Fun_People Archive
19 Jun
Reflectionetics & the World Cup

Content-Type: text/plain
Mime-Version: 1.0 (NeXT Mail 3.3 v118.2)
From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 98 12:25:24 -0700
To: Fun_People
Precedence: bulk
Subject: Reflectionetics & the World Cup

X-Lib-of-Cong-ISSN: 1098-7649

[From a discussion of the odd symmetry of World's Cup winners...  -psl]

From: Tim Burgis <t.burgis@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk>
Re: place your bets

This is more usually shown visually:

	England 1966
	  Brazil 1970
	    Germany 1974
	      Argentina 1978
	        Italy 1982
	      Argentina 1986
	    Germany 1990
	  Brazil 1994
	??????? 1998

Tim Burgis

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

From: Jim Propp <propp@math.mit.edu>
Re: place your bets

>This merely arises from the fact that the order of winners of the World
>Cup since 1970 is symmetric about the year 1982:
>
>Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Argentina, Germany, Brazil
>
>If England were to win this one, it would simply extend that.

Speaking of soccer symmetry, a number of years ago I came up with a
money-making fad/cult I tentatively called "reflection horoscopy", which
unfortunately I'm too principled to try to exploit.

The premise is: What happens to you on the nth day of your life is
intimately and mystically connected to what happened in the world n days
before you were born.

The predictions that come from such a theory are likely to be right about
as often as the predictions of ordinary horoscopes, so with the right
marketing strategy (late night TV spots, testimonials from Hollywood stars,
etc.) it could catch on.

The way you'd want to make this into a product is by selling a suitable
news-database and appropriate interfacing software that, each day, would
tell users things that happened on the "mirror-image day".  It would be wise
to come up with software having at least one nifty feature that people
couldn't conveniently duplicate more cheaply for themselves using
microfilmed newspapers at the public library.

You'd also want to have a parallel pitch to the educational market that says
"Of course Reflectionetics (TM) hasn't been scientifically validated yet,
but whether or not scientists succeed in verifying it, just think how much
your kid will learn about history while they're using MirrorScope (TM) !"

I'd better stop here before I start scaring myself.

Jim Propp
prev [=] prev © 1998 Peter Langston []