So for Ignite talks, you have only 5 minutes and 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, which is about enough time to get in one sentence, before the slide advances to the next slide…
So I had about 3:56 to get in 4000 years of sword swallowing and 30 years of my life, and about a minute to swallow 3 swords. I was pretty nervous about trying to get everything in…
Just getting ready to catch my flight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands in a few minutes.
If the volcanic ash is not too bad, I hope to land in Amsterdam on Saturday and spend the weekend there. Then on Monday, I will be traveling to the little Dutch village of Zeist, for a VERY special occasion!
I have been honored to speak at the 11th annual prestigious PINC Conference (PINC stands for People, Ideas, Nature, and Creativity). PINC is like a European version of the well-known TED conference, and the PINC board has invited me along with a small number of other speakers to speak on “out of the box” type topics… like SWORD SWALLOWING! What a HUGE honor! I am really looking forward to this trip and to meeting the other speakers!
After PINC, on Wednesday I will be heading to Rotterdam where I will be speaking at Erasmus University Medical Center with my friends Erwin Kompanje and Kees Moeliker, both fellow Ig Nobel speakers themselves. This should be a fun talk for the doctors and nurses in the area, as this is one of the aspects of my job that I really LOVE!
From Wednesday to Saturday, I will be visiting the Rotterdam Natural History Museum, the Rotterdam Zoo, the Kinderdijk Windmills, and the floating Noah’s Ark replica and museum that is on exhibit in Vianen in the Netherlands! And it looks like I will be doing some media interviews in various magazines, newspapers, and even the TOP Dutch TV show in the Netherlands!
I’m getting ready to head over to Amsterdam, Netherlands this weekend if the volcanic ash doesn’t act up again, and then on to Zeist Netherlands to speak and perform at the 11th Annual PINC Conference next week.
PINC stands for People, Ideas, Nature, and Creativity, and is a Dutch convention with speakers made up of entrepreneurs, scientists, CEOs, and others who think creatively “outside the box”, similar to the renowned TED convention. It is a huge honor for me to be invited as one of the few featured speakers at such a prestigious conference, and I am really looking forward to it!
From Zeist, I will head over to Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, where I will be giving a lecture for an audience of doctors, nurses, and medical faculty on our research paper “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects” that won us the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine and was the focus of a Dutch documentary last year.
From there, my hosts have plans for me to do some media interviews, a visit to the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, some windmills, and possibly even to visit a lifesized Noah’s Ark nearby!
To get live updates from the road, follow @Halfdan on Twitter!
I had a blast on the Ig Nobel Tour of Denmark in May, and got to perform at several universities in Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus, and the Marine Research Center in Kerteminde, and at Ripleys and Guinness World Records in Copenhagen.
Sword Swallowing at Roskilde Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde Denmark
Sword Swallowing at the Famous Jelling Runestone, Jelling Denmark
Sword Swallowing at Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Copenhagen
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Have Sword Will Travel:
Convincing a skeptical sword shop owner
in Souq Waqif Bazaar, Doha, Qatar
Dan Swallowing 10 swords and hedge clippers for Cirque Eloize, Montreal
World Record - Nobel Laureates Remove Sword!
Dutch Documentary “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects”
Dan Swallowing the RED-HOT Sword for The History Channel!
Ig Nobel Science Lecture Tour video from Odense, Denmark
Italian Science Festival Dan drops a sword down his throat NO HANDS
Dutch Ig Nobel Laureate removes sword from Dan
Italian Cardiologist WHIPS sword from Dan’s mouth!
Sword Swallower performs at Italian dinner party in Genova Italy
Dan Meyer Sword Swallowing highlights
IAEWP World Peace Conference Delegates Remove Sword of War
Alex and Me
Black, Red, White
Blink
Heading For Home
How the Best Get Better
How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget
Maximum Entertainment
News of the Weird
Outliers
Quiet Diplomacy
Ripley’s Believe It or Not Book
Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Swallowing the Sword
The Art of the Solo Performer
The Faith of George W Bush
The Last Lecture
The Shack
Bounty
Bucket List
Facing the Giants
Final Season
Fireproof
Mountains of the Moon
Pirates of the Caribbean
Shadowlands
Carter Burwell
Ceili Rain
Dan Meyers
David Foster
David Wilcox
Family Force 5
Freddie Fernbrant
Mark Isham
Dan’s Favorite Quotes
Dan at Ripley’s Believe It or Not Copenhagen Denmark
Sword Swallower.