse of course doing more since they had the training. If anything like that ever happens to me I hope that I can get help just as quickly.
I left after the nurse had arrived. Since everything seemed to be under control there was no reason for me to stay there.
Psychologist began interesting themselves for the phenomenon after a brutal murder in New York that nobody seemed to want to prevent or get involved with, the story was somewhat exaggerated in its narration but that is a completely different thing. The details of the murder and what the Bystander effect is can be found on Wikipedia.
The reason I bring this up is that today I didn't see the Bystander effect in action. Just entering one of the shopping malls here in Uppsala (more like a Czech pasáž than an American mall) I saw a woman lying on the floor and three people kneeling beside her. Actually as I came in the three people got to the woman so I guess she must have fainted just prior to me entering the mall. Just after I noticed the situation I took out my phone but noticed that a girl coming from the other direction also had her out and was apparently dialling 112. We made eye contact and communicated that she was calling for an ambulance so I put my phone away. The people kneeling by the woman checked her breathing and pulse and laid her on her side. A person passing by stopped and asked if we had everything under control, and if we knew the woman. The passer by turned out to be a doctor and not the useless type that this city is full of. A moment later an other woman stopped by and she was a nurse. A shop assistant from a nearby shop came out with a phone to call 112.
It could not have taken more than a minute, a minute and a half, from the woman fainted for all of this to happen. It was not much like the Bystander effect, rather I got the impression that it was a well oiled machinery. The people closest to the one in need stepped in and did what they could do, not passing her by or waiting for someone else to do something. People around assessed the situation to see if they could be of any assistance. The doctor and the nurse of course doing more since they had the training. If anything like that ever happens to me I hope that I can get help just as quickly.
I left after the nurse had arrived. Since everything seemed to be under control there was no reason for me to stay there.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Is it all a scam?
Leaving my local supermarket today I met two gentleman with shoulder bags and clipboards, one of them started to talk to me and since I passed him by (or the other man) a couple of weeks ago I felt I could at least stop and listen to what he had to say.
The mission was to collect money and the cause was democracy and human rights in Iran. A fair and noble goal for any organisation. The two men looked like they could be from Iran though looks can be deceiving so it is hard to say. They were against capital punishment and I was quickly shown pictures of executions. They were also for an Iranian Christian pastor that was threaten with death if he didn't convert to Islam, and they had a picture of him as well.
After this I was shown some official looking pieces of paper that I was told was some kind of permit from the police in Stockholm and one paper from the police in Uppsala. Exactly what the papers were saying I don't know because I was told to write my name, phone number and address on a list and tick a box for if I wanted to give 300, 500, 800, or 1000 Swedish crowns. The reason for wanting my signature he said was that they were a “90-konto” organisation.
For people that are not familiar with a “90-konto” it is a bank account that begin with the number 90. They are only used by organisations that can prove that the money they collect really goes to what they claim. The rules are quite strict and not every organisation is allowed a 90-konto. The idea is that the giver can be sure that they are not being scammed when they put money into an account of this type.
Now I don't know if political organisations that work for democracy in Iran are allowed a 90-konto, but I do know that usually the reason an organisation has 90-konto is because they want people to use that account not to use as a form of persuasion when they collect money in the streets. I also never heard of other organisations that need your signature when they do collect money in the streets. Even worse than that, I have never heard of an organisation that need a permit from the police to walk around and try to collect money.
Being a sceptic and having all these questions I started to ask a few other questions to try to figure out what it was about. The behaviour of the man was not one that inspired me to trust him. It was apparent that he was more concerned with getting me to sign the list and give him money than to talk to me. At least that was the impression I got, and when I wanted to put a few crowns in his collection box (one that he did show me on several occasions but didn't act like he wanted me to put anything in) he quickly terminated our conversation and didn't even let me put all the coins I had into the box.
The behaviour was suspicious but I did a search for approved organisations that do have a 90-konto and I did find the organisation that he claimed to represent:
http://www.iran-demokrati.se/
So at least that part was not a scam.
The mission was to collect money and the cause was democracy and human rights in Iran. A fair and noble goal for any organisation. The two men looked like they could be from Iran though looks can be deceiving so it is hard to say. They were against capital punishment and I was quickly shown pictures of executions. They were also for an Iranian Christian pastor that was threaten with death if he didn't convert to Islam, and they had a picture of him as well.
After this I was shown some official looking pieces of paper that I was told was some kind of permit from the police in Stockholm and one paper from the police in Uppsala. Exactly what the papers were saying I don't know because I was told to write my name, phone number and address on a list and tick a box for if I wanted to give 300, 500, 800, or 1000 Swedish crowns. The reason for wanting my signature he said was that they were a “90-konto” organisation.
For people that are not familiar with a “90-konto” it is a bank account that begin with the number 90. They are only used by organisations that can prove that the money they collect really goes to what they claim. The rules are quite strict and not every organisation is allowed a 90-konto. The idea is that the giver can be sure that they are not being scammed when they put money into an account of this type.
Now I don't know if political organisations that work for democracy in Iran are allowed a 90-konto, but I do know that usually the reason an organisation has 90-konto is because they want people to use that account not to use as a form of persuasion when they collect money in the streets. I also never heard of other organisations that need your signature when they do collect money in the streets. Even worse than that, I have never heard of an organisation that need a permit from the police to walk around and try to collect money.
Being a sceptic and having all these questions I started to ask a few other questions to try to figure out what it was about. The behaviour of the man was not one that inspired me to trust him. It was apparent that he was more concerned with getting me to sign the list and give him money than to talk to me. At least that was the impression I got, and when I wanted to put a few crowns in his collection box (one that he did show me on several occasions but didn't act like he wanted me to put anything in) he quickly terminated our conversation and didn't even let me put all the coins I had into the box.
The behaviour was suspicious but I did a search for approved organisations that do have a 90-konto and I did find the organisation that he claimed to represent:
http://www.iran-demokrati.se/
So at least that part was not a scam.
Saturday 1 October 2011
We are memories
I just yesterday bought and read ”Moonwalking with Einstein – the art and science of remembering everything” by Joshua Foer, or to be honest it took me until 3 am. today to finish reading it.
The book takes a look at the subculture of people competing in memory in the US and worldwide. It is not a detailed book about how memory systems work or about what happens in the brain. It is in some ways a typical road-trip story where the author goes on an adventure. In this case he manages to win the US championships after practising for a year.
I liked the book but I also have many friends interested in memory work and can have a use of it myself sometimes. Only a week a go I met Mattias Ribbing who is out with a new book about memory systems where he (according to himself) tries to make them practical and not focused on competition.
The book talks about the science behind memory and also the history and how remembering texts changed from Homer's works that was retold in an oral tradition before they were written down, to today when some believe that wikiepedia makes it unnecessary to remember anything. It is an easy and in my opinion well written book that introduces the reader not only to the memory athletes subculture and to a part of mentalism (memory work) but also to the idea of how important memory was and still is. Because who would we be without our memories?
