@jonescardiff: "Can we predict the outcome of a tossed coin? Scientists and gamblers 
have occasionally grappled with this problem. For the philosopher, 
however, the answer is straightforward. There are no outcomes for a 
tossed coin.
For a philosopher, there is no possibility that an outcome of a tossed 
coin is either heads or tails. Seen from above we may see heads, seen 
from below we may see tails.
The geometry of the coin means that we can only see one side at a time. 
Which side is seen depends not on "possibilities" but on the fickle, 
subjective reasons for our preferred spatial orientation that we adopt 
AFTER the coin has been tossed."
    @nhoj: "<quote>
So don't toss a coin for a philosopher. Problem solved.
If words were shillings, you would owe us and all of England would be 
bankrupt."
    @dirkvandemoortel: "  hdf9ad$m2n$<email_address>
<quote>
The geometry of a mirror or a camera allows us to see both
sides at a time.
It's a good thing that some people escape starvation through subsidies :-)
Dirk Vdm"
    @nhoj: "<quote>
If you insist upon a twisted perspective achieved by recursively 
leap-frogging through your own asshole, then do it. But not in public.
I had lunch the other day with a group of strangers. One turned out to 
be a statistician. What are the chances of that?"
    @jonescardiff: "<quote>
I don't want to choose where to sit before the coin is tossed because 
that would not be relevant. I choose beforehand where I should sit to 
view the coin AFTER it has been tossed.
Shove it up your arse then."
    @jonescardiff: "<quote>
But then you create two images. If you create two images for the coin, 
heads and tails, then that would be even less argumentatively likely to 
yield an outcome.
If the object was transparent, maybe. But in all cases physical objects 
always have a hidden or covered face, or they wouldn't be physical objects."
    @UncleAl0: "<quote>
Hey stooopid - what happens if it lands on its edge?  You erected a
straw man, that an outcome is ambiguous even after its participants
agree on exclusionary rules.  Now you have swabbed it into a tar
baby.  You give it a hug.  We're not stupid.
Glass table, mirror, videocam... transparent coin; Moebius coin, Klein
bottle coin...
Toss it in vacuum, in free fall.  Put adhesive on the ceiling, have
the obverse and converse be identical, use a disk magnetized so its
pole are it broad faces.  Don't look at the outcome.  Use an astable
multivibrator instead.
Toss a cat with a piece of buttered bread strapped to its belly butter
side up when the cat's feet are down.  Drop the cat from a modest
height and watch it hover.  Hey stooopid - if you butter both sides of
a piece of toast, will it still land butter side down?
Uncle Al says, "Get stuck in an unpowered elevator and lavish
emergency procedures and personnel are mobilized.  Get stuck on an
unpowered escalator and people look at you like you are an idiot."
idiot
Uncle Al 
<url> 
 (Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals) 
<url>"
    @Headmaster: ""Benj" <email_address> wrote in message 
news:<email_address>
<quote>
I got stuck on an unpowered escalator once. It took half an hour for
the rest of the band to get be out!  But then I play drums.
==========================================
Obviously the rest of the band are idiots too."
    @janburse: "John Jones schrieb:
<quote>
Mathematically, if the coin is a bernoulli coin, and if the odds
are 1:1 then prediction makes no sense.
Mathematically, if the coin is a bernoulli coin, and if the odds
are p:q where p<>q then some prediction is possible without knowing
the history.
Mathematically, if the coin is not a bernoulli coin, and if
the odds are 1:1 then even some prediction might be possible
by inspecting the history. (*)
In the same way you can predict the outcome of roulette play. The
prediction there is that in the average the bank wins.
Bye
(*) For example the sequence 0 1 0 1 .. is not bernoulli,
but knowing the history helps predicting the future."
    @jonescardiff: "<quote>
But what is the outcome? We set conditions for an outcome that aren't 
properties of the coin or what happens to it."
    @dan: ""John Jones" <email_address> wrote in message 
news:hdhuie$s15$<email_address>
<quote>
With a fair coin, individual tosses cannot be predicted.  Now the average 
toss of a number of coins is another matter.  It is highly predictable at 
50% heads and 50% tails.  The more tosses, the more predictable. "
    @dirkvandemoortel: "  <email_address>
<quote>
Hmmmm...
Otoh, if insects weren't subsidised, *we* would starve...
Dirk Vdm"
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