Looking for Skeptics

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Maurice Ledifficile said:
Never mind. I I guess I jumped to my notepad before reading the rest. It's late for me too...

I don't work with math but it looks like you can expect an average score of minus 45 points over 52 cards. I may be missing a variable, but it looks like a point a card would certainly be plenty. My apologies.
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I checked it seemed reasonable by asking what success rate would be required if the spirits chose to only convey the feature most likely to get right by chance, ie the colour. They'd need to get that right for every card to meet the success criteria. By chance you'd expect half right and half wrong, giving a total score of zero. Any other factor communicated correctly gets them over the success criteria, but the odds of doing so by chance are less.
 
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Maurice Ledifficile said:
I've been wondering about everyone on this thread from the start. I'm in the GMT-05:00 (EDT) and I've noticed some strange activity at all sorts of hours. Don't you Brits ever sleep?
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Some of us "Brits" are not Brits and are in Thailand. Some are in North America. And, yes quite a number are night owls in England. I take it the Flaccon, running an antique shop/business, probably can stay up late and open for "high street" hours at noon, say.

ETA: It's currently 7:30 am in England. They didn't build that global empire by having all of them sleep in, lemme tell ya! So you're now going to see the Sunday Morning Not Going to Church crowd. And it's 2:30 ach emma in Ontario, so I'm probably addressing someone who's asleep.
 
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Several good protocols imho but all different and flaccon must decide which will give best result or whether she has a different idea.

I will not pursue any testing which involves listening to recordings then making value judgements about what is 'said'. To me that is just a test of my own imagination and creativity.

I will be offline today until about 3pm BST. Unless flaccon has committed to a detailed protocol by then I will reschedule so as not to put her under too much pressure. I think that up to now she has made no comment about any detailed protocols.
 
I'll be at the Cheltenham Science Festival this afternoon and evening, I look forward to finding out the outcome of today's meeting of flaccon and Alderbank (assuming it goes ahead) when I get back.

I'll PM my prediction for that outcome to a couple of posters now, they can post it here if either Alderbank or flaccon report back to the thread before I return.
 
Alderbank said:
Several good protocols imho but all different and flaccon must decide which will give best result or whether she has a different idea.

I will not pursue any testing which involves listening to recordings then making value judgements about what is 'said'. To me that is just a test of my own imagination and creativity.

I will be offline today until about 3pm BST. Unless flaccon has committed to a detailed protocol by then I will reschedule so as not to put her under too much pressure. I think that up to now she has made no comment about any detailed protocols.
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From her series of posts (and I agree that she hasn't actually assented to any of the protocol suggestions) I think she feels that you're showing up and that she can show you her wares and that you'll leave as another of the convinced witnesses. From what I read, her attitude is sort of "protocol/schmotocol - the spirits will convince you", so take your cards or whatever, but my instinct from reading this thread is that if you get involved in developing an iron-clad protocol, you'll be at this for a month and we'll be posting on June 29th.... "So, is it on for 3 pm on the 30th?"

I still suggest recording the session - every word from the first words you exchange in greeting - but if I was in your position I'd go, if only to be able to get a first-hand report.

(I haven't heard back from the Merseyside Skeptics. I also still think that it might be a good idea to involve a rather active local skeptic society in this if you feel like chasing them down a bit. If I get any kind of response, I'll confirm, but I did mention that this thread is in the public section and gave them a link to it. They may be reading the thread and might even have a member here already.)
 
jsfisher said:
4. Two trials should be more than enough. Flaccon must name both suit and rank of the card in each envelope. A time limit would be appropriate. Perhaps 30 or 60 minutes per card, but let flaccon decide.

It is 1 chance in 52 of getting either one right, and around 1 in 2700 for getting both by luck. If the spirits are at all cooperative, 2 for 2 is what I would consider a success. Anything else a failure.
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I would suggest more tests with fewer cards - just one suit. With a full deck, that leaves the door open for it to be argued that the spirits saying "Four of Diamonds" is nearly a hit for the 4 of hearts, as it's a red four. And so on. With thirteen spades, there's no wiggle room whatsoever.
 
Foolmewunz said:
ETA: It's currently 7:30 am in England. They didn't build that global empire by having all of them sleep in, lemme tell ya! So you're now going to see the Sunday Morning Not Going to Church crowd.
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Hello. I've only just logged on, but I've been up since 6.30.
 
Perhaps it is possible to find some spirits that have actually worked in a circus, and who would not mind performing again?
 
flaccon said:
Testing spirit's with coloured cards, after explaining the great mystery of life, is seriously insulting them.
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Flaccon, you claim that the spirits have explained "the great mystery of life". What is "the great mystery of life", and how have they explained it?
 
Mojo said:
Flaccon, you claim that the spirits have explained "the great mystery of life". What is "the great mystery of life", and how have they explained it?
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I suspect we have to prove ourselves worthy by accepting the reality of the spirits before they give flaccon permission to share this great revelation with us.
 
Pixel42 said:
I suspect we have to prove ourselves worthy by accepting the reality of the spirits before they give flaccon permission to share this great revelation with us.
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In that case, flaccon should still be able to tell us what "the great mystery of life" is*, and just not give us the explanation.




*I'll be really disappointed if it turns out to be "what do you get if you multiply six by nine?"
 
Mojo said:
Flaccon, you claim that the spirits have explained "the great mystery of life". What is "the great mystery of life", and how have they explained it?
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It's been explained in records. it's not an explanation I can give. I am not literate enough to find the words required.

I hear someone had mentioned Da Vinci somewhere, but I still can't find that post.
I don't read books (unless antique-type) I don't watch much TV (Docu's)
I don't drink, no drugs (legal or illegal)

I've not read The Da Vinci code, although I was asked to do so for a while. We settled on the Forewords, and Chapter 23. There were enough clues in that, to realise what they were trying to say.
 
Mojo said:
In that case, flaccon should still be able to tell us what "the great mystery of life" is*, and just not give us the explanation.




*I'll be really disappointed if it turns out to be "what do you get if you multiply six by nine?"
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Mojo, if you think for moment, that I'm going come over as even crazier as I have done so far, without the Alderbank experiment's, think again. Once it's established that it is supernatural, I'll talk till I drop with their explanation's.
 
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