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October 6, 2013

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Rated: Awesome
180 minutes

The Festival of Bad Ad-Hoc Hypotheses (BAH!)

October 6, 2013 at 7:00 pm in Kresge Auditorium (doors open at 6:15)

Tickets are $5 for students (with any student ID, not just MIT!) and $10 for non-students. Online tickets are sold out. A limited number of BAHfest tickets will be available at the door! Sales will start between 5:30 and 6:15pm (TBA); doors open at 6:15.

BAH! was inspired by this comic: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2853

What is it?
The Festival of Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses (BAH!) is a celebration of well-argued and thoroughly researched but completely incorrect evolutionary theory. It was created by Zach Weiner (cartoonist of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal), breadpig (publishers of SMBC and XKCD), and LSC, and is sponsored by EvoS Consortium and This View of Life magazine (Editor-in-Chief David Sloan Wilson). BAH! is also proud to be part of the Cambridge Science Festival.

What will happen?
Seven speakers will present their bad theories in front of a live audience and a panel of geeky judges, who will together determine who presented the best theory. The event will be livestreamed and recorded for posterity. The theories will be judged on four criteria:

  1. Force of Science -- how much "scientific" information was brought to bear (graphs, real citations, "research" etc.)
  2. Artistry -- how unexpected and clever the idea and presentation are, and how well the presentation is delivered.
  3. Parsimony -- the simplest theory that explains the most data is best.
  4. Strength of Defense -- how well is the terrible theory defended? Being funny is not a good defense!

Will this be a family-friendly event?
It's evolution, so there'll no doubt be plenty of talk of sex. However, we're working with the speakers and will discourage anything overly grotesque or horrifying.

We hope to see you there!

Zach Weiner is the creator of "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal," a daily webcomic that's been going strong since 2003. He has a degree in Literature and 3/8ths of a degree in physics. He enjoys reading about math, logic, science, history, fiction, and philosophy. His hobbies are space travel, dinosaur riding, and wishful thinking.