Stuff

The biggest problem with my amazing number theory is this: it’s all made up. Fake news, if you like, though it’s hardly news.Yes, I just invented the whole lot.

The figures are wrong. Admittedly they are believable, and not terribly far from the truth.

There’s a whole load of pseudoscience that just makes things up, or is selective in the data used. Vast claims are based on thin evidence, or none.

I remember being intrigued when I was young with books about the Bermuda triangle, or was God and astronaut? The fact they are nonsense and have been thoroughly debunked does not stop people still believing in these things. Or that the Earth is flat and space does not exist.

James Randi did a good job debunking faith healers, but people still go and give their hard earned money away. And people seriously follow horoscopes too.

Our brains are pretty clever things. They take a whole load of stuff from a variety of sources and try to make sense of it all.

But brains do like simple things. They look for patterns. They love easy numbers.

Here’s an example you can try. You have just 10 seconds to look at these thirteen cards and remember them: