Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj

Post to this Thread - Printer Friendly - Home
Page: [1] [2]


BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)

JohnInKansas 04 Jun 05 - 03:36 AM
John O'L 04 Jun 05 - 02:16 AM
JohnInKansas 04 Jun 05 - 01:49 AM
John O'L 03 Jun 05 - 10:08 PM
JohnInKansas 03 Jun 05 - 04:27 PM
Bill D 03 Jun 05 - 11:32 AM
Ebbie 03 Jun 05 - 11:29 AM
Little Hawk 03 Jun 05 - 11:00 AM
Little Hawk 03 Jun 05 - 10:43 AM
John O'L 03 Jun 05 - 10:06 AM
HuwG 03 Jun 05 - 08:44 AM
The Fooles Troupe 02 Jun 05 - 07:11 PM
Ebbie 02 Jun 05 - 06:10 PM
gnu 02 Jun 05 - 05:02 PM
Little Hawk 02 Jun 05 - 04:36 PM
Ebbie 02 Jun 05 - 04:33 PM
gnu 02 Jun 05 - 04:22 PM
beardedbruce 02 Jun 05 - 04:22 PM
Little Hawk 02 Jun 05 - 04:17 PM
gnu 02 Jun 05 - 04:13 PM
Ebbie 02 Jun 05 - 04:01 PM
Little Hawk 02 Jun 05 - 12:12 PM
CarolC 02 Jun 05 - 12:08 PM
Little Hawk 02 Jun 05 - 12:06 PM
JudyB 02 Jun 05 - 09:49 AM
John O'L 02 Jun 05 - 12:27 AM
John O'L 02 Jun 05 - 12:13 AM
Rustic Rebel 01 Jun 05 - 11:16 PM
CarolC 01 Jun 05 - 11:00 PM
John O'L 01 Jun 05 - 10:49 PM
GUEST,Bee-dubya-ell 01 Jun 05 - 08:50 PM
The Fooles Troupe 01 Jun 05 - 08:28 PM
Bill D 01 Jun 05 - 05:26 PM
gnu 01 Jun 05 - 04:48 PM
gnu 01 Jun 05 - 04:25 PM
number 6 01 Jun 05 - 04:06 PM
Jim Dixon 01 Jun 05 - 03:38 PM
gnu 01 Jun 05 - 03:26 PM
Wolfgang 01 Jun 05 - 02:31 PM
heric 01 Jun 05 - 02:04 PM
Rapparee 01 Jun 05 - 02:02 PM
frogprince 01 Jun 05 - 01:49 PM
gnu 01 Jun 05 - 01:19 PM
Little Hawk 01 Jun 05 - 12:52 PM
robomatic 01 Jun 05 - 12:42 PM
Little Hawk 01 Jun 05 - 12:23 PM
s&r 01 Jun 05 - 12:22 PM
Rapparee 01 Jun 05 - 12:21 PM
GUEST,gnu 01 Jun 05 - 12:09 PM
GUEST 01 Jun 05 - 12:07 PM

Share Thread
more
Lyrics & Knowledge Search [Advanced]
DT  Forum Child
Sort (Forum) by:relevance date
DT Lyrics:













Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 03:36 AM

JO'L

The real problem is, she has a good chance of winning; although she's running against an incumbent who helped successfully rig half a dozen local votes for some very powerful interests, so he probably still has a pretty good chance for reelection.

I should apologize for what is some thread drift, but it's been a bad year for government and a great year for stupidity and bigotry here. The editorial page in my local rag two days ago had one "for the editorial board" in which the writer offered the opinion that Medicare coverage for Viagra should be limited for everybody to one pill per year. Apparently the newspaper's entire editorial board agrees that "once a year's enough - for everybody."

No wonder they're all so testy.

BS = Big Sigh

John


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: John O'L
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 02:16 AM

"... if it sounds dirty to a dirty mind..." I love that. It describes the Victorian mindset, which seems to be very close to the Kansasian one. Sounds grim.

So a female State Rep. who is running for Sec. of State thinks a woman's place is in the home producing heirs and being taken care of?