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in philosophy of mind, psychology, rhetoric and mentalism, beside of course people that just want to know more about our memory and what it can be trained to do. The reason that it is interesting from a rhetorical point of view is that many of these memory systems were used by the ancients and described by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus and Marcus Tullius Cicero as tools for the orator.
Though not everyone agrees that it is a good book as this review from the Guardian shows, although I think it is somewhat telling that all the comments on the page defend the book.
The book takes a look at the subculture of people competing in memory in the US and worldwide. It is not a detailed book about how memory systems work or about what happens in the brain. It is in some ways a typical road-trip story where the author goes on an adventure. In this case he manages to win the US championships after practising for a year.
I liked the book but I also have many friends interested in memory work and can have a use of it myself sometimes. Only a week a go I met Mattias Ribbing who is out with a new book about memory systems where he (according to himself) tries to make them practical and not focused on competition.
The book talks about the science behind memory and also the history and how remembering texts changed from Homer's works that was retold in an oral tradition before they were written down, to today when some believe that wikiepedia makes it unnecessary to remember anything. It is an easy and in my opinion well written book that introduces the reader not only to the memory athletes subculture and to a part of mentalism (memory work) but also to the idea of how important memory was and still is. Because who would we be without our memories?
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in philosophy of mind, psychology, rhetoric and mentalism, beside of course people that just want to know more about our memory and what it can be trained to do. The reason that it is interesting from a rhetorical point of view is that many of these memory systems were used by the ancients and described by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus and Marcus Tullius Cicero as tools for the orator.
Though not everyone agrees that it is a good book as this review from the Guardian shows, although I think it is somewhat telling that all the comments on the page defend the book.
Thursday 29 September 2011
Bok och bibliotek – Sweden's biggest book fair
As a part of my involvement in Vetenskap och folkbildning (the Swedish sceptics) I recently visited the biggest book fair in Sweden. The book fair took place between the 22nd and 25th this month and is a great place to meet some interesting people.
The first person that I ran into was Mattias Ribbing who I met earlier at a lecture he did for the Swedish Magic Circle about how to improve your memory. And the last I ran into was the expert on rhetoric Elaine Eksvärd, who I last met at the political week at Almedalen but then her name was Bergqvist (congratulations delivered).
In between these two I talked to people like Jonas Hallberg, Martin Lind, Bo Berggren, and Ulf Danielsson who all came by our booth. But I also met a lot of less famous people including a number of old classmates from my studies in physical-chemistry, psychology, rhetoric, and philosophy, don't ask me what they were all doing there. And I also met a few fans from my television appearances earlier this year.
Part of my work in the booth consisted in attracting visitors, or perhaps more aptly put luring people in once they had shown an initial interest. This is what the author Peter Olausson has to say about my contribution
Notera att publiken här varken är besökare eller utställare utan Svenska Mässans byggpojkar. När man har sitt jobb på mässan, alla dagar, så kan man tänka sig att det ska något särskilt till för att de ska stanna vid en monter och låta sig underhållas.
Translation:
Note that the audience is neither visitors nor exhibitioners but the Swedish fairs construction workers. When you work at the fair, all days, you could think that something extraordinary is required in order for them to stop by a booth and be entertained.
As an additional comment I can say that they came back with some friends the next day.
In all it was a very pleasant experience to be back in Gothenburg and at the book fair. I enjoyed meeting the people that came to the boot and who worked at the boot. I also really enjoyed meeting my brothers who live in the city and other friends who reside there. I hope I will have the opportunity to go there next year as well (the fair) or perhaps sooner (the city).
The first person that I ran into was Mattias Ribbing who I met earlier at a lecture he did for the Swedish Magic Circle about how to improve your memory. And the last I ran into was the expert on rhetoric Elaine Eksvärd, who I last met at the political week at Almedalen but then her name was Bergqvist (congratulations delivered).
In between these two I talked to people like Jonas Hallberg, Martin Lind, Bo Berggren, and Ulf Danielsson who all came by our booth. But I also met a lot of less famous people including a number of old classmates from my studies in physical-chemistry, psychology, rhetoric, and philosophy, don't ask me what they were all doing there. And I also met a few fans from my television appearances earlier this year.
Part of my work in the booth consisted in attracting visitors, or perhaps more aptly put luring people in once they had shown an initial interest. This is what the author Peter Olausson has to say about my contribution
Notera att publiken här varken är besökare eller utställare utan Svenska Mässans byggpojkar. När man har sitt jobb på mässan, alla dagar, så kan man tänka sig att det ska något särskilt till för att de ska stanna vid en monter och låta sig underhållas.
Translation:
Note that the audience is neither visitors nor exhibitioners but the Swedish fairs construction workers. When you work at the fair, all days, you could think that something extraordinary is required in order for them to stop by a booth and be entertained.
As an additional comment I can say that they came back with some friends the next day.
In all it was a very pleasant experience to be back in Gothenburg and at the book fair. I enjoyed meeting the people that came to the boot and who worked at the boot. I also really enjoyed meeting my brothers who live in the city and other friends who reside there. I hope I will have the opportunity to go there next year as well (the fair) or perhaps sooner (the city).
Tuesday 6 September 2011
The hard life of a competing mentalist
It is now Tuesday and I have finally the strength to write about my experiences on the cruise arranged by Magiska Bröderna (a fraternity for magicians) in honour of their 70 year anniversary.
The cruise was on Birka Paradise a smaller cruise ship, between Saturday and Sunday and took about 22 hours. During the cruise we magicians had seminars to attend, shows to watch (the shows were also open to the public), and there was also a competition.
I am quite hesitant when it comes to competing in magic since I think it is difficult to compete in art in general but I made an exception this time since I thought it could be fun and the concept was a bit different. The competition was divided in two parts. First every magician/mentalist walked around the boat and performed for the passengers. The passengers voted for the different artist and the four best got to meet in a final judged by magicians
I really liked to do the strolling mentalism part since I got to meet different people and I had the feeling that the crowed slightly changed over time. Since I performed from around eight in the evening till four in the morning, with just a few brakes to eat and attend the shows and lectures, I got to see all the different passengers, from the families with small children to the younger crowed. I also got up quite early to meet people for breakfast at about seven and get some more votes before the end of the competition.
Any one who wants to know more about the cruise and knows Swedish can read about it at Christer Nilssons blog magi-arkivet.
A few interesting and out of the ordinary things happened during my time with the passengers. A number of people actually recognised me from my television appearance in Fenomen and that was a glad surprise. I also had one person who insisted on trying to wrestle me to the ground whenever he was fooled by an effect, he continued to try that until security turned up and hoovered around. I guess one could describe it as my first experience of having to need security to protect me from my fans. But to be honest the guy did it in a very playful way and had no intention of hurting me.
