Regular readers of my site know that I have an evil twin by the name of Richard Wiseman (scroll down about 3/4 of the way to the bottom of that page for a picture). Richard is a great guy– a UK skeptic who is funny, brilliant, and of course extremely handsome.
He is auctioning off two front row tickets to his incredible "Theater of Science" show! Even better, after the show, the winner and friend will be put into a giant metal cage and zapped by a Tesla coil which generates one million volts of potential! Here’s an actual image of this:
The auction is to help raise money to support people who otherwise could not afford to go to James Randi’s Amaz!ng Meeting 5, a grand skeptical conference with luminaries like Randi himself, Penn&Teller, Michael Shermer, and, um, me.
The bidding ends on Thursday, so get going. This is a fantastic opportunity! There are also lots of other items being auctioned, so check them out as well.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
That is sooooo awesome!
It reminds me of the Museum of Science, with it’s Theater of Electricity. They have the world’s largest Van de Graff generator!
However, they don’t let audience members stand inside a Faraday cage and get zapped. This is too cool!
September 5th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Dr. Morbius tried one of Richard Wiseman’s Tesla Coils after which he lay in a coma for a day and a night, but, imagine his delight when upon awakening he discovered that the experience doubled his intellectual abilities.*
I also understand that Wiseman himself first became known after some sort of transporter experiment with Phil Plait, but I don’t know the details.*
(*kidding)
September 5th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Oh no, not the Faraday cage! Anything but that!
September 5th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
I think he built that Faraday cage for his cell phone- to prevent BRAIN CANCER.
September 5th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Someone tipped me off to the bidding war, too, after I blogged about the show last week. It’s the coolest idea ever, and were I going to be in NYC that week, I would definitely be taking part in the “auction.”
Has anyone ever see Phil and Wiseman in the same place at the same time?
September 5th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Joshua Says: “It reminds me of the Museum of Science, with it’s Theater of Electricity. They have the world’s largest Van de Graff generator!”
You mean the one in Boston, right? I was there last summer (’05) and saw the show. It’s one not to be missed! That VdG was (according to the docent) built in the ’30s at MIT (just across the river) to do atomic research. It was the most powerful research tool in the world before Lawrence built the first cyclotrons. It wasn’t much use after that, and after 50 years or so they got tired of it taking up space (it’s three stories tall!), so they donated it to the museum. They didn’t have any place to put it, either, so it stood in the back parking lot for another decade or so while they raised funds to build the building that now surrounds it.
This guy generates up to 2 MV of potential (that’s a big “M” as in mega) and can throw a lightning bolt 15 feet (5 meters) through air. The noise is impressive as well.
- Jack
September 5th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
So the evil one is the one with a goatee, right?
September 6th, 2006 at 5:47 am
Hate to be pedantic, but I am sensitive to misspelled names: the generator is named after Robert J. Van de Graaff.
September 6th, 2006 at 7:15 am
“Has anyone ever see Phil and Wiseman in the same place at the same time?”
Why of course! Plum shirts and all. T.A.M. 4
They tried a substitution bit on stage. Unfortunately most of the audience knew them both so well it didn’t work as well as it should have.
Greg
September 6th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Brush with greatness time – Van de Graaff’s granddaughter (or maybe great granddaughter?), when she was in High School, worked for my company as an office assistant. I don’t remember how the subject came up, but I found out her ancestor was a Van de Graaff, I asked her “As in the generator?” and she said “Oh, you’ve heard of that? Most people know my great uncle (or great grand uncle or whatever), the football coach.” It turns out he (the uncle) was the coach of IIRC the University of Colorado football (the real thing, with pointy balls, not soccer) team.
(I’m also 2 degrees of separation from the guy who invented 6 degrees of separation, or maybe not.)
September 7th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Just a quick update. The winning bid for this was $550.
September 7th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Jennifer, the first link in the blog entry above takes you to my TAM travelogue, and there is a picture there of Richard and me next to each other. We didn’t even notice how much we looked alike, despite the stares of people as they walked by. When someone finally told us, an evil plan was hatched…
Anyway, you should come to TAM 5! It’s theme is skepticism and the media, so you’d fit in!