I guess she herself is all the proof she needs.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 01:49 AM

John O'L -

Sorry about the typo. Of course I meant sferoid.

Point is, if it sounds dirty to a dirty mind, in Kansas you can go to jail. The corollary is that everybody here has a dirty mind.

Two of our most distinguished records:

1. Greatest number of court ordered lobotomies of any state, in absolute number or by per capita count.

Partially validated statistical surveys indicate that many of those involved are currently holding public office.

2. Greatest number of court ordered involuntary sterilizations of any state, in absolute number or by capita count.

This one, sadly, doesn't appear to have been applied to current public officeholders.

Yesterday's news was that a State Representative (female), who was quoted as having said in 2001 that "the 19th Amendment is a sad indication that men don't take good enough care of women," has reaffirmed her position - effectively saying that women shouldn't need to vote and she thinks it's a real shame that they should - at her press conference to announce her candidacy for the office of Kansas Secretary of State (the office in charge of regulating and managing elections).

John


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: John O'L
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 10:08 PM

I should think so.

Oblate speriod indeed.

Was he charged with immorally leaving out the h?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 04:27 PM

HuwG -

A scientist in Kansas once attempted to concede to the Creationists' claim that the earth wasn't a true sphere, by admitting that it was actually an "oblate speroid." Since nobody knew what he was talking about he was jailed on a morals charge.

John


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 11:32 AM

at least some of these folks are adept at making me dissolve in laughter.

(The world might be a lot duller if everyone made sense and we had no arcane psuedo-science, superstitous guesswork and off-the-wall conspiracy theories to keep us entertained....I'm not sure what I actually wish for.)


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 11:29 AM

Is "stagnant" water the scientific term? I should have thought that 'still' water would be more descriptive. Stagnant is gross. (A scientific reaction on my part)


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 11:00 AM

Regarding cloud dissolving...I wonder if it works better when wearing socks with sandals? I am gonna have to try that and see.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 10:43 AM

That is a truly amazing argument, HuwG! Astounding. I had never before realized that there are only 2 possibilities for a geometrical shape: round and flat

Ha! I would definitely avoid debating with those particular creationists if I were you.

I wonder...are their heads round or flat? (grin)


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: John O'L
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 10:06 AM

All the continents and none of the oceans eh? That would have been, what, the second day?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: HuwG
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 08:44 AM

At least Wolfgang's acquaintance doesn't resort to tantrums if the teeniest doubt is expressed as to the validity of his experiment of hypothesis.

As a former geologist, I made the mistake once of entering into a debate on sci.geo.geology. I pointed out mildly that a Creationist's argument that a certain geological formation was proof of the Old Testament flood, was incorrect since the "evidence" could support many other interpretations. I was quite startled at the number of poster who pounced on my rejoinder and the venom which which they posted.

The usual Creationist tactics in an argument can be summarised as follows:

1. Scientists postulate that the Earth is round.

2. It can be clearly demonstrated that the Earth is not round. There are hills and valleys, mountains and oceans which mar its perfect sphericity. In any case, scientists themselves admit that the Earth is flattened at the poles and bulged at the equator, by a matter of a few centimeters.

3. Since the Earth is not round, it must be flat.

4. This is absolute proof of the doctrine that the Earth is flat.

5. Scientists, and anybody supporting the fallacious theory that the Earth is not flat, are liars, frauds and charlatans.

6. Since all scientists are liars, frauds and charlatans, anything they put forward which contradicts anything we believe in, is necessarily a falsehood.


The Creationists are not the only ones to use such tactics on arguments. There are some "expanding Earth" theorists, who maintain that the Earth was once a ball only a third its present size with all the continents present but not the oceans. (This theory requires adjustment to the theories of Conservation of Matter, or a change in the gravitational constant or speed of light over time, but any attempt to point this out results in a flood of abuse.) And one poster convinced that bits and pieces he has found in an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania proves that man is as old as coal. (He does not explain where man has been in all the intervening geological ages.)


