Live from TED

A master of the world’s two nerdiest occupations: David Kwong at TED2014

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Magician and cruciverbalist David Kwong is one excited nerd. On stage at the end of an intense morning at TED2014 he pulls a random attendee on stage and asks her to color in five animals with different colors as he has his back turned. Kwong then predicts the right combination of colors and animals correctly, to the delight of the audience. Then he reveals he was so confident in his predictions that he put them in an even more indelible place: the day’s New York Times crossword puzzle. The puzzle, published this morning, contains a secret message from Kwong again correctly predicting the five animals with their correct colors. Kwong giddily concludes: “Human beings are wired to solve, to make order out of chaos.”

(December was the 100th birthday of the crossword! Find out how Kwong convinced New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz to get involved with the trick.)