The same playfulness was absent from the guy who threatened me early in the morning, exactly what he was threatening me with is hard to say since he only said that I would be sorry if I didn't stop talking to this one girl. Even if it was his girlfriend I would not have yielded for such behaviour since I was only doing my “job” but she didn't even know him. The girl herself was not making it easy for me since she didn't know Swedish or English and we had to resort to French as our lingua franca.
There was also another girl in a white mask who had a very confrontational attitude and wanted to control the workings of the effect, handle the cards herself and all of those things that ordinary magicians hate. Unfortunately her friends dragged her away before I had a chance to finish what I was doing.
I know that about four hundred of the 1200 passengers voted for a magician but I have no idea who managed to get the most votes but I know that I got to the final with three other performers. Unfortunately it didn't go so well in the final, maybe because I only did two effects and one of the effects had unbeknownst to me been performed in the dealer show a few hours earlier although with a different method.
The cruise was on Birka Paradise a smaller cruise ship, between Saturday and Sunday and took about 22 hours. During the cruise we magicians had seminars to attend, shows to watch (the shows were also open to the public), and there was also a competition.
I am quite hesitant when it comes to competing in magic since I think it is difficult to compete in art in general but I made an exception this time since I thought it could be fun and the concept was a bit different. The competition was divided in two parts. First every magician/mentalist walked around the boat and performed for the passengers. The passengers voted for the different artist and the four best got to meet in a final judged by magicians
I really liked to do the strolling mentalism part since I got to meet different people and I had the feeling that the crowed slightly changed over time. Since I performed from around eight in the evening till four in the morning, with just a few brakes to eat and attend the shows and lectures, I got to see all the different passengers, from the families with small children to the younger crowed. I also got up quite early to meet people for breakfast at about seven and get some more votes before the end of the competition.
Any one who wants to know more about the cruise and knows Swedish can read about it at Christer Nilssons blog magi-arkivet.
A few interesting and out of the ordinary things happened during my time with the passengers. A number of people actually recognised me from my television appearance in Fenomen and that was a glad surprise. I also had one person who insisted on trying to wrestle me to the ground whenever he was fooled by an effect, he continued to try that until security turned up and hoovered around. I guess one could describe it as my first experience of having to need security to protect me from my fans. But to be honest the guy did it in a very playful way and had no intention of hurting me.
The same playfulness was absent from the guy who threatened me early in the morning, exactly what he was threatening me with is hard to say since he only said that I would be sorry if I didn't stop talking to this one girl. Even if it was his girlfriend I would not have yielded for such behaviour since I was only doing my “job” but she didn't even know him. The girl herself was not making it easy for me since she didn't know Swedish or English and we had to resort to French as our lingua franca.
There was also another girl in a white mask who had a very confrontational attitude and wanted to control the workings of the effect, handle the cards herself and all of those things that ordinary magicians hate. Unfortunately her friends dragged her away before I had a chance to finish what I was doing.
I know that about four hundred of the 1200 passengers voted for a magician but I have no idea who managed to get the most votes but I know that I got to the final with three other performers. Unfortunately it didn't go so well in the final, maybe because I only did two effects and one of the effects had unbeknownst to me been performed in the dealer show a few hours earlier although with a different method.
Friday 26 August 2011
This is what my place looks like... You should see it when it's not in order.
It might be hard to imagine that this is the home of such a highly organized individual as me. But there is a story behind this total chaos. The story itself is a bit chaotic but in the middle of the picture, somewhat to the right side, it is possible to see some flat brown boxes from IKEA. They are only a part of the boxes I brought home to replace the furniture that used to contain most of the stuff in the picture.
The entire operation of replacing the furniture was improvised in its execution although I had planned to do it for quite some time. It was also done with a time limit, something I cannot recommend.
Wednesday 10 August 2011
Rain, the autumn is here
I returned to Uppsala after having been back home in Dalarna for a few weeks. Travelling by train in this country seems nowadays to imply a late arrival at your destination, but I was pleased that I was no more than seven minutes late when I got of the train. Soon this satisfaction dissipated as the minutes proved to be of greater importance than I had anticipated. In fact it dissipated in water in a weather that can be described as heavy showers mixed with very heavy showers.
The weather in Uppsala
As I progressively made my way back home from cover to cover despite having an umbrella I gave some thought to my resent travels. There might be some comments on my adventures posted here soon including suicide attempts in Visby, late night activities in Las Vegas, and sightseeing in New York.
It is not a real castle, it is not the Statue of Liberty, it is not the Eiffel tower, it can only be Las Vegas.
A visit to Houdini's tomb
The weather in Uppsala
As I progressively made my way back home from cover to cover despite having an umbrella I gave some thought to my resent travels. There might be some comments on my adventures posted here soon including suicide attempts in Visby, late night activities in Las Vegas, and sightseeing in New York.
It is not a real castle, it is not the Statue of Liberty, it is not the Eiffel tower, it can only be Las Vegas.
A visit to Houdini's tomb
Wednesday 13 July 2011
A new book, a new friend
I know some people consider books to be their friends but this is not about that. I promised to give a review of Elaine Bergqvists book ”Snacka snyggt” and here it is. In case someone wants prof that I actually met her just look at the photo below.
I read Elaine's book on the way over to the US and in my opinion it is very much what it claims to be, a book about modern rhetoric and aimed at people that want good advice fast. Now Elaine is very charming and I suppose that is why I remembered her from the time we first met, God knows why she remembered me. What makes her charming is probably her energy and openness and it shows in the book. Any one who reads “Snacka snyggt” will feel that they have met Elaine on a personal level, not just because she is the model for the illustrations in the book. This is of course very smart since she is selling her services as a consultant besides writing books. In a way the book is a marketing tool, and more so than for most authors.
What the reader takes away from the book depend of course on their situation but it is all good advice my only complaint is that there is no apparent order in how things are presented in the book. The order in which different aspects are discussed appear almost random and although a lot of the advice pertain to several rhetorical situations in many cases she jumps between talking about what to do if meeting some one person to person, having a conversation or a presentation for a small group or talking to a larger group of people.
The book is full of exempla, that is examples of what she is talking about, or one might prefer to call it anecdotes about what Elaine or someone she knows did in certain situations. It is a part of the presentation of the author and it is as all sceptics should know, not really evidence that the rhetorical advice is good. But this book is not an academic work, there are no footnotes and my guess is that it is not aimed at an audience that is concerned with that. Elaine uses a number of secondary sources and as already said there are no footnotes for the concerned reader. One of her sources is Henrik Féxeus who is a liar and a cheat as all mentalist, but I was pleased that she also used “Skeptiker skolan” by my friends Andreas Anundi and C.J. Åkerberg as a source and recommended it. As can be seen in the photo Elaine likes scepticism and no one need to be overly sceptical to the advice in her book, it is just not an academic work.
It is on the other hand a book that takes up aspects of rhetoric that is hard to find in many other books. There is a big chapter on colours, and there is discussions about music and how it can be used in a presentation. There are some good advice about how to use power point something that older books in rhetoric may not have.
