Anomolous Cognition and Sidereal Time

As long as I'm posting bizarre science stuff, here's about the most bizarre science thing I've seen in quite a while. Two of them, in fact.

Anomalous Cognition Effect Size: Dependence on Sidereal Time and Solar Wind Parameters
S. James P. Spottiswoode; Edwin C. May

In a database of 2,879 free-response anomalous cognition (AC) trials the Spearman’s r correlation between the ap geomagnetic index and AC effect size was -0.029 (p = 0.06). An increased correlation was found for trials that occurred at 13 hours Local Sidereal Time (LST). The correlation observed for trials which occurred between 11.2 h and 14.8 h LST was -0.192 (N = 256, p = 0.002) while the correlation was effectively zero (r = -0.01, N = 2,623, ns) for trials at other times. The maximum magnitude correlation of -0.33 (N = 134, p = 0.0001) was observed in the 12.9 ±1 h LST period. A subset of this data for which solar wind speed measurements were available showed a similar correlation configuration with a negative correlation peak near 13h LST. The power spectrum of the effect sizes showed a peak at 13.8 days period, which is close to twice the solar rotation rate, a period typical of solar wind modulations. These observations are consistent with the thesis that AC performance is modulated by a parameter which varies with solar activity.

Apparent Association between Effect Size in Free Response Anomalous Cognition Experiments and Local Sidereal Time
S. James P. Spottiswoode

Nothing is known about the physical mechanism of anomalous cognition (AC), or ESP. A first step towards generating focused hypotheses would be the discovery of a physical parameter which clearly modulated AC performance. In this paper, an association between the local sidereal time (LST) at which a trial occurs and the resulting effect size is described. In an existing database of 1,468 free response trials, the effect size increased 340% for trials within 1 hour of 13.5 h LST (p = 0.001). A independent database of 1,015 similar trials was subsequently obtained in which trials within 1 hour of 13.5 h LST showed an effect size increase of 450% (p = 0.05) providing confirmation of the effect. Possible artifacts due to the non-uniform distribution of trials in clock time and variations of effect size with experiment are discussed and rejected as explanations. Assuming that some unknown systematic bias is not present in the data, it appears that AC performance is strongly dependent upon the LST at which the trial occurs. This is evidence of a causal connection between performance and the orientation of the receiver (i.e., a term for subject or participant), the earth and the fixed stars.

Anomolous Cognition, by the way, is another way of saying ESP...