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What my seven-year-old taught me about scams.
Adopt Me! is a massive multiplayer online game on the gaming platform Roblox. Aimed at preteens, the colourful game allows players to...
Six mind-bending furniture illusions
Usually, I like to share illusions you might not have seen before. And, with 73 million views and counting, Zach King doesn't need my...
Five books for critical thinking with kindness
In the quest to think more critically and not let our emotions cloud decision-making, it's easy to forget that we are human and, perhaps...
Creative thinking or critical thinking?
What is more important for students to learn? Thinking critically or thinking creatively? Should we spreading our intellectual net wide...
Who invented the colour blue?
I kicked open the bedroom, flicked the light, and shouted at Bridget, my wife: "ANCIENT GREEKS COULDN'T SEE BLUE." "Wha— "BLUE! THEY...
The Best Illusion Of The Year Contest
The Best Illusion of the Year Contest celebrates illusions, perception and the neuroscience that confounds our brains daily. Created by...
How optical illusions may help diagnose autism
Check out this simple optical illusion: Watching this illusion, it appears like a spinning cylinder. In reality, it is two columns of...
Learn anything with The Feynman Technique
The Feynman Technique is a brilliant method for learning new ideas from a 1966 lecture by physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman said:
I finally
Teachers can't make their students think critically (but that's ok)
I'm going to make a confession. I've spent close to twenty years teaching critical thinking to high school students even though all the...
How to play three card monte
In 1994, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Sheryl L. Parker was faced with a difficult ruling. Was three card monte a game of skill or a...
How to rig a coin toss
Back in 2016, Hilary Clinton won the Iowa Caucus off the back of a coin toss in high school gym. In 1903, the Wright Brothers choose the...
Sleight Night
32 seats 4 close up magicians 1 extraordinary monthly show Blink and you’ll miss it… On the third Wednesday of each month, the best of...
How To Win Rock, Paper, Scissors
Since my daughter started school, my life has become an endless series of games of Rock, Paper, Scissors. She has decided that this is...
Your child couldn't have painted that
Modern art is a scam. You hear it all the time. Wander through any exhibition of abstract or non-representational art and you'll...
Talking Bullshit at Skepticon 2019
Last weekend I had the pleasure of talking bullshit at Skepticon 2019. Here are some pics from the weekend
Manners maketh the mark
Amy was on holidays in Beijing when she made friends with a young Chinese student. The young woman was excited to be able to practice her...
Why your brain just let me steal your wallet
My all-time favourite movie scene comes from Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket. (Actually, my all-time favourite movie scene is when Little...
Fake monks making real money on the streets of Sydney
I got a Facebook message from The Daily Mail the other day. I cropped out the bottom half of my reply because my mother sometimes reads...
The Melbourne Magic Festival is dead! Long live Sleight Night
So the Melbourne Magic Festival is over for another year. But here you are, a magic junkie jonesing for your next fix of the impossible....
The Greatest Magicians Of All Time (you’ve probably never heard of)
Everyone knows the big names in magic. Copperfield. Angel. Penn. Teller. Johnson. But what about those magicians who’ve made an...
Here you'll find resources for teaching and promoting critical thinking, scam protection, and deception education. Many are linked to his school incursions while others are just for fun.
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Make sure you subscribe to Nicholas's podcast. Scamapalooza. He interviews psychologists, authors, and researchers about why people are so easy to fool.
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