Reply With QuoteWhat really annoyed me was the woman saying, "Oh my god" , dozens of times. And a few "F" words which were unnecessary. And I think the programme was at least 15 minutes too long.
Still interesting, though.
Well worth watching - an old tipster's scam, very nicely demonstrated and explained ( Randi has talked about this numerous times ). Also a nice comment from Derren Brown about how this kind of deception applies to homeopathy and other woo 'cures'.
I'd be very surprised if many skeptics get far into the programme without guessing what's going on, as this is something that we've all run into many times. The programme is available via channel 4's 4oD service for the next 30 days.
What really annoyed me was the woman saying, "Oh my god" , dozens of times. And a few "F" words which were unnecessary. And I think the programme was at least 15 minutes too long.
Still interesting, though.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright, until you hear them speak.
I had my suspicions what was going on early on due to the small fields in the races, and the numerous polaroids just confirmed it really. The twist at the end was just a little bit too predictable as well ......Originally Posted by SimonC
Well worth watching - an old tipster's scam, very nicely demonstrated and explained ( Randi has talked about this numerous times ). Also a nice comment from Derren Brown about how this kind of deception applies to homeopathy and other woo 'cures'.
I'd be very surprised if many skeptics get far into the programme without guessing what's going on, as this is something that we've all run into many times. The programme is available via channel 4's 4oD service for the next 30 days.
As you say though, most people of a skeptical nature will probably have realised what he was up to.
It's a good example for any woos who always think that the paranormal explanation is the simplest. In this case, the production team had over 7000 people involved in the hoax. Still, that is a hell of a lot easier than coming up with a system that predicts the winner of five horse races in a row.
Mousse from a bowl is very nice, but to put it on a person is demented!
Farside,
What really got to me was the efforts that someone who really wanted to pull a scam might go to, to achieve his ambitions. And of course, loads of people would believe it.
Sorry, I haven't expressed that very clearly.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright, until you hear them speak.
I know what you mean
The average scammer must have some idea of the potential profit from their scam, and weigh that up against the costs and work involved. If the profits are there, they'll do the work, just like any other businessman.
Mousse from a bowl is very nice, but to put it on a person is demented!
What I found interesting was the way in which the lady seemed surprised at the outcome of the final race, even after the setup had been explained to her. I believe she even said "how could this happen after I've won five times already?". I'm not suggesting, for one second, that she was more gullible than anyone else would be in that situation, but it was itneresting to me how strongly the 'magic' had taken hold. Earlier in the programme she seemed to be struggling with what was obviously an incredible situation, and clearly knew ( on some level ) that this could not be possible, yet once committed to the idea she accepted it as reality.
I agree that the final twist was predictable, yet I think it was also justified in the sense that the trick is obviously explained by the programme itself.
I do think that Derren Brown deserves acknowledgement for presenting these kind of critical-thinking concepts in a very accessible 'pop culture' way. Given the complete dearth of this kind of thing on television, I respect the fact that he is using his undoubted skills to address these kind of subjects. There really was no magic in this programme, just a clearly presented explanation of a common logical fallacy, and personally I like that very much indeed.
SimonC
I totally agree. Not that I have added anything to what you have said.....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright, until you hear them speak.
Grr
- Be resident in the UK or Eire
- A Windows XP or a Windows Vista PC
- IE 5.5, 6 or 7
- Windows Media Player 10 or over
- A broadband connection
- Macs will currently not be able to use the service
The speed of light, expressed in FFF Units, is 1.8 mega-furlongs per micro-fortnight, or approximately 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight.
Gravity makes the heart grow heavier.
Any use of this product, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will lead to the heat death of the universe.
Can't you get Firefox with IE tab extension?
Defendants might as well have said: Beneficent creatures from the 17th dimension use this bracelet as a beacon to locate people who need pain relief and whisk them off to their home world every night to provide help in ways unknown to our science.
Judge Frank Easterbrook commenting on the Q-Ray bracelet
"For Gods sake you're an American! Stop thinking of the consequences and blow something up" - Stan Smith, American Dad!
it's a PC only application thanks to restrictive DRM
The speed of light, expressed in FFF Units, is 1.8 mega-furlongs per micro-fortnight, or approximately 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight.
Gravity makes the heart grow heavier.
Any use of this product, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will lead to the heat death of the universe.
Agreed. Another point about the final race... obviously it was just more of the same. Would still be interested to know how many (if any) of the viewers thought that the final race was real magic.
Maybe I'm not giving people enough credit.
Maybe I missed that bit (I was only half concentrating since I was doing something else at the time), but I think the last race was just the one lead woman - the other "competitors" were not in at that stage were they (or was that all part of the system to claim they weren't there)?
Toad.
The last race was either achieved via a switch of the winning ticket, or they carried the theme all the way through the programme. I wouldn't be surprised at the latter although I'd need to check the sums to see how many people would have needed to be involved.
Mousse from a bowl is very nice, but to put it on a person is demented!
My assumption was that a £4000 bet was placed on each horse in the final race ( apart from the one that the lady had bet on ), so that a winning ticket could be guaranteed, and 'magically' produced at the right moment. This would seem to be in keeping with the general theme of the programme.
I'd guess that the tip ( given to the lady prior to the race ), was probably for the horse least likely to win, as the programme would have fallen a little flat if the 'miracle bet' bet had actually paid off.
Obviously I know that this wasn't magic, the reason I respect Derren Brown is for his logic and cleverness, so I know there was a logical explanation. But the ticket can't have been switched because she was clutching it throughout the race, and there can't have been 5 other participants else they'd have all lost £4000. The only thing I can think of is that Khadisha was an actress and it was all fake, but even though he's been caught out on that before (in Russian Roulette) I really don't want to believe that Derren would stoop that low.
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