I have long since given up entering such arguments.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 07:11 PM

in Australia, the talent of making clouds would be well appreciated, as some farmers haven't had rain for 5 years...


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 06:10 PM

gnu, that's my point. In the US if someone used 'practise', people would think it was a typo.

Magnetic Hill? In Oregon there is a place called 'Gold Hill' which seems to have the same properties. A ball rolls uphill, a broom stands while leaning uphill, you feel like the floor is far away.

That's when I was a kid. I have no idea whether the place is still open or if the mystery is intact.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 05:02 PM

Ebbie... you Yanks practice and practise but make no nevermind to the difference. "C" is to repeat something with the objective of becoming more adept. "S" is a profession. I have hockey practice on the weekends. During the week, I work at my engineering practise.

LH. Come to Moncton and visit Magnetic Hill, where your car rolls uphill and the water in the ditch runs uphill... your natural optical delusion... sir, you must remain in your vehicle... sir, please get back in your vehicle... sir, other people are waiting... sir, you must get back in your vehicle... sir...


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 04:36 PM

I am still doing the water flowing downhill thing, gnu, and yes, I do charge, but my fee is very reasonable.

I never went pro with the cloud dissolving thing, but I used to do it back in the 70's and early 80's. For free. It was more like a hobby than anything else, I guess.

Ever see the "singing mice" act on Monty Python's? Now there was a pro in action, baby!


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 04:33 PM

Not so good, gnu... I could tell you things. *G*

"Practice" vs. "Practise"- both of you are Canadian so why the discrepancy? In the US we only practice.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 04:22 PM

Practice? I thought you were a pro? You said you would charge a fee to make water flow downhill, no? Oh... you had a Practise that you gave up. Sorry.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: beardedbruce
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 04:22 PM

SPCC (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Clouds)?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 04:17 PM

Any day now the World Association of Free-Ranging Clouds is going to bring a suit against cloud-dissolvers for billions in damages. Wait and see.

This is why I have given up the practice. :-)


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 04:13 PM

That's just the good lord looking after the good.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 04:01 PM

John O'Lennaine, I operate on the same principle. Just perhaps underneath those pairs of underpants was just what you need. *G* I don't expect that everything will always be convenient.

Day before yesterday I was out traipsing around by bus. In Juneau if you are 65, you can acquire a bus pass that allows you to travel free. So that is what I used.

I went to a pawnshop - which I mentioned on another thread, in connection with a guitar- then when I got back on another bus I couldn't find my pass. I decided that when I had taken off my jacket on the first bus it had fallen out of my pocket.

Paid my fare and went home, leaving the matter up to the fates - and to the first busdriver.

That night I got a phone call from the secretary of the local office of Alaska State Parks, for whom I work in this house museum, saying that she had happened to go into a shop and there on the counter was my bus pass. They had found it on the sidewalk and brought it inside. They had no idea who it belonged to- my picture is on it- but of course the secretary knew. She was amazed that I had lost it just hours earlier. She delivered it to me yesterday morning.

I love serendipty- and count on it.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 12:12 PM

No chance. But he will deny. His peace of mind depends on it.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: CarolC
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 12:08 PM

Yeah, LH. I'd like to see him prove that he didn't dissolve that cloud.

;-)


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 12:06 PM

So, how goes it with the cloud dissolving, folks? I was busy for a bit there and couldn't get on Mudcat.

I think you're onto something there, Carol. :-) Wolfgang has powers he will not even admit to himself, cos he is one powerful guy with a strong, strong mind!

Bee-Dub...I can make water run downhill! You betcha. Come on over sometime and I show you if you pay me a small stipend. I can also make the wind blow, which is very handy when sailing radio control boats, and I can make tape sticky too. I can stick my tongue way out, though not as far out as Gene Simmons. What a guy, eh?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: JudyB
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 09:49 AM

Years ago a friend showed me he could dissolve clouds, and I was suitably impressed. Must admit, however, that when I considered learning to do it myself, my first thought was not that I needed to meditate on channeling my psychic energy but that I needed to figure out how to pick the right clouds.

