Young man's PhD research focuses on the historical secrets of summoning fairies

[pesco]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/27/young-mans-phd-research-focu.html

…

[Brainspore]

And more importantly how to DESTROY THEM.

[Headache]

That’s all very nice.

Now, could I get a grande latte to go please? Thanks.

[Oo_oO]

The way we see the world now, he noted, is just one perspective among many.

That’s my main problem with the world today. People have some truly scary perspectives.

[RickMycroft]

[Ratel]

@pesco

“Fairies were thought of as wondrous and beautiful, but mostly dangerous. But people wanted to summon them and harness that power for their own gain,” Hogan told the BBC.

Inadvisable.

[anon48584343]

Delicious

[Mongrove]

How are you verbalizing the spell? Cats often respond to songs.

Perhaps more importantly, what material components are you using? You don’t dare summon a cat too often without providing a sacrifice…

[Melz2]

@Mongrove

You don’t dare summon a cat too often without providing a sacrifice…

[anon48584343]

@pesco

Hogan, a lifelong fan of the supernatural (see photo above) and, yes, Harry Potter, received a fellowship to move to the UK after completing his master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan. His thesis topic? The history of chiromancy, aka palm reading.

Sounds vaguely familiar…

Ghostbusters (1/8) Movie CLIP - Venkman's ESP Test (1984) HD

[Garymon]

I suggest drawing sacred geometry on the top of a tin of tuna. Now trace the outer circle with a can opener. Utter the magic words in a high pitched voice “Kitty Kitty Kitty” exactly three times. No more. No less or suffer the consequences. Set the can on the kitchen floor and watch your desire manifest.

Edited because I can’t type or self edit.

[davide405]

@Garymon

I suggest drawing scared geometry on the top of a tin of tuna.

I know what you meant here, but the notion of rendering frightened geometry pleases me very much

[Garymon]

It doesn’t matter how much I scan for typos. I always make one. Thank you.

[davide405]

Not meant as a criticism, rather as recognition of glorious serendipity

[Garymon]

@davide405

Not meant as a criticism, rather as recognition of glorious serendipity

No offense taken. The funny thing is I had this worry that I would misspell geometry. So I read and re-read those couple words multiple times.

[Shuck]

I totally want a copy of the dissertation. That sounds fascinating.

[arzak]

Research on inattentional blindness (“what gorilla”) and change blindness makes me believe that we don’t just see what we want to see, we see only what we expect to see. The Simons Lab is doing cool research in the area of visual cognition:

http://www.simonslab.com/research.html

(Edit: I just learned that Prof. Simons has a Youtube channel with better videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/profsimons)

I like the idea that the Good People have mastered the art of being unexpected and irrelevant, and therefore unseen. Or is that Unseelie?

[leicester]

Just look out for the tooth fairies…

[Carbonman]

@Oo_oO

The way we see the world now, he noted, is just one perspective among many.

That’s my main problem with the world today. People have some truly scary perspectives.

40% of Americans believe the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. That’s my definition of scary (and they can vote!).

[Oo_oO]

40% of Americans believe the Earth is less than 10,000 years old.

It’s not really that high, is it??