Amazing Photographs

I have been thinking about unusual ways of using Twitter. The night before last I posted a message offering a free signed copy of Quirkology to the person that emailed me the picture that made me laugh most within the hour. This is what happened….

Wednesday Puzzle

Here we go again….

What letter, apart from ‘E’, can be added to the following to complete this word?

As ever, feel free to say if you think you have solved it, and how long it took, but please don’t give the answer.

Also, let’s get the ‘one sentence at a time’ stories finished (female thread here, male thread here), so feel free to add a line even if you have contributed already.

Update: I was originally shown this at a conference and so assumed that it was public domain.  However, it was created by Lloyd King (his site contains lots of other great puzzles and is here).

Stunning Stunt In Slow Motion

I am speaking here today (if you do come along, say hi) so this will be brief.

Update: Nice to see so many people at the event.  Thanks for supporting CFI.

Also, this is a great video of the stunning stunt in slow motion, showing that (i) it can be performed and (ii) it looks great in slow motion. Enjoy.

Jimmy Carr and Lewis Black on Laughlab

Comedians Jimmy Carr and Lewis Black have recently made their thoughts known about the LaughLab project. It isn’t pretty.

Solution to puzzle: Are you a logical or lateral thinker?

Yesterday I posted a puzzle and promised the solution today. If you didn’t try it, take a few moments now to give it a go before looking at the answer. For everyone else, read on….

Time to Snoop

Wonder what your handshake, music collection, or bedroom says about you? Or want to be able to tell a person’s personality from their living room? Test your snooping abilities here.

The Sunday Puzzle

Thought that you might enjoy a puzzle to help pass the time today. The image on the left shows the number 9 in Roman numerals.

Your task is to draw one single continuous line and turn this into a 6. Feel free to say if you have solved it and how long it took you, but no giving the answer. I will reveal the solution, and source, on Monday. Enjoy.

Quick Update: Someone has just emailed me another solution, so there are TWO ways of solving the puzzle.

The answer to this puzzle, and 100 others,  can be found in a new kindle ebook called PUZZLED, and is available in the UK here and USA here.

New Stunning Stunt

So I am rehearsing a new (and as it turns out, somewhat dangerous) stunt for an unusual talk that I have to give next month. All you need is a big stick, two wineglasses, and an even bigger stick…

Jerry Andrus: Master of Illusion

Over the break I finally got around to watching ‘Andrus: The Man, The Mind and the Magic’ – a DVD documentary about the renowned master of illusion, Jerry Andrus. Try his amazing Tri-Zonal Space Warper for yourself, and find out more.

Red Blue, Blue Red

I came across an interesting music video some time ago, and I played around with using the same technique to create a visual puzzle. This is the result.

Colour Changing Card Trick Outtakes

The Quirkology Colour Changing Card Trick has now had almost 3 million views on You Tube. However, it was tricky to film and everything did not always go to plan…

The Ghost in the Brain

Remarkable new study provides evidence that some ‘ghostly’ experiences are the direct result of neural activity.

How To Hypnotise A Lobster

Whenever I finish a talk, I can always guarantee that at least one person in the audience will raise their hand and say ‘That’s fine, but do you know how to hypnotise animals?’

Jaytee, the ‘psychic’ dog

In the early 1990s, Mathew Smith, Julie Milton, and I investigated ‘Jaytee’, a dog who could allegedly psychically predict when his owner was returning home. We believed that the results of our study did not support the dog’s alleged ability. At roughly the same time, Rupert Sheldrake conducted additional work with Jaytee, and argued that his findings suggested that Jaytee was able to signal when his owner started to return home from a distant location. RSupert also criticised the study conducted by Mathew Smith, Julie Milton and myself. We subsequently replied to the points raised in this critique, and Rupert replied to our reply.

I am frequently asked about Rupert’s experiments with Jaytee. There is a PDF of my thoughts here.

How is it going with your new resolution?

Last year I announced some initial results from a Quirkology experiment into New Year’s Resolutions. We tracked more than 5000 people as they tried to achieve their aims and ambitions, and found big sex differences for the strategies that proved successful. Here is some advice based on the work, hope that you find it helpful….