That said, I do believe things in the universe are connected in ways that aren't immediately obvious, and I'm not ready to swear that if there are two identical clouds (first improbability) and I focus on one, it won't dissolve faster than the other (sun reflecting off my nose at my chosen cloud? who knows?).

I do know that I'm not likely to do the double-blind type study necessary to prove the light-reflected-off-nose theory unless someone wants to give me a big grant!

And if one person staring for 5 minutes can dissolve one small cloud, how many people staring for how many minutes would it take to open a nice sunny hole in the rainclouds over a ballpark so the game could go on? Inquiring minds want to know these things!

JudyB


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 12:27 AM

I can't go on. I have to 'fess up.

The material I found - I won't be using it, I didn't even bring it home. When I picked it up I saw it had been lying on top of a couple of filthy old pairs of underpants. I dropped it where it was, came home and washed my hands.

I concede.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 12:13 AM

Well I walked the dog up to the highway and then down to the old aerodrome but found nothing, so I took a drive out to the old town dump, which has been closed to the public for about thirty years, but is still used for demolition material. Not the sort of place you could reasonably expect to find baize, but it has been the scene of some of my greatest successes so I thought I'd give it a go.

What I found there was not baize, it's too plush. Billiard balls would not roll well on that stuff. It's soft and plyable, and get this: It's purple! It's perfect for what I want.

So what can we learn from this?
I went out looking for baize and didn't find it.
OR, I went out looking for something to line my violin case and found something better than baize. I was looking for the wrong thing, and found the right thing.

Wolfgang, I trust you will not be impressed, and I don't blame you, but my perception of my place in the cosmos has not been shaken.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 11:16 PM

The story reminds me of the Messiah teaching Don Shimoda how to dissolve clouds in Richard Bach's book, Illusions.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 11:00 PM

I think Wolfgang dissolved that cloud when that other guy wasn't looking and just pretended that the cloud dissolved by itself. Just so he could pretend he was right and the other guy was wrong.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: John O'L
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 10:49 PM

For some time now I have believed that if I need something specific for a job around the house or yard I can just go out looking for it, and I will find it.

I've been thinking of making myself a new violin case, suitable for storing my instrument without having to take the shoulder-rest off. (I'm not that lazy, it's just that at present I have to grab every opportunity I can, so I play for short periods sometimes 5 or 6 times a day. I leave the shoulder-rest on and sit it in its case with the lid open. Call me obsessive-compulsive, but I'd rather have it closed.)

I have the wood and the foam rubber, but what I would like is some baize to line the padding, so now (yes, right now) I am going out looking for some baize. I'm thinking green, but the maroon stuff will do.

I think that's sufficiently specific and obscure to raise eyebrows, but at the same time I am aware that finding it or not finding it will prove nothing.
Clouds? They just come & go.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: GUEST,Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 08:50 PM

Does this guy who can dissolve clouds also claim to be able to make water run downhill?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 08:28 PM

You CAN make a soft drink type of water bottle empty quicker - if you swirl the water around so that it gets a 'hole' in the middle and lets the air into the bottle - but that's based on science.

My mother's father could genuinely dowse water 'reliably' - damn freaky ....

'reliably' = people would ask him to do it...


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 05:26 PM

My ex wife, many years ago was finishing taking a bath. She pulled to plug, and began to put her hand over the drain briefly, then remove it, creating an alternating gurgling sound.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Making the water go down faster," she replied.

I asked her how she knew that would work. (She was a VERY bright person- 3.85 grade average, concert pianist, spoke several languages, edited manuscripts for scholars...etc.)

She said, "well, I have been doing it for years...it just seems to work!"

I asked if she had ever measured a precise amount of water and allowed it to drain with and without her hands assistance.

"Well, no..."
"Then how do you know it makes a difference?"

She thought about it a bit, and soon quit the practice, as SHE saw the point when I explained that the seeming increase of water flow from pressing down would be offset by the stoppage of flow when she covered the drain, and that I'd bet a measurement would show little difference.

