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While in the U.S., David Blaine is busy freezing himself in ice cubes and Criss Angel perfects emo levitation, over in Britain, magician Derren Brown is putting his sleight of hand skills to actual use, by picking winning lottery numbers.

On live TV, at the same time the real numbers were drawn, Brown revealed his own prediction which matched exactly. For all intents and purposes it seemed as though he had predicted six winning lottery numbers in real time. That's almost as cool as sawing a lady in half and finding her stuffed with money.

Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to actually buy a ticket and win, since he admits the whole stunt is just a trick. Brown says he'll reveal how he did it on Friday night, and until then many people are speculating as to how he pulled it off. Guesses range from camera trickery and editing, a favorite of modern TV magicians, to electronic-ink balls, meaning the balls have tiny screens onto which the winning numbers were transmitted.

The explanation is sure either to stun audiences or make them shrug, saying, "Oh yeah, makes sense." The only question is, when someone's job is to misdirect you, can you really believe him when he explains himself?

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