I think it is a good book for anyone who just wants some help with their presentation of them selves and what they have to say but who do not have the time to become an expert. It does require a lot of hard work and perhaps some talent, to become a good talker that can catch peoples attention and form their world view. Because that is what a good presenter does, he or she, gives the audience a perspective of the world that makes the proposition that the presenter gives seem logical and correct.
One thing I had hoped Elaine had done more with is the myth about body language, she does point out a few things to prevent people to over interpret body language. But as is shown from an anecdote told by Derren Brown body language does not always work as people believe it does. Derren once asked an audience how he had been able to tell when a spectator was lying and when the spectator was telling the truth. People in the audience was sure that the spectator had looked away when she was lying although the opposite was true. Sometimes a person who lies is very careful to look you in the eyes because they believe that someone who lies would not do that.
The main myth about body language is that it makes up a certain percentage of our communication. That is absurd in many ways. Body language is important when it comes to how people perceive us. If you tell people that you are really sad but you look happy an audience will believe your body language more than your words, and this is probably where the myth comes from. But if you tell people that the speed that an object falls with is independent of the weight of the object if air resistance can be excluded there is no way that your body language does most of the communication. It would have been nice if someone made a distinction between information content and the rhetorical task of getting people to like you so that they will accept what you say.
To summarise, buy Elaine's book if you want some good advice that can help you be a better speaker and is not that much concerned with theoretical issues, and buy the book if you are already an accomplished speaker because you will find new ideas and perspectives in this book.
If this review appear to be a bit short please remember that I am in Las Vegas, there are other things to do here.
I read Elaine's book on the way over to the US and in my opinion it is very much what it claims to be, a book about modern rhetoric and aimed at people that want good advice fast. Now Elaine is very charming and I suppose that is why I remembered her from the time we first met, God knows why she remembered me. What makes her charming is probably her energy and openness and it shows in the book. Any one who reads “Snacka snyggt” will feel that they have met Elaine on a personal level, not just because she is the model for the illustrations in the book. This is of course very smart since she is selling her services as a consultant besides writing books. In a way the book is a marketing tool, and more so than for most authors.
What the reader takes away from the book depend of course on their situation but it is all good advice my only complaint is that there is no apparent order in how things are presented in the book. The order in which different aspects are discussed appear almost random and although a lot of the advice pertain to several rhetorical situations in many cases she jumps between talking about what to do if meeting some one person to person, having a conversation or a presentation for a small group or talking to a larger group of people.
The book is full of exempla, that is examples of what she is talking about, or one might prefer to call it anecdotes about what Elaine or someone she knows did in certain situations. It is a part of the presentation of the author and it is as all sceptics should know, not really evidence that the rhetorical advice is good. But this book is not an academic work, there are no footnotes and my guess is that it is not aimed at an audience that is concerned with that. Elaine uses a number of secondary sources and as already said there are no footnotes for the concerned reader. One of her sources is Henrik Féxeus who is a liar and a cheat as all mentalist, but I was pleased that she also used “Skeptiker skolan” by my friends Andreas Anundi and C.J. Åkerberg as a source and recommended it. As can be seen in the photo Elaine likes scepticism and no one need to be overly sceptical to the advice in her book, it is just not an academic work.
It is on the other hand a book that takes up aspects of rhetoric that is hard to find in many other books. There is a big chapter on colours, and there is discussions about music and how it can be used in a presentation. There are some good advice about how to use power point something that older books in rhetoric may not have.
I think it is a good book for anyone who just wants some help with their presentation of them selves and what they have to say but who do not have the time to become an expert. It does require a lot of hard work and perhaps some talent, to become a good talker that can catch peoples attention and form their world view. Because that is what a good presenter does, he or she, gives the audience a perspective of the world that makes the proposition that the presenter gives seem logical and correct.
One thing I had hoped Elaine had done more with is the myth about body language, she does point out a few things to prevent people to over interpret body language. But as is shown from an anecdote told by Derren Brown body language does not always work as people believe it does. Derren once asked an audience how he had been able to tell when a spectator was lying and when the spectator was telling the truth. People in the audience was sure that the spectator had looked away when she was lying although the opposite was true. Sometimes a person who lies is very careful to look you in the eyes because they believe that someone who lies would not do that.
The main myth about body language is that it makes up a certain percentage of our communication. That is absurd in many ways. Body language is important when it comes to how people perceive us. If you tell people that you are really sad but you look happy an audience will believe your body language more than your words, and this is probably where the myth comes from. But if you tell people that the speed that an object falls with is independent of the weight of the object if air resistance can be excluded there is no way that your body language does most of the communication. It would have been nice if someone made a distinction between information content and the rhetorical task of getting people to like you so that they will accept what you say.
To summarise, buy Elaine's book if you want some good advice that can help you be a better speaker and is not that much concerned with theoretical issues, and buy the book if you are already an accomplished speaker because you will find new ideas and perspectives in this book.
If this review appear to be a bit short please remember that I am in Las Vegas, there are other things to do here.
What I did on Gotland besides what I was there for...
A serious blogger updates their blog at least three times a day, that is one of the things that I have learned from my trip to Gotland. I will write about the important thing I did on Gotland but another thing I learned as a result of my trip to Sweden's largest island was that people that read a blog want to get to know the person behind the blog.
So I can tell you that right now I am in a hotel room in Las Vegas, very far from Gotland, I am here for The Amazing Meeting 9 and I will soon have to write a lot more about this convention. I just ran into Banachek, a great mentalist and one reason I became an honest liar. But enough about now, let us look into the past.
After performing at Strings 2011 at Uppsala Castle, I packed my stuff and left for Gotland 1 July. The reason I went to Gotland and Almedals veckan was to do some volunteer work for the Swedish sceptics, Vetenskap och folkbildning (VoF). It was my first visit to Gotland and I did not know what to expect, I sure did not expect to run into so many people I knew on the ferry, but it is logical that you will run into people you know there. I first met some old colleagues from the department och Physical Chemistry and then some even older friends from back home in Dalarna, finally I ran into the president of the Swedish humanist society (Humanisterna) Christer Sturmark.
The first days were quite relaxed with only preparing things for our important demonstration that was to take place on Thursday. I had the opportunity to meet a few interesting people at a barbeque at the place we were living I also got to visit the largest ice-cream bar in Sweden with 120 flavours of ice-cream.
At the first day of handing out leaflets about our suicide attempt I ran into a person at the library in Visby. We (the activist) were about to occupy a table and I wanted to make sure that we did not disturb the girl at the table next to ours. I was startled, I had seen her before but could not place her right away. Elaine Bergqvist is a rhetoric consultant and we met very briefly at Missionskyrkan in Uppsala still we both recognised each other for some reason and my excuse and her reply was not exactly rhetorically correct since we were both surprised and thinking about were we had seen the other person before. It's from her book the advise about how you write a blog comes. I picked it up the day after I saw her and made sure to get it signed. Since I believe that I know a thing or two about rhetoric myself I have written a review, to be published here shortly.
