Pitch Knight: Curse of the Ebony Dagger is an adventurous and captivating novel that takes readers on an exciting journey filled with mystery, danger, and magic. The story follows the courageous Pitch Knight, who embarks on a quest to break the curse of the notorious Ebony Dagger, a cursed weapon that brings darkness and despair to its wielder. Pitch Knight, a skilled warrior with a troubled past, is chosen by destiny to be the protector of his kingdom. When the Ebony Dagger falls into the wrong hands, Pitch Knight is entrusted with the task of finding and destroying it. Little does he know that breaking the curse is not as easy as it seems, and his loyalty, bravery, and wit will be put to the ultimate test. As Pitch Knight ventures into the treacherous lands, he encounters a diverse cast of characters, both friends and foes.

ScienceMagic.Inc Closes After Three Years

The magic didn't last long at ScienceMagic.Inc, which has been hemorrhaging money since its inception.

London/China Market Editor

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LONDON — First it was brands collapsing — now, it’s the fashion PR companies.

The magic didn’t last long at ScienceMagic.Inc, the communications agency cofounded by Daniel Marks, Julietta Dexter and David Pemsel, current chair of the British Fashion Council. Three years after its founding, the company has gone into voluntary liquidation, a self-imposed windup that has been approved by shareholders.

In a statement shared with WWD, the company said: “As with so many businesses, securing investment in the current economic environment, the increasingly vulnerable global economic and political landscape, current market conditions, sector challenges, and increasing business costs all contributed to the decision taken by its directors to liquidate the business.”

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According to accounts filed at Companies House in the U.K., ScienceMagic has been hemorrhaging money since its inception. It registered a loss of more than 2 million pounds in 2020 and lost another quarter of a million pounds in 2021. No accounts have been filed for 2022.

As reported, ScienceMagic.Inc was formed in 2020 as a new-generation public relations, branding and marketing company that wanted to connect the dots between data science, storytelling and digital technology, and speak to the next generation of consumers and shopping tribes.

It was built on the foundation of The Communications Store, or TCS, which had been in business for more than 25 years with clients including Versace, Victoria Beckham Beauty and Goop.

TCS had been one of the top PR firms in fashion with a large roster of clients in the U.K., Europe and the U.S. Marks and Dexter brought Pemsel in and renamed the company in 2020.

As reported, Marks parted ways with ScienceMagic.Inc more than a year ago and now runs his own business, Townhouse Consultancy Ltd., representing a small group of high-profile, creative entrepreneurs, such as Donatella Versace on communications strategy and global profile building.

A source who works at a competitor alleged ScienceMagic.Inc “stopped doing the bread and butter work. We took clients from them who said they simply could not land coverage.”

ScienceMagic.Inc acknowledged in the Companies House filings that there was ongoing uncertainty with regard to the performance of a number of its clients which, in turn, would affect the company’s future operations.

Like many companies, it also took advantage of government support schemes during lockdown, such as furlough, time to pay arrangements, a coronavirus business interruption loan and a recovery scheme loan.

In 2021, ScienceMagic had anticipated a return to growth in the 2022 financial year. The directors said they believed that the company had adequate resources to continue operating for the foreseeable future.

The firm is the latest British fashion-related business to go under, as many struggle to keep businesses afloat in the wake of the pandemic. Earlier this year, The Vampire’s Wife, La Perla, Christopher Kane and Julien Macdonald all faced various debt crises that threatened the future of their businesses.

According to U.K. government statistics, the number of company insolvencies in the second quarter was the highest since the corresponding period in 2009, in the wake of the global financial crisis. Insolvencies in the second quarter were also 13 percent higher than in the corresponding period last year.

Things are only going to get worse, according to Marco Piacquadio, head of the insolvency practitioners FTS Recovery, which assisted the Christopher Kane and Julien Macdonald businesses.

“It’s a pretty nasty set of circumstances to be surviving against, and I think that in the last nine to 12 months we’ve started to see a trend that will likely continue in the next two to three years, at least. I think the insolvency numbers are going to continue for quite a sustained period of time. It’s going to get more painful before it gets any better,” he told WWD in an interview over the summer.

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Science Magic Inc invests in entertainment talent with new merger

The brand-building company is deepening its commitment to supporting talent with a new merger and partner, agency Dawn Mason, amid consolidation in the wider marketing industry.

Science Magic Inc (SMI), the global creative and strategic company that counts brands like Versace and Glossier as clients, has merged with Dawn Mason Inc (DMI), a London-based talent agency that has represented names across fashion, music, film and lifestyle, such as Little Dragon, Armando Cabral and Siggy Smalls.

With the merger of DMI, which was launched by its eponymous founder in 2010, Science Magic Inc is forming a new talent ventures arm that will expand its business scope and give the agency an opportunity to tap into “individuals who have built up vast communities that are a huge opportunity for future commerciality,” says Science Magic CEO David Pemsel.