We never actually did the experiment, but the point is, that even someone who is able to 'see' the flaw in the hypothesis(after it is pointed out) can be lured into a too-quick conclusion based on what they WISHED to see and using data extraneous to the test (sound etc,.)

It is very easy in experiments such as dowsing to miss some important factors when deciding what actually happened and when and why


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: gnu
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 04:48 PM

Of course, the fog, rather, pall, the next morning might be worse.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: gnu
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 04:25 PM

May as well have an Alpine or sIx.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: number 6
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 04:06 PM

Will this work on fog? June is the fog season here along the Fundy coast.

sIx


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 03:38 PM

Here's another way of looking at it:

There are two variables: Whether he wants a certain cloud to dissolve (or not) and whether it in fact dissolves (or not).
Therefore there are 4 possibilities:
1. He wants a certain cloud to dissolve, and it dissolves.
2. He wants a certain cloud to dissolve, and it does not dissolve.
3. He does not want a certain cloud to dissolve, and it dissolves.
4. He does not want a certain cloud to dissolve, and it does not dissolve.

You could most easily illustrate this by constructing a 2 x 2 table with appropriate headings (each variable on a different axis) and 4 cells to be filled in with numbers--but I'm not facile enough with HTML to do this here.

He is, in effect, claiming that there are lots of cases in cell 1, but he knows or says nothing about how many cases there are in the other 3 cells. But in order to show a correlation--which is necessary but not sufficient to show cause and effect--you need to have numbers in each of the 4 cells. Reporting 1, 2, or even 3 cells is not sufficient.

I've noticed that even reputable newspapers, when they try to summarize the findings of a scientific study, will often quote some statistics from the study, but fail to give enough numbers to show a correlation. (I assume the numbers are in the study but the reporter failed to realize they were important.) Likewise politicians, lobbyists, editorial writers, writers of letters to the editor--when they try to quote statistics to support an argument, rarely give you all 4 parts of the grid. They'll tell you that X percent of all A is B, but they won't tell you what percent of all non-A is B, etc.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: gnu
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 03:26 PM

Rap... easy enough to look at the entrance. Measure the diameter. You may have to scrape the pipe, carefully, with a knife to determine the type of metal... for instance, lead will appear as black as iron from dirt clinging to the moist surface of the pipe over the years. How old is the house?

I had a building inspection business for about five years and these types of things are of great interest to me.

No, no. Don't run right down to the basement this minute. Just when you happen to have nothing else better to do.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 02:31 PM

Gnu,

those tested all claimed they could do it with stagnant water. But I only have introduced that example for their amazing lack of testing themselves. They all were notified in detail how the test would be done and how they could test themselves under the same circumstances to avoid public embarrassment but they still came. I think it should be easy for someone who claims to be able to find stagnant water under a cover if being told that in the test situation he would not know under which cover the water was to do that test at home with his wife or a friend.

s&r, (1) we are some factors ten away from the realm of Schroedinger's cat
(2) he had told me he could do it with all kinds of people watching and some of them he said were initially skeptical
(3) I did not interfere with his 'magic', it worked like it ever did, only it also did work without him. For the cat analogy to be working you must postulate that I (being skeptical) did make the other cloud disappear to get the result I had wished. That's the Conan Doyle argument that nobody is taking serious.

Wolfgang


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: heric
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 02:04 PM

Not really the same subject, but similar: I just spent the weekend in Vegas for the first time in forever, playing Blackjack, which I really like. But the only thing that matters to me is making the right bet on the odds; what card then comes up interests me almost not at all. (Although there is a resurgence in single deck games, in which case you need to pay attention for other reasons.) Yet, at every table every night, the bulk of the crowd goes on endlessly about what card came up, and how that showed they were right or wrong in their decisions (or "hunches"). It amazes me. And I guess that's why they offer a game with almost fifty percent odds.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 02:02 PM

I don't think that it was copper pipe, since it was from the main to the house across the front yard. Probably galvanized or iron is my guess. As I said, I haven't tried it again. Probably should one of these days.

My mother always said I should dowse because she felt I could do it. Being as I am, I thought she said "drowse in water" and I used to fall asleep while swimming. The lifeguards got tired of me telling them that "My mother told me to!"


