Saturday, October 22, 2011

Copyrights

There is one sure way to avoid mistakes: do nothing. Doing nothing itself is also a mistake. Well, I do many things. Therefore I also make many mistakes. I learn from my mistakes to do better.

Creative Commons License
As of October 2011 all works (in all media formats) by http://www.fewdoit.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

By releasing all our works under this license, we mean to secure your (user of our works) rights to do what we believe is right: copy, edit, share, sell, give away, make yourself happy, and make other people happy.

We believe that the copyright law is confusing and contradicts itself. Thankfully there are also creative commons and public domains.
We believe that creative commons licensing provides more freedoms to all users than any copyright licenses previously used by the FewDoIt project. Therefore, this license is effective for each and every work published under the FewDoIt project, in any media format, including all works published before October 2011. With understanding that it is time consuming and often technically impossible to change (or remove) all other copyright signs from previously published works, we ask all users to disregard all other copyright signs.

The copyright does not protect ideas or designs. I want to reassure you that I personally have never claimed rights on an idea or a design of any work or any part of a work created under the FewDoIt project.

Knowledge does not come from a vacuum. It comes from everything that our universe consists of. I live in the world, I learn from the world. My works are inspired and derived from it. Only a vacuum derived from a vacuum. We do not live in a vacuum. You are as much part of this world as I am. We learn from each other. Thank you.

My view on copyrights matter:
The copyright laws introduced back in the 16th century were supposed to help progress by protecting author’s rights. It gives the authors the privilege to decide how the rest of us should use their work. By the copyright law NOTHING can be derived from copyrighted works without the publisher’s permission. Even Bubble (among all books that teach to share) is copyrighted-meaning that our rights to use it are restricted by the publisher from any un-authorized use, including sharing…really? The copyright law makes it free to learn from the copyrighted work but one needs permission of the publisher to use the knowledge. Everything, every movie, every schoolbook, every web page is copyrighted. IT is not just some one’s work that is subject to copyrights. Look for the copyright sign at the bottom of your facebook, or your Google +, or your twitter and etc account. It is your account, your photos, your videos and your comments branded with a copyright sign.
Copyrighting creates monopoly on knowledge. How does it help people? It helps publishers to sell more copies. It also helps our governments to control access to knowledge (info). It slows the progress.
The copyright laws pretty much describe the ways we think and the ways we live. We say to our little kids fighting over a toy on a playground “WE HAVE TO SHARE”. We also say (less and less often though) that “WE ALL HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS”.
Do we?

The copyright terms create a difference between what users can do with the copyrighted work. As of today, it seems to me that the creative commons licensing is the most liberal to the users. I did not delve deep into the public domain, yet. My main concern is to provide as much access, to do whatever with my works (instructions), as possible for the end users. Full access also includes commercial activity-for people who want to make money.

Sound your questions, ideas, or suggestions in comments or email me at: fewdoit@gmail.com

FewDoIt for you.
Have fun and happy twisting :)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Reunion

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The story
I am going to use a regular deck of cards to tell you a story from life. The magician shows a deck of regular cards (Pic 1).


The story is about four friends. Here are our four friends. The magician pick ups four jacks from the deck and shows them to audience (Pic 2). 

The magician puts four jacks at the top of the deck (Pic 3 and 4). They grow up in a small town, and went through their childhood together. They were very close friends. As good friends, they stayed together no matter what. But, as we all know, life is life. It always goes its own way. 


The day came for our friends  to move to different places. One of the friends became a doctor. He moved to a big city, got a job at a hospital and he saved many lives. The magician take the first card from the top of the deck and put it in  a middle of the deck (Pic 5 and 6).


The second friend became an officer of a federal agency. The agency sent him to a different city where he worked really hard to protect us from bad guys. The magician takes the next card from the top of the deck and put it in the middle of the deck visibly away from the first card (Pic 7 through 9).



The third friend became a very popular writer, no kidding. He travels a lot. People around the world know his face. Now he leaves in a beautiful far away place. The magician takes the third card from the top of the deck, shows it and  place it at the bottom of the deck (Pic 10 though 14).





The fourth friend, every one in the town loves him. He is a clown, a magician and he makes balloons. He never moves from the town. The magician shows the fourth card and place it back on the top of the deck (Pic 15 though 18). 




