CSICOP 1979
408 U.S. sportsmen
First restoration attempt

This page deals with the work done on the CSICOP test (USA 1979), using data published in "The Skeptical Inquier", VOL IV NO. 2 WINTER 1979-80.
Skeptical Inquier data are incomplete : given names not present ; family names sometimes ambiguous ; no birth time ; neither place name nor longitude / latitude. This is logically impossible to generate precise data.
Fortunately, Kenneth Irving sent me an other file (unpublished so far), with more precise information, permitting a much better restoration. Irving's file then became the main file for CSICOP restoration ; see main CSICOP page for details.

But work done on Skeptical Inquier's data was not totally useless :
  • The ids used in the Skeptical Inquier's list were kept as a reference to identify CSICOP records, for two reasons :
    • Skeptical Inquier list is the only (known) published list.
    • This list respects alphabetical order.
  • This permitted to fix some ids in Irving file.
  • It also permitted to fix Ertel 4391 file (column CSINR), which contains references to CSICOP records.
  • It permitted to identify differences in dates that need explanation.
Once again, see main CSICOP page for restoration finally used.

Information sources

Informations used to compute this group can be found in several places.
  • Skeptical Inquier VOL IV NO. 2 WINTER 1979-80, p 60 - 63 : in the article "Response to the Gauquelins" (Paul Kurtz, Marvin Zelen, and George Abell), the appendix contains the list of 408 names, with birth date (not time), state, mars sector.
    This PDF is on skepticalinquirer.org/1980/01/response_to_the_gauquelins.
  • Skeptical Inquier VOL IV NO. 2 WINTER 1979-80, p 41 : in the article "Star U.S. Sportsmen Display the Mars Effect - A comment on the Kurtz-Zelen-Abell experiment" (Michel and Francoise Gauquelin), appendix I contains the list of 108 sportsmen gathered in canvas 1.
    This PDF is on skepticalinquirer.org/1980/01/star_us_sportsmen_display_the_mars_effect/
  • The tenacious Mars Effect, p SE-19 to SE-31 permits to understand the 192 records of CSICOP present in Gauquelin D10.

Preparatory work

The PDF files downloaded from skepticalinquirer.org cannot be directly exploited by program. Text files were built from the PDF ; these files are located in data/raw/csicop/si42/.
The README file in this directory details the way PDF files were transformed to text files.

Restoration process

The import process changed and the following doc is obsolete.

raw2tmp

php run-g5.php csicop si42 raw2tmp
INPUT :
  • data/raw/skepticalinquirer.org/si42/si42-p60-63.txt
    (408 US sportsmen - transcription of the PDF, p 60 - 63)
OUTPUT :
  • data/tmp/csicop/408-csicop-si42.csv
    (all records)
  • data/tmp/csicop/181-csicop-si42.csv
    (records marked "SC" = Sport Champion, cf KZA article)
Generated files contain fields :
FNAME GNAME DATE C2 MA12 SC

addCanvas1

  • Adds field CANVAS to 5-csicop/408-csicop-si42.csv
  • Fills CANVAS with value "1" for 128 records 
php run-g5.php csicop si42 addCanvas1
INPUT :
  • data/tmp/csicop/408-csicop-si42.csv
  • data/raw/skepticalinquirer.org/si42/si42-p41.txt
    (128 US sportsmen - transcription of the PDF, p 41)

addErtel

Adds to 408-csicop-si42.csv informations coming from file Ertel 4391.
In Ertel 4391, field CSINR corresponds to the position of the record in file 408-csicop-si42.csv. 
php run-g5.php csicop si42 addErtel
INPUT :
  • data/tmp/csicop/408-csicop-si42.csv
  • data/output/history/1979-csicop/csicop-ertel-192.csv
    (from Ertel4391, 192 common records between 408 CSICOP and Gauquelin D10)

RESULTS :
  • Adds new fields to 190 rows of 408-csicop-si42.csv
  • 2 records miss to reach 192 records from D10.
    In Ertel 4391, 2 rows have field CSINR = 0.
    • D10-726 Kono Tom (Tomio) 1930-07-27
    • D10-894 Miller John L. 1947-04-29
    These records correspond to D10, but do not match to any SCICOP record.
    Needs explanation.

Checking dates

php run-g5.php csicop si42 checkErtel date
Comparing birth dates between si42, Ertel 4391 and D10 permits to identify differences.
34 differences can be explained with wrong GNUM or CSINR in file Ertel 4391. These are fixed adding corrections in Ertel 4391's tweak2tmp file.

Execution of checkErtel date after Ertel 4391 correction shows that 10 dates still pose problem.

Details of the 10 remaining differences 
si42  1933-12-09 Campbell M. i42 = 50
ertel 1933-09-12 Campbell Milton CSINR = 51
D10   1933-09-12 Campbell Milton NUM = 196

si42  1948-10-28 Cowens D. i42 = 71
ertel 1948-10-25 Cowens David W. CSINR = 72
D10   1948-10-25 Cowens David NUM = 272

si42  1947-01-12 Dempsey T. i42 = 89
ertel 1947-01-21 Dempsey Tom CSINR = 90
D10   1947-01-12 Dempsey Tom NUM = 325

si42  1922-07-04 Pollard J i42 = 282
ertel 1922-07-09 Pollard James CSINR = 283
D10   1922-07-09 Pollard James NUM = 1039

si42  1942-04-14 Rose P. i42 = 298
ertel 1942-04-12 Rose Peter Ed. CSINR = 299
D10   1941-04-14 Rose Peter NUM = 1098

si42  1935-12-29 Thurston F. i42 = 359
ertel 1933-12-29 Thurston Frederick C. CSINR = 360
D10   1933-12-29 Thurston Frederick NUM = 1278

si42  1945-03-05 Volk R. i42 = 372
ertel 1945-03-15 Volk Richard R. CSINR = 373
D10   1945-03-15 Volk Richard NUM = 1309

si42  1953-08-23 Williams R. i42 = 394
ertel 1938-06-15 Williams Billy Leo CSINR = 394
D10   1936-11-04 Williams Charles NUM = 1360

si42  1918-08-30 Williams T. i42 = 395
ertel 1953-08-23 Williams Randy CSINR = 395
D10   1953-08-23 Williams Randy NUM = 1366

si42  1938-06-15 Williams B. i42 = 393
ertel 1918-08-30 Williams Theodore Samuel CSINR = 396
D10   1918-08-30 Williams Theodore NUM = 1370
10 differences
The 3 last dates can be explained by a confusion on given names ; corrections were introduced in AddErtel code.

This leaves 7 differences, indicating an error either in Ertel file, or in SI42 list, or in file D10.

addD10

php run-g5.php csicop si42 addD10