The Art of Deception Revealed

LiveScience.com : I was lucky enough to learn the art of improvising from one of the greatest “teachers” on the subject, the Amazing Randi. I had met him only a few hours before, nearly twenty years ago, and he was already teaching me how to conduct a perfect swindle!

Randi had come to Italy to help us promote CICAP, the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, and he was expected to be on a talk show in Rome to discuss his work and talk about the Committee. The host, an actress called Marisa Laurito, asked him what he was going to do in front of the cameras, and he said that he planned to duplicate a drawing made by her in secret. She agreed and asked what was needed.

7 Things You Didn’t Know About PETA

I did know most of these, but I’m sure there are plenty of people that don’t, and should.

Confused Capitalists

You gotta love this piece about Craigslist in the NYT, demonstrating a major culture clash between financial analysts and Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. You can almost see them leaving the conference scratching their heads. Hopefully they’ll scratch all the way through to their brains and kill themselves.

(Yes, I run a business myself; no, I’m not being ironic. Not everything has to be about money.)

LCD makers probed for price fixing

ars: Several LCD makers are facing new regulatory probes in the US, Japan, and Korea for anti-competitive practices. Samsung, Sharp, NEC, AU Optronics, LG Phillips, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics are all being examined for allegedly working together to fix prices on LCDs in order to combat falling prices.

Scandanavia…

Isn’t very cold at the moment, but it’s still picturesque. Wouldn’t live there though.

More later.