“It was a big decision for me to do this,” Mason tells Vogue Business. Her priority over the past decade at DMI has been to build a client list that is diverse and inclusive, with a focus on supporting underrepresented voices. She cites a “bigger structure” and “more support” as key reasons for the merger.

Science Magic Inc’s CEO David Pemsel and chief talent ventures officer Dawn Mason.

Science Magic Inc

Amid a record-setting spree of mergers and acquisitions this year, the deal is the latest in a string of ventures for the public relations and marketing industry. In September, The Independents, which already own Karla Otto, K2, Lefty and the Qode, acquired the fashion events and production company Bureau Betak. Influencer marketing firms are consolidating too: CreatorIQ acquired analytics platform Tribe Dynamics, which specialises in the fashion and beauty industries, for an estimated $70 million. The acquisitions come after a challenging year for many public relations and communications firms, some of which were forced to shut doors, as brands scaled back marketing spend to focus on preserving the business.

“These acquisitions have helped us to build out a full service of solutions across all touchpoints of brand communications. We’re now able to provide more strategic, ROI-driven work and access top talent globally to support clients in their communications planning,” says The Independents CEO Isabelle Chouvet. The goal for the company, which has 12 offices worldwide, is to be the leading global partner for luxury and lifestyle brands, she adds. The acquired sectors are all scalable solutions and support The Independents to become more strategic, relevant and nimble, she says.

Chouvet believes there’s value in strategic relationships with both influencers and talent: “Events are now more designed as stages to host influencers to bring brands to life for their audience. The world of PR has been transformed, moving away from working with a few hundred stylists and editors to thousands of influencers across wider culture,” she explains. “Social has become a whole new sales channel through streaming and integration with e-commerce. That’s why it was important to invest in both talent and influencer services for the group.”

Live events, not just in the physical world but also in the digital space, are where Chouvet sees the biggest growth opportunities. “Platforms such as Twitch, Discord, Twitter and Linkedin offer a deeper engagement in conversations about brands and their culture, and are a way to target niche but hyper-engaged communities,” she says. Talent and influencer partnerships are now taking place on a larger scale, she adds, noting that the key challenge is keeping the integrity of the brand while introducing global influencer marketing programmes, for example.

The size and terms of the deal with Dawn Mason Inc were not disclosed. Mason herself will become a partner and shareholder at Science Magic Inc, join the company’s senior management team as chief talent ventures officer and run the agency’s talent pool from its London headquarters, while also overseeing talent-related work from New York and the US West Coast. Mason reports to Pemsel, who joined last October, when the agency shed its old name The Communications Store and rebranded with a new model, combining creative storytelling with technology and data science.

As brands seek agency partners that can holistically support their marketing efforts, community will be “a powerful component” to success, Pemsel says. The goal is to work with key individuals to build sustainable businesses and platforms around them, such as Gwyneth Paltrow with Goop and Kate Hudson with Fabletics, he explains, noting that Dawn Mason Inc adds to the comprehensive service that SMI hopes to build. “A lot of the conversations Dawn and I have had are around increasing genuine enduring value, and the area of talent management needed a bit of a shakeup. We believe there is a massive opportunity to help people with big communities on a long and sustainable commercial journey to create platforms of value.”

Talent is defined by Mason as “someone fixed within a particular genre or industry,” such as an actor, musician or artist, who plays a significant role in shaping today’s culture and therefore has meaningful relationships with their community. They vary from influencers who “tend to be there for a moment, and that can often be deemed as not as substantial. They’re more short-lived,” she says. While influencers play a critical role in fashion and also within SMI’s business, there’s a different need and strategic rationale, adds Pemsel.

Pemsel and Mason say they are cautious to avoid pitfalls, such as encouraging talent to take on too many brand sponsorships, licensing deals, littering themselves with logos and taking short term opportunities to monetise their audience. “Consumers are tired of seeing things that are obviously put together and not genuine, such as someone saying they care about sustainability when they’ve never had any footprint or input in that area at all,” says Mason.

“We truly believe in the power of the individual and their authentic connection to their community. Our talent will have access to all of the ‘superpowers’ they need to build businesses that really connect to the people who love and follow them,” Mason adds. Watch this space, she says: “We will be building great brands for some of the best and most inclusive talent in the world.”

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When science and magic intersect

We all know that magic cannot break the laws of physics. Yet, magicians conjure objects out of nothingness, teleport cards, and can easily guess which number we are thinking of — or, at least, that’s what our brain tells us. The explanation behind many magic tricks may be rooted in cognitive neuroscience, according to one U of T undergraduate student.

Sahir Dhalla is currently the neuroscience liaison at Cove Neurosciences Inc. and a student in neuroscience and philosophy at the University of Toronto. By the end of his TEDxUofT Salon talk, which took place on November 10, our minds had been completely manipulated — not by any technology or superpower, but by the power of magic.

