What can I say ?

Much 'Thanks' to all my supporters in the magic world.

Ricky Jay

How good is Ricky Jay? Watch the video and see..

Criss Angel Getting Divorced..

MINEOLA, New York: Magician Criss Angel's wife says the magic has gone from their marriage and she now wants to make him vanish from her life.

Angel, the punky illusionist known for his "Mindfreak" show on the A&E cable television network, subdued his sometimes flashy look at a court hearing Friday. But he displayed a bit of humor during a break, gesturing toward his estranged wife's lawyer and saying, "I can make him disappear."

The 39-year-old Angel, whose real name is Christopher Sarantakos, and his wife, Joanne, 37, married five years ago, after a decade of dating, according to her lawyer, Dominic Barbara. But the magician kept quiet about his marriage and then deserted his wife as he became famous and hasn't given her "a cent" of his millions, Barbara said....

Read more.

SCAM 2008

Just heard from one of my magic buddies.. John Tudor. Aside from being one of the most talented and respected magicians in the South, John is also one of the forces behind the South Carolina Association of Magicians...

Believe me.. it's never to early to prepare for my personal favorite convention.

" SCAM Convention will be January 18-19, 2008, Columbia, SC, - David Roth, Charlie Frye, Kostya Kimlat, Just Alan, Danny Archer, Chris Capehart, Matt McCoy, Joey Vasquez+ more! visit http://www.scamcon.org "

Color Change video

A nice, and very do-able, color change for you..



The Hole - video powered by Metacafe

'Magicians ' the Movie..

I don't know the distribution plans for this movie, it obviously appears British, but here's the trailer for ' Magicians '.

Numerology, the 23 Enigma-and Confirmation Bias

This is not actually magic related, but I did find it interesting. Throughout my life I've found links between numbers and reality. Not that I necessarily believe in numerology, but I DO believe there are certain mathematical factors that affect our lives..

------------------

On February 23 a movie by Joel Schumacher, starring Jim Carrey, will be released entitled ‘The Number 23’. The story centers around a book given to the main character ( Carrey ) that seems to echo the events in his life and features prominently the phenomena that has come to be known as “The 23 Enigma”.

The 23 enigma is the belief that every event is somehow related to the number 23. This is sometimes misattributed to the science of Numerology although, that is incorrect. Like the ‘9-11’ phenomenon wherein coincidences of the number 911 are charted and listed, the 23 enigma may be nothing more than a particular example of the confirmation bias in cognitive theory know as apophenia – the experience of finding connections or patterns in random, meaningless data.

The adherents of the 911 phenomenon find a good portion of these coincidences by manipulating numbers to arrive at a desired outcome ( negating the possibility of true coincidence ) and many of the examples given in the numerous lists regarding the 23 enigma share this trait. Robert Anton Wilson himself, whose work explores some of these interesting coincidences regarding the number 23, comments that the phenomenon merely shows how the mind can find ‘truth’ in anything if it wishes to see it.

However there are some genuine coincidences ( or synchronicities ) that feature the number 23 and these are often interesting to ponder as harmless amusements, a few of which we will list here. Owing to popular culture there are also many instances where the enigma is intentionally evoked in artistic works that feature some reference to 23. If you should decide to provisionally accept the phenomenon as a true example of synchronicity in action do not be surprised if you begin to see the number 23 everywhere as it becomes what is know in psychology as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Whether you see it or not, have fun. 23 times over!

Curiosities of the number 23...........

-The physical biorhythm cycle is said to be 23 days.

-It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body.

-The male and female each contribute 23 chromosomes during conception.

-A full turn of the DNA helix occurs every 23 angstroms.

-The number of joints in the human arm is 23.

-There are 23 vertebrae in the human body.

-Tantrists believe the male sex cycle is 23 days.

-Shakespeare was born on April 23.

-Shakespeare died on April 23.

-Two 23's equals 46 and, that's how old Shakespeare was when the KJV was published.

-Grab a King James Version of the Bible and turn to Psalm 46. Count 46 words and you arrive at the word 'shake'.

-Turn to the end of the chapter and count 46 words backwards and the word you end on is 'spear'.

-The Ancient Egyptians hailed the New Year on July 23 - the day Sirius rises behind the sun.

-The ideal orbit, Clarke's Orbit, for a satellite is 23,000 miles above the earth.

-The first prime number wherein both of the digits are prime and add up to another prime number is 23.

-The 23rd letter of the alphabet, W, has 3 points up and 2 points down.
Two-thirds or, 2/3, is equal to .666.

-The first Morse code transmission is reported to have been “What hath god wrought?”. A Biblical quote from Numbers 23:23.

-Alexander the Great was 23 when he cut the Gordian Knot and Caesar is reported to have been stabbed 23 times. The Knights Templar had 23 Grand Masters.

-The “Day the Music Died” was February 3 or, 2-3. This was of course the day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died.

-Devin Hester, whose jersey number is 23, becomes the first person to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown in a Super Bowl ( XLI ).

Now, how many more instances of the 23 mystery can you find?

Copyright Jakob Steele 2007
Jakob Steele invites you to sign up for his monthly newsletter at http://www.thenumberwizard.com if you want to receive up to date information concerning Numerology and related topics.

James Randi and the Paranormal World

For years, James Randi has been the worlds foremost skeptic on paranormal phenomenon. Regardless of the outrageous claim, James and his crew would test and examine, proving time after time that the 'power' wasn't there..

After following claims, literally, around the world, James has finally set a standard of recognition for applicants wanting to claim the one million dollar prize he has promised to award anyone who can prove that their psychic abilities are real.

To quote from the SKEPTIC

"Ten years after stage magician and avowed skeptic James Randi first offered a seven-figure payday to anyone capable of demonstrating paranormal phenomenon under scientific scrutiny, the 79-year-old clear-eyed curmudgeon is revising the rules of his nonprofit foundation's Million Dollar Challenge to better target high-profile charlatans, and spend less time on unknown psychics, who too often turn out to be delusional instead of deceptive."

"We can't waste the hundreds of hours that we spend every year on the nutcases out there -- people who say they can fly by flapping their arms," says Randi. "We have three file drawers jam-packed with those collections.... There are over 300 claims that we have handled in detail."
Read the whole of this in-depth and interesting article..

Click here

Magic Roadshow Alive and Well

Yes, the Magic Roadshow is alive and well. During the past couple of days a numbers of sites, owned by others, have tried their best to keep my readers from getting their latest issue. My list server has had problems, and since they generate the link in the email notification their problems have become my problems.

My hosting company has gone down twice and prevented readers from accessing the free ebook.

Again, not my fault.. but definitely my problem..

So, all you guys who have had problems reading your new issue, bear with me.. This link will get you through to issue 61, (unless this hosting company goes down too..)

http://streetmagic.info/eMagic61.html

For those of you who are not a subscriber, you just missed a chance to get Advance Memory Techniques for Magicians and Mentalists ..

As they say - membership DOES have it's rewards..