Besides being activists and handing out leaflets we also tried to find others with the same interests in science and scepticism. We managed to meet a few at some interesting seminars but we were also interested in free food and got invitations to a session sponsored by an advertising firm. We were probably in no way the right kind of guests from the advertisings firms point of view but through connections we managed to get in. I really didn't think I would meet anyone there to talk to. It turned out that I was wrong apparently I'm quite well connected. I met not one, not two, but three different people from different organisations at that party that I already knew from before. It was a surprise to both myself and to my two friends who didn't recognised anyone.
That is about everything I did on Gotland apart from the important suicide attempt and a small miracle at a lecture about alternative medicine. And on the way home I once again met my old colleagues from my time at the department of Physical Chemistry, proving that it is indeed a small world.
So I can tell you that right now I am in a hotel room in Las Vegas, very far from Gotland, I am here for The Amazing Meeting 9 and I will soon have to write a lot more about this convention. I just ran into Banachek, a great mentalist and one reason I became an honest liar. But enough about now, let us look into the past.
After performing at Strings 2011 at Uppsala Castle, I packed my stuff and left for Gotland 1 July. The reason I went to Gotland and Almedals veckan was to do some volunteer work for the Swedish sceptics, Vetenskap och folkbildning (VoF). It was my first visit to Gotland and I did not know what to expect, I sure did not expect to run into so many people I knew on the ferry, but it is logical that you will run into people you know there. I first met some old colleagues from the department och Physical Chemistry and then some even older friends from back home in Dalarna, finally I ran into the president of the Swedish humanist society (Humanisterna) Christer Sturmark.
The first days were quite relaxed with only preparing things for our important demonstration that was to take place on Thursday. I had the opportunity to meet a few interesting people at a barbeque at the place we were living I also got to visit the largest ice-cream bar in Sweden with 120 flavours of ice-cream.
At the first day of handing out leaflets about our suicide attempt I ran into a person at the library in Visby. We (the activist) were about to occupy a table and I wanted to make sure that we did not disturb the girl at the table next to ours. I was startled, I had seen her before but could not place her right away. Elaine Bergqvist is a rhetoric consultant and we met very briefly at Missionskyrkan in Uppsala still we both recognised each other for some reason and my excuse and her reply was not exactly rhetorically correct since we were both surprised and thinking about were we had seen the other person before. It's from her book the advise about how you write a blog comes. I picked it up the day after I saw her and made sure to get it signed. Since I believe that I know a thing or two about rhetoric myself I have written a review, to be published here shortly.
Besides being activists and handing out leaflets we also tried to find others with the same interests in science and scepticism. We managed to meet a few at some interesting seminars but we were also interested in free food and got invitations to a session sponsored by an advertising firm. We were probably in no way the right kind of guests from the advertisings firms point of view but through connections we managed to get in. I really didn't think I would meet anyone there to talk to. It turned out that I was wrong apparently I'm quite well connected. I met not one, not two, but three different people from different organisations at that party that I already knew from before. It was a surprise to both myself and to my two friends who didn't recognised anyone.
That is about everything I did on Gotland apart from the important suicide attempt and a small miracle at a lecture about alternative medicine. And on the way home I once again met my old colleagues from my time at the department of Physical Chemistry, proving that it is indeed a small world.
Friday 1 July 2011
Assumptions
Right now I'm on my way to Gotland, though I am not sure when this will be posted. For some reason I assume that I will have some sort of Internet connection during my stay on the island but I have no idea about how and when; we do tend to assume a lot in life.
I am sure I will have plenty of time to post about my activities, planned and accomplished on Gotland later, that is if that Internet access materialize. So now a few lines about my recent performances at Uppsala castle for some of the brightest minds in the world.
I might have exaggerated some but theoretical physicists tend to be sharp and this was an international conference with some of the really well known names. Strings 2011 was actually to be visited by Stephen Hawking but unfortunately he had to cancel for health reasons. If people think that theoretical physicists much be serious and solemn people but that is not at all the case. In deed they were a very good crowed to perform for, but also extremely inquisitive.
As always I never confirm or deny any of the suggested explanations that I get to hear but in a room with scientist you know that some will be try to analyse everything and you can learn a lot from listening to what really intelligent people have to say about your show.
One group in the audience worked through the routines in a very scientific manner. They made some interesting assumptions. They assumed that I was working alone, and since I have no visible assistant that is understandable. In big productions invisible assistants can be very useful. They also assumed that I had not had any time to prepare something with any of the people attending the dinner a head of time. For conferences held in Uppsala this might prove a useful assumption, I will say no more on the matter. The third thing they assumed was that all the effect had to be bullet proof. That what I did would always produce the desired result.
I can not confirm or deny that these assumptions are correct, but I am happy that I got them so that I can take advantage of that in the future; we do tend to assume a lot in life.
P.S.
The blog post above did not start out as a text about assumptions, it was first when I was writing the last sentence that I realised the very obvious theme in the text. Sleep deprivation can apparently lead to interesting effects.
I am sure I will have plenty of time to post about my activities, planned and accomplished on Gotland later, that is if that Internet access materialize. So now a few lines about my recent performances at Uppsala castle for some of the brightest minds in the world.
I might have exaggerated some but theoretical physicists tend to be sharp and this was an international conference with some of the really well known names. Strings 2011 was actually to be visited by Stephen Hawking but unfortunately he had to cancel for health reasons. If people think that theoretical physicists much be serious and solemn people but that is not at all the case. In deed they were a very good crowed to perform for, but also extremely inquisitive.
As always I never confirm or deny any of the suggested explanations that I get to hear but in a room with scientist you know that some will be try to analyse everything and you can learn a lot from listening to what really intelligent people have to say about your show.
One group in the audience worked through the routines in a very scientific manner. They made some interesting assumptions. They assumed that I was working alone, and since I have no visible assistant that is understandable. In big productions invisible assistants can be very useful. They also assumed that I had not had any time to prepare something with any of the people attending the dinner a head of time. For conferences held in Uppsala this might prove a useful assumption, I will say no more on the matter. The third thing they assumed was that all the effect had to be bullet proof. That what I did would always produce the desired result.
I can not confirm or deny that these assumptions are correct, but I am happy that I got them so that I can take advantage of that in the future; we do tend to assume a lot in life.
P.S.
The blog post above did not start out as a text about assumptions, it was first when I was writing the last sentence that I realised the very obvious theme in the text. Sleep deprivation can apparently lead to interesting effects.
Thursday 30 June 2011
A short update before the storm
Here in Sweden Midsummer is an important holiday and I spent it in Dalarna, the region of Sweden that I am from and also a region famous for its Midsummer celebrations that are very much according to all traditions. (I am not going to go into details about all the different types of celebrations but let us say that some of them involve large amounts of alcohol.)
What I enjoy with Midsummer is the sense of coming home, seeing people that you haven't seen in a very long time. And although I worked two of the days that I spent in Dalarna it felt very much as a holiday.