How do magicians manipulate people’s perception of reality?

Any skilled magician knows that magic isn’t just about complex, dexterous hand movements. “If I had to summarize magic in a few words, it would be manipulating expectations,” wrote Dhalla in an email to The Varsity. Our minds cannot handle all the information they process but rather hold onto a few observable facts and fill the rest with expectations, or predictions. With their words, movements, and posture, magicians can influence these predictions.

Dhalla is also a magician. At one point during the talk, he called a member of the audience onstage and asked someone in the first row to hold an envelope. The volunteer chose a card from a deck randomly. We all saw the card: the king of diamonds. With the card back inside the deck, Dhalla took a magic wand out of his pocket, and, with a gentle touch, the card disappeared from its deck. The envelope was then opened to reveal the king of diamonds.

According to Dhalla, our brains are completely gullible and can be easily manipulated. His magic trick was an elaborate manipulation of our perception of reality. How did he do it?

How brains become misdirected

Among all sensory inputs our brain processes, vision is dominant, but it is also limited. In 2008, a group of researchers from Durham University tracked people’s eye movements while they watched a magic trick. Through his gaze and subtle moments, the magician influenced which sections of the trick received the most visual attention from his audience. Simultaneously, he was performing the real manoeuvre in plain sight, in an area of low attention.

Dhalla is aware of this technique. He explained that magicians use ‘spotlight’ cues to direct your attention. At the same time, the more details of the trick that you see, the less likely you are to discover what really happened. Was the wand perhaps a misdirection, keeping our attention far from something else?

Dhalla tells us that pulling out the magic wand created a frame of attention. As a result, everything beforehand became fuzzy memories in our minds. Magicians usually overload our memory with pointless steps so that we cannot trace back sequences of events.

The illusion of free will

Magicians often use a strategy called “forcing,” in which they use subliminal messages to influence our choices. Magicians often explain their actions out loud, but they can also use this as just another way to make us fall into their narrative, even subconsciously. All of these messages affect our minds without us knowing. Dhalla demonstrated this strategy with another trick.

He said, though this trick is usually done in groups of three to seven people, he was confident it would work on us too. He asked us to think of a two-digit number that followed a set of rules. There were 8 possible numbers that fit all the rules — and yet many people chose 37. Dhalla had subliminally forced this number on us by making sure we were thinking of its digits.

Similarly, many card tricks leave one card exposed for a longer time — unnoticeable to the audience, but holding our attention. Did Dhalla perhaps manipulate the volunteer into choosing the king of diamonds?

The combined strength of magic and science

Prediction errors, where our expectations don’t align with reality, are why magic works — and they tell us a lot about our brains too. Dhalla explained that when someone’s arm is paralyzed, if the area of their brain that controls its movement is unaffected, they may still believe that they are moving their arm. Cognitive neuroscientists have used magic tricks to study short-term memory and the role of different brain areas in prediction errors.

Dhalla had misdirected our senses and our memory, manipulated our thoughts and choices, and forced our brains into a narrative in which he could teleport cards.

But magic is more than awe and games. These same techniques are used in everyday life, from helping form good habits to scamming people. After tricking us, Dhalla asked the audience: “Do you think you could stop someone from doing the same to you?” Perhaps a neuroscientist would give you the answer, but a magician never reveals their secrets.

Disclosure: Sahir Dhalla served as The Varsity’s Science Editor for Volume 143.

As Pitch Knight ventures into the treacherous lands, he encounters a diverse cast of characters, both friends and foes. He forges alliances with powerful wizards, cunning thieves, and honorable knights, who aid him in his mission to break the curse. However, he also faces sinister adversaries, dark sorcerers, and a secret society determined to use the Ebony Dagger for their own nefarious purposes.

Throughout the novel, the curse of the Ebony Dagger casts a shadow over Pitch Knight's journey, challenging his resolve and pushing him to his limits. The curse not only affects the physical well-being of its wielder but also corrupts their mind and soul, driving them to commit unspeakable acts. Pitch Knight must resist the allure of the Dagger's power and find a way to restore balance and peace to his kingdom. As the plot unfolds, readers are drawn into a world of enchantment and danger. They are immersed in fantastical landscapes, epic battles, and heart-racing confrontations. The author skillfully weaves together elements of fantasy, adventure, and mystery, keeping readers on the edge of their seats until the very end. Pitch Knight: Curse of the Ebony Dagger is a captivating tale that explores themes of power, redemption, and the choices we make in the face of darkness. It is a story that reminds us of the importance of inner strength, friendship, and the battle between good and evil. Through its vivid descriptions, exciting plot twists, and relatable characters, the novel grips readers and leaves them eagerly awaiting the next installment in Pitch Knight's epic journey..

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