Shock Horror- psychics don't trust Randi....

[bindeweede]

....read about it here.....

http://www.paranormalreview.co.uk/News/tabid/59/newsid368/96/Challenge-solved-Randi-owes-me-1-million/Default.aspx

[Melanie]

....read about it here.....

http://www.paranormalreview.co.uk/News/tabid/59/newsid368/96/Challenge-solved-Randi-owes-me-1-million/Default.aspx

0679
4388
66/27
5-14

Actually, that was a bit sloppy. First thing I thought of was an isbn number. I know I'm in the book business, but even so, it's a bit of a give-away.

[Mojo]

If Randi's protocols are so sloppy that they can easily be got around even without any paranormal powers, why haven't any "psychics" relieved him of his million? If their powers are real, it should be a piece of cake!

[The_Corinthian]

Not only that, but anyone taking the challenge has to agree to these protocols. So sloppy or not, they are agreed on.

[Muttley]

I don't really understand. You set up a test for paranormal ability, and then leave a clue? Not only that, but one which a half-competent cryptographer can break (actually you don't even need to know anything about cryptography, as nothing is encrypted).

So why wasn't it encrypted? As it is just a short sequence of numbers, not text, even the simplest mono-substitution cipher would be virtually unbreakable. And it could be made totally uncrackable if encoded using a "one-time pad" method, with the key held by a mutually trusted person, or locked in a bank vault.

Or am I missing the point? Was it made deliberately easy to crack, with Randi guessing that the psychics still wouldn't be able to do it? ???

M.

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Randi seems to have acknowledged the error very quickly:

http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-02/020207geller.html

Scroll down to We have smart readers.

[Muttley]

That's more like it. The "clue" is now:

BSQN
ISIO
QWOD
QPIE

I know a little bit about cryptography, but where to start with this? Four groups of four characters, three Q's. Hmmm.

M.

[Muttley]

Only ten different characters, so the plain text could well be numeric, if it's a simple substitution cipher.

Let's see if we can crack this (though I wouldn't hold out too much hope). ::)

M.

[bindeweede]

Only ten different characters, so the plain text could well be numeric, if it's a simple substitution cipher.

Let's see if we can crack this (though I wouldn't hold out too much hope). ::)

M.

I don't suppose he will make the same mistake twice.

[bobdezon]

letter number substitution? basic crypto maybe?

[Muttley]

Possibly, but where to start? If it's text, and you have some idea of what language it's in, you can start with a frequency analysis. If it's numeric (and it could be as there are only ten different characters (i.e. 0 to 9)), you have to come up with a theory to start from. There's almost nothing to go on.

M.