Cover Your Tracks
July 30, 2014 9:55 AM   Subscribe

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble



 
Use the edit window! (ominous_paws will make the next post)
posted by yoink at 9:59 AM on July 30, 2014 [48 favorites]


Ace Twitter user @hrtbps did this to quite charming effect during the world cup, only not bothering with the "hide your incorrect predictions" step.
posted by ominous_paws at 10:03 AM on July 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Neat!
posted by clockzero at 10:13 AM on July 30, 2014


Good thing he wrote this, I've grown quite tired of explaining how it works to people. But couldn't he have written is six months ago?
posted by dabitch at 10:14 AM on July 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


The FIFA hoax last weekend took a conspiracy bent, alleging that the governing body overseeing the World Cup was corrupt.


Alleging?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:15 AM on July 30, 2014 [9 favorites]


This bit in the middle of a David Mitchell compilation applies, I think: "If you predict the lottery, you say what the lottery number's gonna be before the lottery numbers, not just after, which I think's what he did . . . Now, the cleverest thing about that trick is the fact that he's encouraged people to describe it as predicting the lottery rather than saying the lottery numbers just after the lottery numbers."
posted by Copronymus at 10:16 AM on July 30, 2014 [6 favorites]


> Good thing he wrote this, I've grown quite tired of explaining how it works to people. But couldn't he have written is six months ago?

He did, but he had to delete all the versions with different conclusions first.
posted by ardgedee at 10:27 AM on July 30, 2014 [8 favorites]


Heh, I watched Andy have his initial Oh Shiiiiii moment about this on twitter the other day. It really is a great little scam if you have the right setup for it.

Use the edit window!

This is the one and only time I will ever condone this. I feel obliged to give you some stern side-eye regardless.
posted by cortex at 10:28 AM on July 30, 2014 [26 favorites]


This is just a variation on the old magic trick where you write a different prediction under every movable object in a room, and so no matter what it turns out to be you can just say look under X and there it is.

Just remember that this trick doesn't work against Columbo, so don't try to use it as part of a murder alibi.
posted by ckape at 10:28 AM on July 30, 2014 [7 favorites]


> Alleging?

The implication of the @hrtbps account was that FIFA was engaged in match-fixing, which would be a step beyond what current consensus has them guilty of.
posted by ardgedee at 10:29 AM on July 30, 2014


This article was probably prompted by a CIA or NSA operative to explain away any conspiracy theories.
posted by ChuckRamone at 10:44 AM on July 30, 2014


A quibble with Andy's "Long Con" formulation: Maine and Nebraska are not electoral winner-take-all states (as noted in one of the marginal comment threads there, just noticed before posting this).

It doesn't not make the task impossible, but it becomes a lot more complicated. Fortunately Maine and Nebraska each have small electorates (meaning fewer combinations), and you can limit yourself to a pool of probable national electoral outcomes, which will be a significantly smaller effort than uploading files to cover all possible outcomes. Nobody since Walter Mondale (who won only 2.4%) has done worse than win 20% of the Electoral College vote.
posted by ardgedee at 10:55 AM on July 30, 2014


Use the edit window! (ominous_paws will make the next post)

Technically, ominous_paws made the next comment.

Naughty members always make that one small but fatal error that gives them away.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:59 AM on July 30, 2014 [9 favorites]


Technically, ominous_paws made the next comment.

This is what happens when you set the gag up, get a phonecall, forget about the set-up, suddenly remember it and see the edit-window count-down ticking 3...2...1 as you type. I was mostly thinking "wait...was it hyphen paws, underscore pause, oh crap there's NO TIME!"

So take my advice kids--don't fool with the edit window, it's brutal. Plus, Cortex's side-eye physically burns.
posted by yoink at 11:04 AM on July 30, 2014 [16 favorites]


In the interests of honesty I should admit that I fav'd yoink's comment *before* honey made the edit, with no inkling of the master scam into which I was about to be unwittingly roped.
posted by ominous_paws at 11:21 AM on July 30, 2014


I am totally going to punk my friends with this at some point.
posted by DWRoelands at 11:22 AM on July 30, 2014


This is what happens when you set the gag up

So, essentially, you would have gotten away with it except for those meddling kids?
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:40 AM on July 30, 2014 [2 favorites]


stern side-eye

Stern side-eye for the MeFi
posted by zippy at 11:43 AM on July 30, 2014 [6 favorites]


Interesting fact: stern side-eye was considered in the early trireme designs but it was deemed defeatist and they made them with just the bow side-eyes.
posted by hat_eater at 12:41 PM on July 30, 2014 [9 favorites]


Interesting question from AskMe on whether anyone has ever really done the horse-racing/newsletter scam described: Is this famous investment scam real or fiction?
posted by rollick at 1:21 PM on July 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Side-eye pshaw; editing shenanigans surely merit a full Paddington hard stare.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 2:43 PM on July 30, 2014


rollick, if you check the notes (first one under the Selective Memory section), escabeche chimes in about that very post of his.
posted by dhartung at 4:27 PM on July 30, 2014


ardgedee: “The implication of the @hrtbps account was that FIFA was engaged in match-fixing, which would be a step beyond what current consensus has them guilty of.”
I hate to pick nits, but match fixing is precisely what FIFA has been accused of being complicit with.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:50 PM on July 30, 2014


Ah thanks dhartung: I didn't know Medium even had comments.
posted by rollick at 4:55 PM on July 30, 2014


I have definitely seen investment funds created with contrary strategies so that the winner could go on and the lower would be rolled up. I once even saw a listing of thirty-one funds in a financial advice column, and the writer recommended Fund X (whatever it was) on the basis that it was the only one which had exceeded market averages for five years in a row. If it had been thirty-two funds it would have been perfect, but thirty-one is close enough.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:34 AM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Vaguely reminds me of the good old Internet Disappearing Card Trick.
posted by Segundus at 11:35 PM on July 31, 2014


> match fixing is precisely what FIFA has been accused of being complicit with.

That article does not make any allegations that FIFA has a role in match fixing. It says its former security chief is concerned with large-scale match fixing occurring during events under FIFA's auspices, which is far from accusing FIFA of anything.
posted by ardgedee at 3:10 AM on August 1, 2014


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