A girl I know is very much into what I somewhat uncharitably call the “rainbow moon goddess menstrual life force” thingie. You all have met the type, I’m sure- “New Agers” who are much more into the idea of it all than the actual religion. (I believe she would be what many real pagans call a “witchy-poo.”
We have real fun arguements, let me tell you.
At any rate, she is forever trying to prove to me that ESP exists, and today sent me this link as “proof.”
Took me a few minutes, but I realized why it worked. Boy, was her face red.
Go to, dopers- points and a cookie if you get it.
And while we’re at it, does anyone have some favorite stories of debunking? We should share that fighting ignorance Doper love…
Simple misdirection. A little screenshot magic reveals that none of the original cards are still there after your card is taken. No matter which one you pick, it has been magically removed. OoOoOoOoh…
Related to cards, actually, I was at a concert of my brother’s maybe two years ago and one of his friends was reading a trivia book. The question: where would you find, in a modern thing, the following people (and it proceeded to list those four kings so many people think are represented in a deck of cards).
In I rush to explain that while for a time, depending on where you went, you’d see representations of several royal people and whatnot, initially the royalty cards were not meant to be symbolic of anyone in particular (thanks to Snopes for that one).
As for the “card trick”:
[spoiler]Ah yes. It shows, for example, the King and Queen of clubs, Jack of Spades and Hearts, and Queen of Diamonds and Spades.
Then it ends up showing (again, for example), the King of Spades and Hearts, the Queen of hearts and Spades, and the Jack (of all trades … no, I jest) of diamonds.
And because the cards are so similar to what originally showed you don’t notice that not a single card from before is still there.
I first saw this, just for shits and giggles, back in 1999 in, of all things, MS Excell.[/spoiler]
Not a very long thread: it was about the devil’s footprints in Devon, England.
I found the relevant link because the link hunters were mistakenly searching by looking for Devon, not by the way I remembered the paranormal people decided to call the phenomenon: the “Devonshire” devil; yes, one word :rolleyes: .
After that, it was still hard finding a site with relevant info; it turned out that a paranormal site had done the best debunking around!
My post was congratulated by the other posters and in the end glee even called me a scholar and a gentleman!
Good job, andygirl. Just so I have this straight, not only does your friend think ESP exists, but that computers have it?
Did you follow the link to the explanation of the ESP results? There’s no explanation at all, just comments from amazed people, some of whom make some guesses at how it works. None of them right, of course (although I saw one that hinted she might have figured it out).
Now, can anyone tell me why the success rate is only 98%?
I think you are right ht, but there is also the real possibility that the person choosing say the Queen of Clubs forgets their card and misrembers the Queen of Spades.
As a magician I can tell you that the slightly thick can be used (abused?) in all sorts of good illusions, but don’t ask them to remember something as difficult as a card.