Yes, life is life. It separates even good friends. Our friends scattered around the world. They live in different time zones. The magician cuts the deck in the middle (Pic 19 though 22).




But there is nothing, nothing that can break the real friendship. The real friends always stay together. Neither time nor distance matter for real friendship. Nothing can break it. The magician flips the deck of card face up. He scans though the cards and finds all four jacks are staying together, next to each other (Pic 23 though 26).




The secret
Materials: a regular deck of cards.
So, what is the secret? Obviously, the friendship power is not enough to do the trick. We need a deck of regular cards. For purpose of this instruction only I am also going to use two cards with different (blue)  backs. All other cards in the deck have red back (Pic 27).

At the beginning of the performance the magician secretly hides  two extra cards behind the first jack.  You may set up the cards in advance, of course far from your audience view. It is actually better to set up cards right in front of your audience, under cover of fanned deck and distracting the audience with a story. Never fan six cards like this in front of your audience (Pic 28). We are doing it now just for sake of practice! Hold the six cards in your hand. The two extra (hidden) cards followed by four jacks, cards are facing you.

Here is the back view, remember the extra (hidden) cards have blue backs (Pic 29).

Square the top three (the two hidden and the first jack) cards. Here is the back view (Pic 30).

Here is the front view (Pic 31). At this point it is virtually impossible to notice the two extra cards. Now we can show the four jacks to the audience. It is important to stress audience attention that you hold four jacks. The two extra cards stay hidden behind. Fan only the cards that you want your audience to see. It takes little practice to hold the fan without revealing the hiding cards. The best way to practice is watching your own performance. Practice in front of a mirror.

Square all six cards (Pic 32). Here is the front view.

Here is the back view (Pic 33).

Place the six cards on the top of the deck. Square the deck. Your audience believes that four jacks are on the top of the deck. Only the magician knows that there are the two hidden cards on the top of the four jacks (Pic 34 through 36).



Now it is the time to use the hidden cards without actually showing their faces. Take the first (hiden) card from the top of the deck without showing the face of the card. Tell your audience  that you move the jack. Place the card in the middle of the deck (Pic 37 through 39). 



Take the next (second hidden) card (Pic 40). Say that it’s the second jack.

Place it in the middle of the deck, visibly away from the first card (Pic 41). 

Square the deck (Pic 42). 

Your audience believes that there are two jacks on the top of the deck at this point. Just for purpose of the instruction I am going to flip the deck face up to show the four jacks. You should never do it during performance (Pic 43). OK. Let's square the deck and flip it back.

Take the next (third) card from the top of the deck (Pic 44). 

Show the face of this card to your audience. It’s a jack (Pic 45). 

Place the card at the bottom of the deck (Pic 46). 

Square the deck (Pic 47).

Take the next (fourth) card (Pic 48).

Again, it is a jack. Show its face to the audience (Pic 49).

Place the card back where it was on the top of the deck. Your audience believes at this point that you placed all four jacks in different places. In reality you have moved only one jack to the bottom of the deck. And you keep three jacks on the top of the deck. Obviously, it is your secret. Again, you should not explain secrets during performance. Square the deck (Pic 50). 

Here you can see locations of all four jacks (Pic 51).

We lost the two first cards in the deck (Pic 52).

Our next step during the performance is to cut the deck. You may let any person from the audience to do it. It is actually a very good idea. It helps to build the trust between you and the audience (Pic 53).

Place the bottom part of the deck on the top (Pic 54). This move brings all four jacks together in the middle of the deck.

Square the deck (Pic 55).

Flip the deck face up and fan all cards (Pic 56 and 57). Let the audience see the cards. Stress your audience attention on the four jacks in the middle of the deck. Some how the four jacks came together!


Now you can pull out the four jacks out of the deck (Pic 58). Congratulations, we have made the magic! This trick can be performed with more than four cards. You have to hide one more card for each additional card. For example: five friends require three hidden cards, six friends require four hidden cards and etc. Story telling is very important part of the trick. You have to come up with appropriate story for different occasions. It could be story about four ladies- use four queens. It could be story about three couples-use three kings and three queens. Have fun and happy twisting :)


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