What’s your earliest memory?

Some recent research suggests that the earliest memories of men and women are associated with different ages.  In the spirit of scientific inquiry, I thought it would be interesting to explore this idea.  So, in the comments box, please say whether you are male or female, give a very brief description of your earliest memory and say how old you were when this event happened (obviously, if the memory is especially traumatic then feel free to skip the exercise).  Let’s see whether the earliest memories of men and women really are so different….

Amazing floating Necker Cube

@thirdmanuk just sent me this on Twitter….tis lovely……

Olympic idea

Well, here I am in Bristol airport waiting for a flight that been very badly delayed.  I thought I would pass the time by thinking of an idea.

So…..my understanding is that the 2012 London Olympics are a tad short of money and thus it would be good to come up with a fund raising initiative.

Here is my idea.  How about we have a huge international lottery – everyone pays £1 to enter and the winner gets to run in the 100m final with the proper athletes!

Just imagine it – you would have a chance to make history, and be famous for the rest of your life.  And it would show how great the actual runners are by have a normal person run alongside.  Plus the TV rights would be worth a fortune.

So, what do you think?  Any better ideas?  Should we do it for the final of every event?  Anyone got a way of making it happen?

 

Answer to the Friday Puzzle!

On Friday I asked you how many pandas you could find in the following image…

Answer after the break….

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Congratulations to @Japanjin for winning the poll yesterday with ‘68 other people can’t be wrong’ – it seems that self-deprecating humour works wonders on Twitter.

So, to the Friday puzzle.  the last couple of puzzles have been logic based, so thought it would be good to mix things up with something visual.  How many pandas are there in the following image?

As ever, feel free to say how long it took, but please don’t post your answer.  Solution on Monday.

How to get more Twitter followers

Yesterday I decided to conduct a little experiment into the psychology of persuasion via my Twitter stream. I sent out a Tweet asking people to say why others should follow them. I had hundreds of replies, and have selected my top ten below….which one would make you most likely to follow a person?

1. endless_psych People should follow me or their names will go on “the list”

2. Andrewjspeirs I’m a magician, hypnotist, con-man, conjurer, so lets just say I have lots of free time to tweet.

3. Dmaco Follow me, because if you dont you wont be in the cool gang. and we will all laugh and point at you

4. Lee_Elliott I’m so boring it will make you feel good about yourself to follow me.

5. dedtweet Please, don’t follow me, I use reverse psychology too much.

6. Joeyineire follow me I don’t tweet much but when I do you’ll wish I didn’t.

7. iamanicelady because i’m in marathon training and following me in real life would get tiring.

8. carlmaxim Follow me because I am a very lazy stalker

9. siobha Because, while everyone knows the answer, I actually know what the question is.

10. Japanjin 68 other people can’t be wrong.

Vote below, explain your choice in the comments box and – most important of all – follow your fav person! Also, feel free to add your own Twitter addy and reason why people should follow you.

Lovely illusion

Following on from the success of the rude count yesterday, this was sent to me by Kate H and is a great after-image illusion…..(click on image to run animation)…

Did it work for you?

Also, I am chatting about seances, psychology and magic on the Sunday Supplement podcast this week.

What the BLEEP?

William S just sent me this amazing video.  Basically, someone has taken an innocent song from Sesame Street, and added BLEEPS.  Interestingly, we are so used to hearing BLEEPS cover up profanities that we start to hear parts of rude words that are not actually there.…

Did you hear them?  Should children be allowed to listen to the clip?

Update: Oh, and here is the monkey goat video that I sent out on Twitter yesterday and has proved something of a hit….

Answer to the Friday puzzle!

The nice people at WordPress.com kindly featured this week’s puzzle on their front page over the weekend, so greetings to everyone who came to the blog for the first time.

Here is the puzzle from Friday…..

Three men make the following statements regarding a murder that they are suspected of.  Two of the men are lying, and one of them is telling the truth.  Only one of the men committed the crime.  Which of the three is most likely to be innocent?

A. I didn’t do it.
B. C did it.
C. A did it.

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else, answer after the break….

It’s the Friday puzzle!

Three men make the following statements regarding a murder that they are suspected of.  Two of the men are lying, and one of them is telling the truth.  Only one of the men committed the crime.  Which of the three is most likely to be innocent?

A. I didn’t do it.
B. C did it.
C. A did it.

As ever, please do not post your answer, but do say if you think you have solved it and how long it took.  Answer Monday.

Forwards or backwards?

Many thanks to everyone who came along to hear me speak at the Wellcome Trust yesterday – it was a fun evening.  If you are in or around the Brighton area, I will be performing with Robin Ince, Simon Singh, Sarah Angliss etc at the Komedia tonight.

Yesterday produced quite a discussion – lots of great ideas and debate – feel free to continue to add your comments.

Here is today’s offering……first of all, choose either ‘forwards’ or ‘backwards’…now count how many letter ‘f’’s there in the sentence in bold below. If you chose ‘forwards’ read it in the normal direction, if you chose ‘backwards’ start at the final word and work your way to the front of the sentence.  Here we go….

Franklin Featherstone is sometimes referred to as the Father of Refrigerated Freight, because of his efforts in publicising the benefits of this form of transport.

Answer after the break.

Time to drop the Bible?

I have been travelling lots recently, and keep coming across Bibles in my hotel room.  I assume that they are there to help some people in times of need.  The idea of offering help is obviously sound, but I do worry that perhaps there is a more effective and inclusive way of doing it…..so, what book would you like to see in every hotel room in the world?  How do you react to the Bible in hotel rooms?  Would you keep the Bible or replace it with something else?

Chop Cup

In Italy promoting Quirkology at the moment, but thought you might enjoy this…..

Answer to the Friday puzzle!

On Friday I set this puzzle….

You are in trapped in a room that has two doors.  One is an exit and the other has hungry lion behind it.  There two people in the room with you. The first is a nice man who always tells the truth and the other is a second hand car salesman who always lies. Both of these people know what is behind each door, but you do not know who is the nice guy and who would sell you a junk car.

You may ask one of the men just one question.

What should you ask in order to escape the room and avoid the hungry lion?

Answer after the break!

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

You are in trapped in a room that has two doors.  One is an exit and the other has hungry lion behind it.  There two people in the room with you. The first is a nice man who always tells the truth and the other is a second hand car salesman who always lies. Both of these people know what is behind each door, but you do not know who is the nice guy and who would sell you a junk car.

You may ask one of the men just one question.

What should you ask in order to escape the room and avoid the hungry lion?

As ever, please do not post your answers, but feel free to say if you solved it and how long it took.  Answer on Monday.