I even had plenty of time to reminiscence about when I lived in Dalarna. I found one train of thought particular interesting. I was walking by “Dalarnas regemente” that is the old army barracks in Falun. When I was living in the city we still had general conscription in Swede and the area was maybe not heavily guarded, but had barbed wire surrounding it and armed military guards at the entrances.
The thing is that I was heading for a place on the other side of the barracks and started to walk around it. But the entire barrack area have changed since Sweden changed to a having a professional army. It is now a business park with a lot of different companies. There are no armed guards, no barbed wire, not even a fence. Still I had begun to walk around the area.
I stopped and turned around, I had no reason to take the long way around, it was just out of habit that I started out on the usual way. But I actually had to stop and think about if I wanted to walk through the barracks area, it didn't feel right.
It is not that I had not been inside before. During my High School days I actually got inside once a week. My name was written down in a folder at the guard station among other people that practised fencing at the old gymnasium. Once I started my military service we were told that you could not get time of for participating in athletic events like football matches or things like that, but there were of course exceptions for certain sports with a more military flavour. So being a fencer had its privileges.
Maybe it was my experience of the area as an off limit and secure area that made it somewhat difficult to imagine that it could be possible to http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifjust cross it to get to the other side. In this case my reasoning faculties won fairly easily over my emotional response and I crossed the old barracks-yard, walked passed the old gymnasium where we practised fencing so many years ago. It was a long time ago I was there the last time, it is perhaps our memories of times gone by that makes us feel old, but I found no discomfort in remembering. I just found my reaction to the change of reality compared to my memories very revealing.
But what about the storm? Later today (after I have slept a bit) I will be performing for the conference “Strings 2011” at Uppsala castle, and the next month is extremely busy with a lot of things to do, in fact there are only three days I don't have plans for up to and including the first week of August. If I find the time that might imply some interesting posts on this blog.
What I enjoy with Midsummer is the sense of coming home, seeing people that you haven't seen in a very long time. And although I worked two of the days that I spent in Dalarna it felt very much as a holiday.
I even had plenty of time to reminiscence about when I lived in Dalarna. I found one train of thought particular interesting. I was walking by “Dalarnas regemente” that is the old army barracks in Falun. When I was living in the city we still had general conscription in Swede and the area was maybe not heavily guarded, but had barbed wire surrounding it and armed military guards at the entrances.
The thing is that I was heading for a place on the other side of the barracks and started to walk around it. But the entire barrack area have changed since Sweden changed to a having a professional army. It is now a business park with a lot of different companies. There are no armed guards, no barbed wire, not even a fence. Still I had begun to walk around the area.
I stopped and turned around, I had no reason to take the long way around, it was just out of habit that I started out on the usual way. But I actually had to stop and think about if I wanted to walk through the barracks area, it didn't feel right.
It is not that I had not been inside before. During my High School days I actually got inside once a week. My name was written down in a folder at the guard station among other people that practised fencing at the old gymnasium. Once I started my military service we were told that you could not get time of for participating in athletic events like football matches or things like that, but there were of course exceptions for certain sports with a more military flavour. So being a fencer had its privileges.
Maybe it was my experience of the area as an off limit and secure area that made it somewhat difficult to imagine that it could be possible to http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifjust cross it to get to the other side. In this case my reasoning faculties won fairly easily over my emotional response and I crossed the old barracks-yard, walked passed the old gymnasium where we practised fencing so many years ago. It was a long time ago I was there the last time, it is perhaps our memories of times gone by that makes us feel old, but I found no discomfort in remembering. I just found my reaction to the change of reality compared to my memories very revealing.
But what about the storm? Later today (after I have slept a bit) I will be performing for the conference “Strings 2011” at Uppsala castle, and the next month is extremely busy with a lot of things to do, in fact there are only three days I don't have plans for up to and including the first week of August. If I find the time that might imply some interesting posts on this blog.
Tuesday 21 June 2011
The trick that can be explained
In card magic there is one trick that requires a lot of experience and sometimes technical skill. It is called “the trick that cannot be explained” because well... you can't explain it. Though I understand that non-magicians might find it hard to believe that there might be a trick that has no explanation and want to learn more about it, I would like to talk a bout a trick that can be explained.
A few weeks ago I was recognized as being a mentalist, (it is amazing what a few minutes on national television can do for one's fame) and I had the opportunity to do this effect that I will now explain to you.
As we discuss mentalists and psychic abilities the person I am having the conversation with remarks on how he saw a mentalist on television and the mentalist had asked the audience to look at a person and try to feel what kind of drawing that person might do. Since he was able to “sense” what kind of picture the person on television had drawn he wondered if it really was possible to just look at a person and get such a feeling. He had done so himself but was still not convinced.
I concentrate and I tell the person, right there and then, what he managed to pick up from the person he saw on television. I tell him exactly what kind of object he was thinking of and I don't have him write anything down or choose something from a deck of cards.
After this feat I fight the urge to tell the person how I did it, the sense of wonder he feels does not deserve to be degraded by my mundane explanation.
I can explain the trick to you because I will never be able to perform this effect again and although I might perform many similar effects, that might involve you, this information will not help you the least.
The explanation is quite trivial as many explanations are. To be able to do this trick you need to know what show the person had seen and remember the picture the person on television drew. You also need to do this effect for a person that will rather believe that you managed to read them so well that you can tell what object they were able to pick up on a week ago, instead of just remembering what the picture was. And in my case you also need a person that has forgotten that you were the mentalist on television performing the effect in the first place.
A few weeks ago I was recognized as being a mentalist, (it is amazing what a few minutes on national television can do for one's fame) and I had the opportunity to do this effect that I will now explain to you.
As we discuss mentalists and psychic abilities the person I am having the conversation with remarks on how he saw a mentalist on television and the mentalist had asked the audience to look at a person and try to feel what kind of drawing that person might do. Since he was able to “sense” what kind of picture the person on television had drawn he wondered if it really was possible to just look at a person and get such a feeling. He had done so himself but was still not convinced.
I concentrate and I tell the person, right there and then, what he managed to pick up from the person he saw on television. I tell him exactly what kind of object he was thinking of and I don't have him write anything down or choose something from a deck of cards.
After this feat I fight the urge to tell the person how I did it, the sense of wonder he feels does not deserve to be degraded by my mundane explanation.
I can explain the trick to you because I will never be able to perform this effect again and although I might perform many similar effects, that might involve you, this information will not help you the least.
The explanation is quite trivial as many explanations are. To be able to do this trick you need to know what show the person had seen and remember the picture the person on television drew. You also need to do this effect for a person that will rather believe that you managed to read them so well that you can tell what object they were able to pick up on a week ago, instead of just remembering what the picture was. And in my case you also need a person that has forgotten that you were the mentalist on television performing the effect in the first place.
Monday 20 June 2011
Not so lucky
Every now and again the evening press manages to surprise me. Generally it is not in a positive way. Like this Saturday one of the major evening newspapers had this message:
For those of you that are not familiar with the Swedish language it says, loosely translated, “The 'lucky shops' that hand out big prizes in Uppsala”.
