The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 14

For a bit of fun, our journalists hid behind their newspapers in our September photoshoot. Having to hide your opinion about scientific and medical topics for fear of being sued for libel is wrong, and the laws that force this kind of behaviour are outdated. Geek Calendar is raising money for the campaign to change this. Buy your calendar today to support Libel Reform. And if you buy it now, we’ll post it to you before Christmas.

For more out-takes from this shoot, pop along to calendar star Ed Yong's blog post.

And the winner is...

A couple of weeks ago we asked you to send in a photo of your Geek Calendar in a suitably nerdy setting. The photo that impressed us the most was by @kingmuskar on Twitter. Mostly because his calendar is so wonderfully framed by a Rancor beast, and at least one of the Geek Calendar judges is a big Star Wars nerd:

You can't say we're totally biased towards our preferences though. The very same judge (okay, it's me) is very scared of dogs and yet this photo by @shell_here was chosen as the runner-up entry:

Congratulation to @kingmuskar, who will win a signed copy of Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw's book, Why Does E=MC²?, and @shell_here, who is getting some limited edition Geek Calendar badges in the post.

p.s. We also loved this photo of the Geek Calendar and a Christmas pterosaur that was posted after the competiton deadline. Thanks @physicus!

The Geek Advent Calendar: Day 13

Petra Boynton’s shoot took place at Cross Bones Graveyard, where prostitutes, the poor and other outcasts of society were buried until its closure in 1853. Every 23rd day of every month, a small group of people gather to honour those buried at Cross Bones. Their lives are commemorated with ribbons and tokens tied to the gates seen in the background of Petra’s calendar photo. In this alternative shot, you can see the gates in their full glory.