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: frogprince
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 01:49 PM

Frankly, I'm inclined to evaluate Wolfgang's acquaintance a little differently; I think that, in at least a small, low key way, the guy was delusional. His thinking about the cloud thing was blocked off from "sane" thinking processes.
Some years back I took a friend to an emergency room after she fell and struck her head. We got into a conversation with another woman in the waiting room, who apologized because her condition was unpleasant for the rest of us. She appeared to be quite intelligent; she was neat, clean, coherent, fluent, and calm and matter-of-fact about the situation.
Her basic problem was that she had been dead for three days, and she realized that the smell of decay was getting bad. Apart from that, she seemed to be fine.
Now her case does seem a little more clear cut than that of the cloud specialist; where he is concerned, I admit I just have a tenous hypothesis, and I don't expect to have the chance to test it properly.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: gnu
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 01:19 PM

Rap... copper water pipe? I worked as a resident enginner on airport facilities for five years and dowsed a lot of underground services with two pieces of #10 copper wire, bent like your coat hanger, with four and twelve inch legs. It works for copper, ferrous metals, live electrical wires, and flowing water.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 12:52 PM

Not necessarily, robomatic. You would have to try it yourself for a bit and see what happens, that's all, and then see what you think. That's how it works with anything, isn't it?

Consider the possibility that there are simply a few things still out there that science has not YET invented an instrument capable of observing or measuring in a definitive way.

There have always been such things. As science advances, ways are found to confirm what was once considered nonexistent...or was not even considered at all.

If you were from the 1500's and I told you about the radio, the telephone, the airplane, etc...your response would be, "That's nuts." And then you would quite possibly tell the church about it, and I would get tortured and burned.

Believe me, things have improved tremendously. I have faith in the ability of humanity to resolve apparent mysteries and move forward. I believe that faith is well founded.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: robomatic
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 12:42 PM

LH: I didn't see any posts from you and I missed you. But your unique interpretation of words which seem to fit you but not the dictionary, is coming into play here. And as for believing that you can hasten the 'dissolving' of clouds when you are in a relaxed state, please tell me that was tongue planted firmly in cheek!

That ain't faith, that ain't even a hypothesis. That's nuts.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 12:23 PM

I've always been totally in favour of science, Mack. Matter of fact, I was the 2nd most scientific kid I ever knew back when I was a young sprat, and probably the most rational/logical of all. It drove the other kids nuts.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: s&r
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 12:22 PM

Wolfgang - isn't it a bit like Schrodinger's cat - if you attempt to determine the state of the cat you invalidate the test: if you test the cloud dissolver, you interfere with his magic

Stu


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 12:21 PM

I was working in my shop and straightened two coat hangers, then bent an "L" into them about six inches from one end. They were intended to be temporary anchors for plastic sheeting, and I picked up one in each hand, holding it by the short end of the "L".

Just for grins, I held them so that the long ends were parallel to the ground. As I walked out to the front of the yard, the wires crossed each other. Needless to say, I was surprised, and more so when they uncrossed in another step or two.

I repeated the process with the same result. I did this six times.

Checking the "map" of the yard later, I determined that the wires crossed right over the pipe bringing the water to the house.

Dowsing? Magnetics? I don't know, and I've never been tempted to try it again. It was a spooky experience, though.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: GUEST,gnu
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 12:09 PM

Oops. That was me at 12:07PM.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: Dissolving clouds (how not to do a test)
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 12:07 PM

Regarding dowsing for water, does the water have to be flowing? I am skeptical of people who say they can dowse stagnant water.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate


Next Page

 


You must be a member to post in non-music threads. Join here.


You must be a member to post in non-music threads. Join here.



Mudcat time: 26 May 2:06 AM EDT

[ Home ]

All original material is copyright © 2022 by the Mudcat Café Music Foundation. All photos, music, images, etc. are copyright © by their rightful owners. Every effort is taken to attribute appropriate copyright to images, content, music, etc. We are not a copyright resource.