It's another wacko claiming Randi's $1m

[Cecil]

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_719817.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.pheno mena

A psychic who correctly predicted the winner of Celebrity Big Brother says a leading sceptic owes him $1 million. American James Randi has agreed to pay the sum if anyone can prove that psychic powers exist. Gary Fowler claims he has done just that, after successfully predicting Mark Owen would win Celebrity Big Brother, before the line-up of the show was even announced. He delivered his prediction to The Northern Echo newspaper offices two weeks ago. The newspaper says the envelope containing the prediction was kept in a locked safe in its offices, until the winner was announced. Mr Fowler said he communicates with spirits on the other side, who tell him about the future, which is how he predicted the Big Brother winner. :rolleyes:

It's the envelope trick!

[Diogenes]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A psychic who correctly predicted the winner of Celebrity Big Brother says a leading sceptic owes him $1 million. American James Randi has agreed to pay the sum if anyone can prove that psychic powers exist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting, since James Randi has agreed to no such thing..:rolleyes:

[Brown]

Sounds like the guy wouldn't mind repeating the effect with a few controls in place. If he really can do what he says he can do, that is.

Of course, if he can't really do what he claims to do, he'll just b!+ch and moan about not being paid. We've all seen that before, haven't we?

BTW, there are a lot of variations of the envelope trick. For example: you can switch envelopes after the fact; you can send multiple envelopes with multiple predictions to several people for safekeeping, and have only the person holding the "right" envelope open it; you can prepare a single envelope that has more than one compartment, and open only the compartment that holds the "right" predicition. And these are just some of the ways to do it.

So a request to repeat the effect with controls in place is a perfectly reasonable request, isn't it?

[ShowMe]

Originally posted by Cecil
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_719817.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.pheno mena

:rolleyes:

It's the envelope trick!

Wouldn't it be nice if one these stories contained something like, "However, a quick check of the challenge qualifications on theJREF web site found this:

1. Applicant must state clearly in advance, and applicant and JREF will agree upon, what powers or abilities will be demonstrated, the limits of the proposed demonstration (so far as time, location and other variables are concerned) and what will constitute both a positive and a negative result. This is the primary and most important of these rules. "

Is it asking too much for reporters to do even basic fact checking?

Oh, wait, I have to go see how many babies the Raelins have cloned.....

[Captain_Snort]

hey, there were only 6 people on that show, hardly difficult to pick a winner 1 in 6 times,

now if he had predicted it in say 1970, I may have been impressed.

[sadluxation]

It's still on the web-site, but it looks like it hasn't been updated for a while, obviously nothing psychic going on in his career at the moment.

http://www.garyfowler.com/JRchallenge/
http://www.garyfowler.com/news/newsitem.asp?itemID=20

This article is a good spoof of the winging psychics.

http://www.thespeciousreport.com/2002_predictions.html

[BobK]

Big deal.:rolleyes:

I can predict the correct score of any basketball game before it's even started.

[KelvinG]

Originally posted by BobK
Big deal.:rolleyes:

I can predict the correct score of any basketball game before it's even started.

0-0.

[Crossbow]

Well I predict that my psychic powers are just as good as his and I could have told him that months before the 'Big Brother' show was even aired, so JREF should give me the money!

:p

[aggle_rithm]

Originally posted by ShowMe


Oh, wait, I have to go see how many babies the Raelins have cloned.....

Technically, they didn't clone any babies, they cloned adults.

Then monkeys flew out of their butts. ;)

[BobK]

Originally posted by KelvinG


0-0.

Hey! Your psychic too!:D

[Martin]

Originally posted by BobK
Your psychic too!His psychic what? :confused:

[davidhorman]

I'm sure I read somewhere that this guy had in fact been working with the producers of Big Brother to provide a "psychic perspective" of the house mates, so he might easily have known the 6 contestants from that.

Next, find 6 gullible (and forgetful) newspaper editors...

David

[Marvel Frozen]

I predicted that some wacko would try to claim James Randi's money. Does that mean I have a claim to the $1 million too?

[Martin]

Originally posted by davidhorman
I'm sure I read somewhere that this guy had in fact been working with the producers of Big Brother to provide a "psychic perspective" of the house mates, so he might easily have known the 6 contestants from that

Over recent weeks Gary has been working with the producers of Celebrity Big Brother on an alternative way to analyse the behaviour of the housemates in the Big Brother house

From here (http://www.garyfowler.com/bigbrother/about.htm).

[jimmygun]

There is a name for this type of guy but it escapes me...He haunts the race track and before each race gives the name of each horse to a different bettor. When the winner is announced the guy goes to the correct bettor, expecting a couple of bucks for his tip. Same game as dick weed is playing and claiming the million.

[Brian]

Originally posted by jimmygun
There is a name for this type of guy but it escapes me...He haunts the race track and before each race gives the name of each horse to a different bettor. When the winner is announced the guy goes to the correct bettor, expecting a couple of bucks for his tip. Same game as dick weed is playing and claiming the million.

I wonder if anyone ever realy tried this at the track. Figure at least 3 of the horses will be favorites. If someone comes over and tells you the 1-5 shot will win, most people would say "so what". If they say the 30-1 shot will win most people will say "That's nice".
To pull this off you'd have to be able to identify at least 8 people that don't know what they're doing, and then convince them that they owe you a cut.

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by Brian


I wonder if anyone ever realy tried this at the track. Figure at least 3 of the horses will be favorites. If someone comes over and tells you the 1-5 shot will win, most people would say "so what". If they say the 30-1 shot will win most people will say "That's nice".
To pull this off you'd have to be able to identify at least 8 people that don't know what they're doing, and then convince them that they owe you a cut.

People are always saying crime doesn't pay, but apparently many people don't realise it, at least for the small time stuff. I can remember going to the races and seeing the 'emus' at work, going through all the tickets dropped on the ground to see if someone has dropped a winner by accident.

[Brian]

Originally posted by a_unique_person


People are always saying crime doesn't pay, but apparently many people don't realise it, at least for the small time stuff. I can remember going to the races and seeing the 'emus' at work, going through all the tickets dropped on the ground to see if someone has dropped a winner by accident.

Never heard the term emu. But running the tickets on the floor isn't against the law, it's just pathetic.

The "I know the winner scam" would 99% likely get you ignored or laughed at.

[c4ts]

I predict that you will read this thread.

AHA!

Where's my million, Randi?

[RonSceptic]

Originally posted by Brian


Never heard the term emu. But running the tickets on the floor isn't against the law, it's just pathetic.

The "I know the winner scam" would 99% likely get you ignored or laughed at.


Of course you can always use the Derren Brown approach. He presents a losing ticket at the cash desk and they pay out on it.

It's done using suggestion. On the recent Channel 4 series in the UK he backed a few loosers at the dog track. In one race he backed dog 1. The race was won by dog 4. He presented the ticket and the cashier refused to pay, to which he said "Check again, this is the ONE you are looking for." Incredible the cashier apologised and paid out! He repeated this stunt several times. Very weird.