I know that the point of printing newspapers is to get people to read them, but either the journalists responsible think that their readers are idiots that deserve to be misinformed about how games of chance works or they are themselves misinformed and thus present us with the question how they managed to become journalists to begin with.
The fact is of course that a random event has no recollection of what has happened before. Even if you flip heads 10 times in a row the odds that you will get another head the next time is still 50%. There cannot be any such thing as a lucky shop when it comes to the games of chance.
I am willing to make an exception for betting games there some skill is involved. It is possible that people betting at one particular shop have more knowledge of horses or football teams, and that can give the shop an advantage.
Now I know I should not critique something I have not read, and I did not read the article in Expressen. It is perhaps unfair of me to assume that they don't explain the gambler's fallacy in the article, but I will assume that they also forgot to normalise their figures.
If one shop sells 10.000 lottery tickets and another shop sell 1.000 it is not surprising if the shop selling the larger number of tickets also have a larger number of big wins. I am almost ready to bet that the reporter forgot to do this simple thing.
I would hope that newspapers like Expressen, that are read by a lot of people, do not rely on luck when they write their news, but if they do they were not so lucky this time.
For those of you that are not familiar with the Swedish language it says, loosely translated, “The 'lucky shops' that hand out big prizes in Uppsala”.
I know that the point of printing newspapers is to get people to read them, but either the journalists responsible think that their readers are idiots that deserve to be misinformed about how games of chance works or they are themselves misinformed and thus present us with the question how they managed to become journalists to begin with.
The fact is of course that a random event has no recollection of what has happened before. Even if you flip heads 10 times in a row the odds that you will get another head the next time is still 50%. There cannot be any such thing as a lucky shop when it comes to the games of chance.
I am willing to make an exception for betting games there some skill is involved. It is possible that people betting at one particular shop have more knowledge of horses or football teams, and that can give the shop an advantage.
Now I know I should not critique something I have not read, and I did not read the article in Expressen. It is perhaps unfair of me to assume that they don't explain the gambler's fallacy in the article, but I will assume that they also forgot to normalise their figures.
If one shop sells 10.000 lottery tickets and another shop sell 1.000 it is not surprising if the shop selling the larger number of tickets also have a larger number of big wins. I am almost ready to bet that the reporter forgot to do this simple thing.
I would hope that newspapers like Expressen, that are read by a lot of people, do not rely on luck when they write their news, but if they do they were not so lucky this time.
Saturday 26 March 2011
Fenomen and Uri Geller
I understand that a lot of people may be curious about the show, what is it all about and who is this Uri Geller guy?
On the web you will find a lot of information from Kanal 5 about both these things. But if in the interest of keeping an open mind you want to hear what others have to say I can direct you to this blog entry (in Swedish) by my good friend John Houdi.
As a sceptic I think it is important to keep an open mind and carefully weigh the evidence. And if you want to know even more try to listen to James Randi. He has a lot to say about Geller among other things.
Just as a reminder here are two sites 1, 2, where you can see the show and get more information about it. A friend of mine in London confirms that it is possible to at least see the short interviews though he could not understand a word I was saying.
On the web you will find a lot of information from Kanal 5 about both these things. But if in the interest of keeping an open mind you want to hear what others have to say I can direct you to this blog entry (in Swedish) by my good friend John Houdi.
As a sceptic I think it is important to keep an open mind and carefully weigh the evidence. And if you want to know even more try to listen to James Randi. He has a lot to say about Geller among other things.
Just as a reminder here are two sites 1, 2, where you can see the show and get more information about it. A friend of mine in London confirms that it is possible to at least see the short interviews though he could not understand a word I was saying.
The day before
Tomorrow is the first day of the show Fenomen and it will also be my first experience with live television. At least from the point of view of a performer I have of course seen live television before.
Yesterday I was in Stockholm rehearsing on the set, going through the routine. My good friend Ian Rowland was there, flown in to be a consultant to Uri Geller, he gave me a few pointers how to improve the presentation.
It is unfortunately a fact in mentalism that you never rehearse with the same people as you will perform with (or perform on?). It would sort of take a way the mystery if you rehearsed what people were to think beforehand. The draw back is that you don’t know what will happen, if people will understand the instructions, stand where they are supposed to stand and things like that. But as a mentalist I should of course be able to communicate clearly what I want people to do.
If someone who doesn’t have Kanal 5 wants to see the show it is possible to do that online, either here or here. I am not 100% sure if it is possible to see the show from outside of Sweden but it is possible to see the short clips with presentations of the performers.
Just a warning before you watch the clips, remember that all are expert liars so everything they say may not be the truth. I was actually surprised myself by some of the stories that were told. As can be expected all the interviews are in Swedish and there are no subtitles so either learn Swedish or grab hold of someone that already knows this strange language. I don’t think google have a translation service for audio yet.
Yesterday I was in Stockholm rehearsing on the set, going through the routine. My good friend Ian Rowland was there, flown in to be a consultant to Uri Geller, he gave me a few pointers how to improve the presentation.
It is unfortunately a fact in mentalism that you never rehearse with the same people as you will perform with (or perform on?). It would sort of take a way the mystery if you rehearsed what people were to think beforehand. The draw back is that you don’t know what will happen, if people will understand the instructions, stand where they are supposed to stand and things like that. But as a mentalist I should of course be able to communicate clearly what I want people to do.
If someone who doesn’t have Kanal 5 wants to see the show it is possible to do that online, either here or here. I am not 100% sure if it is possible to see the show from outside of Sweden but it is possible to see the short clips with presentations of the performers.
Just a warning before you watch the clips, remember that all are expert liars so everything they say may not be the truth. I was actually surprised myself by some of the stories that were told. As can be expected all the interviews are in Swedish and there are no subtitles so either learn Swedish or grab hold of someone that already knows this strange language. I don’t think google have a translation service for audio yet.
Friday 25 March 2011
Good press before Fenomen
I think it can be worth mentioning on this blog that I am getting some television time soon. Uri Geller is known to a lot of people and in recent years he has been doing this television show with different mentalist competing against each other. It is of course a bit strange that a person who started his career claiming to not be a magician now hosts a competition with mentalists. (Mentalist is the term used among magicians to describe those of us that simulate psychic abilities.) In Sweden it is on kanal 5 that one can see the Swedish version of the show that is called Fenomen (Phenomenon). The first program will air on the 27th March 20:00 CET and it is live television so I can’t say anything here about how it is going to go, at least not without having the power to predict the future. But I can say this, so far I have got good press, only good press, and this is before the show have started.
We had a meeting with the press on Tuesday with reporters from some of the major newspapers, so far I have been mentioned by two. At least that is what I know about.
