A few weeks ago I found the Facebook group Vancouver Skeptics in the Pub. I’m not sure how. I think I may have followed a link posted by Skepchick Rebecca Watson to Drinking Skeptically, but memory fails.
Stupid memory.
Anyway, I joined the group, and they posted a “Cafe Scientifique” co-event for last night at The Railway Club featuring a talk about Supervolcanoes by Dr. Ben Kennedy, a vulcanologist from UBC. I didn’t expect very much from the talk, and Mel even remarked while we skytrained over “What’s there to say about them? They’re volcanoes and they’re big.”
We were wrong. It was fascinating and we learned a lot. The presentation was very laid back, and he wanted it to be interactive and encouraged questions during it.
Also, I was able to eat a burger with cajun fries and enjoy a fine 12 year old Glenfiddich while it was happening. Christians only get bread/wafers and holy wine so we totally come out ahead there.
Afterward we mingled and had a few more drinks, talked about science and skepticism, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, and the McGurk Effect, which the Fred Bremmer — founder of the Facebook group — had on his Macbook and played for those that haven’t seen it. Here it is:
Make sure you have sound on, watch it, then close your eyes and listen to it from the start. Isn’t that cool!?
I don’t get it. Is it supposed to seem like he’s closing his mouth?
ps Thanks for the presentation update.
Hi Joe,
Glad you had a good time at Café Sci on Tuesday. I hope we’ll see you and Mel at future Skeptics in the Pub events.
For Toren, the McGurk Effect is that when you watch the video which combines the visual recording of a person saying “ga ga” synchronized with an audio recording of them saying “ba ba” then your brain resolves the discrepancy by perceiving the sounds as “da da”, since we know that’s the closest sound that anyone could make with their mouth open in the “ga ga” position.
The cool part is that you can also resolve the discrepancy by closing your eyes, and then there’s no reason not to perceive the sounds as “ba ba”, so that’s what you hear.
Part of skepticism is learning all the ways we can be fooled and even fool ourselves, so audio and optical illusions are one way to explore the psychology of perception and misperception.