Sword Swallower Dan Meyer

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!

Here’s a link to PINC.11

It looks like they have some other interesting speakers and entrepreneurs there as well! I am looking forward to meeting all of them!

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!

Should be a fun trip!

If you’re on Twitter, please follow me for live updates: @Halfdan

Looking forward to keeping in touch with you, and if you’re in the Netherlands, I’m looking forward to meeting you!

Tot ziens!

Dan
http://danmeyer.tel

Check out some of the new Fluoroscope videos filmed at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville!

Here are a few quick videos from demonstrations after my Ig Nobel lecture at the Festival della Scienza last week in Genova, Italy.

Watch the audience’s expressions! Priceless! Like something straight out of a Fellini movie!

Here’s a new Dutch documentary that just came out entitled

“Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects”
by producer Bahram Sadeghi

Let me know what you think of it!

Wow! Had a VERY interesting weekend in Chicago last weekend at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Convention.

The speaker slated to speak just before us (Ig Nobels) was none other than ex-VP Al Gore! Talk about an opening act!

Our Ig Nobel lecture series got quite a bit of press from the Science/Medical Journalists there (along with Al Gore!) Here are just a few reviews:

Chicago Reader

Physics World - Science Thats Hard to Swallow

Xinhuanet China

English

People

After we finished, Ig Founder Marc Abrahams and I walked a few blocks in the snow to Michigan Avenue, and I was honored to do an hour long interview with Nick Digilio and Andy Hermann on The Nick Digilio Show on WGN Radio. What an honor, as I had grown up listening to WGN only 26 miles away in Michigan City, IN. I didn’t realize it, but this show is broadcast to over 36 states including as far away as Texas and Chicago!

During the interview, Andy Hermann pulled a sword from my throat.

Dan Meyer swallowing a sword at WGN Radio

and I got to eat a lightbulb onair for the listengin audience. I think the lightbulb went over better on radio than the sword swallowing!… Watch and listen for yourself! Let me know what you think!