First we had the reporter from Expressen, she was not very impressed by my friend Peter Gröning who didn’t get the card she was thinking of right away but had to get it on the second attempt, I think that should have been impressive enough. Later she asked Dan Kirsch a very gifted mentalist (not in any supernatural way) to read her mind and he apparently did a mathematical effect that didn’t impress her very much. After all that she was convinced about the non-existence of any supernatural powers. But after that she had the misfortune to meet me. Apparently I managed to impress her with some metal bending, an old Uri Geller speciality. But of course I didn’t have the benefit of supernatural powers so I had to resort to the art of illusion. The article is not online but those of you who know Swedish can read it since I scanned it and posted it here. What I consider the interesting part is this:
När träffen är över är jag övertygad, det finns inga magiska krafter. Men mentalismen (sic) Per Johan Råsmark rubbar min övertygelse när han böjer en gaffel – med minimal muskelstyrka och mig som hjälp. Hur det gick till vet nog bara han.
(When the meeting is over I am convinced, there are no magical powers. But the mentalism (sic) Per Johan Råsmark alters my conviction when he bends a fork – with minimal muscle force and my help. How it was done he is probably the only one who knows.)
At the meeting with the press I also met an old friend Clas Svahn a journalist from Dagens Nyheter (DN) the most prestigious newspaper in Sweden. The article that he wrote can be found online. It is of course mostly about Geller but the only mentalist that is more than just named in the article is me. Svahn who is very sceptical minded and loves investigating different phenomenon and strange stories, writes not only about what I do but also about my involvement in the sceptic movement. The entire article is in my opinion as sceptical as it should be, people will se amazing things in this television show but it will be a question of us mentalists fooling the audience. The only difference between magicians and mentalists is that to us “magic” is just one of the techniques used to fool our audience.
Here are some of the interesting parts in the DN article:
En bit längre bort står en av de svenska mentalisterna och böjer skedar för brinnande livet. Per Johan Råsmark, som jag har haft nöjet att träffa förut, är både välutbildad och kritisk till bland annat det Uri Geller har ägnat sig åt. Som medlem i Vetenskap och Folkbildning är inte tron på påstådda paranormala fenomen något han vill underblåsa.
– Jag har inga okända förmågor men jag vet hur jag ska få folk att tro att jag har dem, säger han.
(A little further away stands one of the Swedish mentalists and bends spoons as if his life depended on it. Per Johan Råsmark whom I have had the pleasure to meet previously, is both well educated and critical of among other things what Uri Geller have been doing. As a member of Vetenskap och folkbildning (the Swedish sceptics) the belief in paranormal phenomenon is not something he wants to support.
– I have no unknown abilities but I do know how to make people believe that I do, he says.)
As a comment I like to point out that as far as I remember I only bent one spoon and one fork during this meeting with the press. Concerning the spoon it was a spoon brought by a photographer for “Aftonbladet” (if I am not mistaken). The spoon was handed to Geller but since he really doesn’t do things like that any more unless he is really sure to get away with it he handed the spoon to Peter Gröning who was standing right next to him. Since Gröning don’t do much metal bending but knows that I do he handed the spoon to me. I used a Richard Osterlind technique and did a good bend before handing it back to Geller, who without hesitation signed the spoon and gave it to the photographer.
Huvudpersonerna är tio svenskar: Claudia de la Creme, Peter Varg, Stefan Odelberg, Claes Danell, Alexander Vasiliou, Dan Kirsch, Riku Koponen, Henrik Silver och Per Johan Råsmark.
Alla duktiga mentalister som kan få våra ögon att inte tro vad som utspelar sig framför dem. Exakt vad de ska visa vet vi inte. Men efter att ha sett Per Johan Råsmark lura skjortan av ett rum fyllt med kritiska kursdeltagare när UFO-Sverige höll fältundersökarutbildning för ett par år sedan är jag beredd på det mesta.
(The main characters are ten Swedes: Claudia de la Creme, Peter Varg, Stefan Odelberg, Claes Danell, Alexander Vasiliou, Dan Kirsch, Riku Koponen, Henrik Silver och Per Johan Råsmark.
All accomplished mentalists that can make our eyes not believe what takes place right in front of them. Exactly what they will do we do not know. But after having seen Per Johan Råsmark completely fool a room filled with critical minded attendees of a field investigator course held by UFO-Sweden a couple of years ago I am prepared for almost anything.)
Just a short comment about the other competitors: I didn’t know many of them before the show but I have got the impression that they are all very nice people and it is a pleasure working with them. Because at the moment that is what we all feel, we are working with each other to make as good a show as possible. It is unfortunate that some of us are going to be voted off the show. Still I miss some of my friends that I would have hoped would have been on the show.
Saturday 1 January 2011
Not another day at the office
Some time ago I had the privilege to perform before a truly captive audience at one of Sweden’s correction facilities. That was quite an interesting experience and the audience was not that different from the kind of crowds I normally meet, maybe just a bit more sceptical.
New Years Eve I also met a different kind of crowd. I performed at one of Uppsala’s student nations. (The organisation of the students into different nations is a long tradition in Sweden, at least in the older university cities.)
It is always different to do a show for students in Uppsala compared to any other gig, not only because there is always some inquisitive and intelligent people in the audience, that you can find anywhere. Not only because students in general are a cheerful crowd that love everything a bit different, you can find good audiences at many other venues. No the big difference is all the familiar faces in the audience.
I have studied for a long time at the university and many different topics so it seems like I always have people that know me from one course or another in the audience. This time I met people I have studied critical thinking, theory of science, rhetoric, psychology, and cinematic storytelling with. Besides old classmates I also met one person originally from the same village as me, and an old acquaintance I actually know socially.
One effect of having that many people that already know you in the audience is that they will be much more likely to remember you afterwards so from a networking point of view it is beneficial. But what I really like with already knowing your audience is that there are so many other things to talk about afterwards so I do not need to be the “mentalist” all the time.
Of course it is still so that the majority of people don’t know me from before and it is fun to get to know new people, hopefully some of them will remember me.
New Years Eve I also met a different kind of crowd. I performed at one of Uppsala’s student nations. (The organisation of the students into different nations is a long tradition in Sweden, at least in the older university cities.)
It is always different to do a show for students in Uppsala compared to any other gig, not only because there is always some inquisitive and intelligent people in the audience, that you can find anywhere. Not only because students in general are a cheerful crowd that love everything a bit different, you can find good audiences at many other venues. No the big difference is all the familiar faces in the audience.
I have studied for a long time at the university and many different topics so it seems like I always have people that know me from one course or another in the audience. This time I met people I have studied critical thinking, theory of science, rhetoric, psychology, and cinematic storytelling with. Besides old classmates I also met one person originally from the same village as me, and an old acquaintance I actually know socially.
One effect of having that many people that already know you in the audience is that they will be much more likely to remember you afterwards so from a networking point of view it is beneficial. But what I really like with already knowing your audience is that there are so many other things to talk about afterwards so I do not need to be the “mentalist” all the time.
Of course it is still so that the majority of people don’t know me from before and it is fun to get to know new people, hopefully some of them will remember me.
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