OddThinking

Last Saturday, I performed a magic trick in front of a crowd of about 75 jugglers at a juggling convention. Now, I am going to reveal to you the secret of this trick!

Meantime, I started negotiating a deal. Grace would persuade Ben to give up the secret to the binary trick…

I am going to talk about three embodiments of the same paper-and-scissors magic trick, from the downright silly to the impressive to the illegal.

Then I will finish up with some discussion about the policies of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

A few months ago, I saw an advertisement for Today Tonight, a controversial Australian tabloid-style current affairs show. Alongside pushing a miracle new weight loss system that doesn’t involve surgery and a in-depth cross-promotionreport into the intrigue and controversy of a reality TV show contestant’s past, the promo warned that “Australia’s number one con man is at it again”.

I was watching the show with interest, until something rather unexpected happened.

I recognised one of the victims!

“I will read your mind!” boasted the mentalist. “You can pick a colour, or a flower, or an element of the periodic table, write it down, show it to the audience and seal it in an envelope. Then I will read your mind and predict what it says! In fact, you could write any English word, and I will predict it.”