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Alberto Dell'Isola

Published on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 in , ,



Alberto Dell'Isola, who was the first South American to compete in the World Memory Championship, appears on a Brazilian TV show called CaldeirĂŁo do Huck (Huck's Cauldron) showing off his amazing memory.

In this clip, he performs two classic feats of memory. First, he recalls an entire 128-page magazine, and concludes by performing the classic day of the week for any date feat!

Video Format:
YouTube

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Abigail Cohen

Published on Thursday, April 12, 2007 in , ,



Check out 5-year-old Abigail Cohen playing Simon (Flash required) like a master!

Video Format:
YouTube

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“TimwiTerby”

Published on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 in , ,



Planarity is a simple game, but difficult to master. You're given an arrangement of dots in a circle. Each dot is connected to 2, 3 or 4 other dots via lines, and as you move the dots, the lines stay attached to the dots. The object is to arrange the dots so that none of the lines cross. Try it for yourself to see how challenging this can be.

Once you've tried it for yourself, play the video above, in which “TimwiTerby” not only solves a level 18 puzzle, but does so by arranging them in perfect rows!

If that isn't impressive enough, check out the level 19 video, in which the final arrangement is a series of concentric circles!

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YouTube

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Dominic O'Brien

Published on Monday, April 09, 2007 in , ,



Here's Dominic O'Brien teaching a simple method for remembering numbers. After watching this video just once, see if you can recall the full number.

His much-sought-after book, How To Develop A Perfect Memory, is available as an e-book in Lybrary.com's Memory & Mnemonics section.

Video Format:
YouTube

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Multiplying Two 3-Digit Numbers

Published on Saturday, April 07, 2007 in ,



Here is a great technique for multiplying two 3-digit numbers! Practice with 2-digit numbers as taught in the video, and work your way up.

It's not completely done in your head, but since you can write down the digits as you go, it can appear that way. It looks especially good if you can remember the numbers you carry, instead of writing them down.

Video Format:
YouTube

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Rob Paulsen

Published on Friday, April 06, 2007 in , ,



Animaniacs fans will definitely remember Yakko Sings the Nations of the World. It's one thing to do it in a recording studio with the words in front of you. However, the voice behind Yakko, Rob Paulsen, can sing the entire song from memory, as well!

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YouTube

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Full Video Index

Published on Friday, April 06, 2007 in

While I post videos of amazing feats here with descriptions, I also like to maintain a full index of the original links on their respective sites. They are listed in pulldown menus below, divided up by format. Each individual video is listed alphabetically by the performer's last name, screenname or title.

Originally, these links were hosted in the sidebar, but it has become too large and unwieldy to update this on almost every page of the Grey Matters site.

Instead of the index itself, you will now see "Full Video Index" in the sidebar, which will be linked to this post. Also, as new videos are added, this post will be updated.

DailyMotion:


Flash:


Google Video:


MetaCafe:


MySpace:


QuickTime:


RealPlayer:


Revver:


SlideShare:


VideoJug:


Windows Media:


YouTube:

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James Martin

Published on Friday, April 06, 2007 in , , ,



James Martin was a contestant on the British TV game show Countdown.

In the numbers round of this March 1997 episode, the contestants are given the random numbers 25, 50, 75, 100, 3 and 6, and must use only those numbers in a formula to get as close as possible to the randomly-generated total of 952. Contestant James Martin not only gets a total of 952, but does so in an amazing way!

If you haven't already watched the video, try and figure out for yourself how close you can get to 952.

James Martin has to be one of the most memorable game show contestants since Michael Larson.

Video Format:
YouTube