Saturday 27 September 2008

The Amazing Colour-changing Card Trick

Prof Richard Wiseman (see homepage) is a Hertfordshire Uni-based psychologist and well known in the UK media. A few years back he ran a project to find the world's funniest joke, so check that out (see below the belt for my fav).

More recently he has posted some videos including The Amazing Colour-changing Card Trick which, given it's YouTube popularity, you may have seen before. If not :


Find out more at Quirkology.

Here's another from Wiseman, The Psychological Card Trick:


And I still can't map a binary tree to calculate how this works. The Prediction:


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Regarding the funniest joke, I go for the runner up, but the original(?) extended version.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night, and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend awake. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Watson replied, "I see thousands of stars."

"What does that tell you?" Holmes questioned.

Watson pondered for a moment.
"Astronomically it tells me that if I can see thousands of stars then there may truly be millions of them, perhaps many more. This suggests there may be many millions of planets. Some could be like the Earth and be cradles of life."

"Astrologically I observe that Saturn is in Leo. This portends trouble ahead."

"Horologically, from the angle subtended by The Plough to the horizon, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three."

"Meteorologically the sky seems clear and set fair so I predict that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow."

"Chronologically I suspect that humankind has been speculating on questions like these for thousands of years."

"Theologically, given all the majesty I am observing here, I can see that God, master of the heavens, is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.
What does it tell you?"
Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. "Watson, you fucking idiot. Some bastard's stole our tent."

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A couple more jokes I like,

the old:
Is that Fanny Greene I see in the congregation?
No vicar, it's just the way the light's shining through the stained glass window.
the bizarre:
Two ladybirds walking along a canal bank. One says "Oh, isn't it a lovely day?" and the other one fell in.
and the surreal:
What's the difference between a duck? One of it's legs are both the same.

1 comment:

Andy Holroyd said...

Cheers George, I'll have a look.