#thescienceofdeductionsh

This is John Watson.

Rest assured Sherlock has not abandoned this blog. We both have just been very busy with casework.

I would like to leave you all with something more substantial, but all I can say is he will try to get back to posting before the year is up, and if not, then the beginning of next year.

My sincerest apologies to you all on behalf of Sherlock.

It has been 6 years since this blog was first created. Its purpose has been a refuge, a place for me to get away from the mediocrity of daily life and communicate with some of the intelligent people that humanity has to offer. It has been a privilege watching your knowledge of deduction grow these past years, and as we are approaching the medial of the new year, I think it is time that this blog took a different direction.

Instead of filling this blog with whatever comes to mind, I am creating a poll to query all of you who follow this blog, as well as anyone else who happens to come across this post, about the future content that you want to see here.

Some possibilities include:

1. Daily crime (where I walk you through a step by step detailing of unsolved crimes and how they were most likely committed.)

2. Cryptographic analysis (I post the latest ciphers that I either cannot be bothered to solve or don’t want to).

3. Mind Palace construction (I teach you how to construct your own mind palace, and share a few techniques of my own when it comes to maintaining and retrieving information.)

4. Deduction Help (send in your questions. They can be about anything relating to deduction and I will answer as many as I can.)

5. Photographic analysis (if you happened to capture evidence of something confusing, or you found the unexplainable, send it this way and my readers will help you sort out whatever it is.)

6. Forgotten Cases (I receive hundreds of cases daily, so it is possible for some to become buried and forgotten. If you have a case that was never solved and you still need help with, send it to my inbox here instead of the one on my professional co-uk blog. Any case that I find is beneath my abilities to solve, I will post to this blog for my readers to attempt.)

7. LiveQ&A (no questions about sexual orientation or romantic/sexual preferences will be answered. Keep your questions clean, concise, and to the point).

Voting will be closed by the end of April.

Now that I am officially active on this platform once again, I think it best to tackle one of the more mundane tasks that come with owning a popular blog. However, due to the sheer number of you that have sent me messages over the past few years on this and the co-owned account, and my very busy schedule at present, I do not have time to go through everything.

Your task is simple. If you have any messages that have never received a response from me, comment your username and I will look into it. Please bear in mind that some messages were intentionally overlooked or ignored due to many reasons; which I will not go into here. However, if your message contains subject matter that will try my patience the least, then there is a good chance I’ll respond.

I would apologize for the long wait, that is, if it were not intentional.

Continuing with the plethora of perpetual puzzles, accurately deduce what you can about this image in one minute or less and send your findings to my inbox, not the comments. (don’t use my primary ask page for this because it needs to be fixed) You can start your minute at a time that’s most convenient to you, but the contest will be closed after about a week. The most accurate deduction wins and will be announced here same as last time.

As I said before, be prepared for this one. I am testing more than your deduction abilities. 

The winner for this round is hannibal-h-holmes!—Your deductions were the most accurate and tried my patience the least.

Now, with no contact from the owner, I have written my own deductions for the image. Keep in mind that only the most important deductions are listed below.

The occupant is likely right handed but could also be left handed- and the pens were purposefully moved as an added challenge. She was born into an upper-class family, is a young teen of about 16 or 17; going by the childhood photo of her and her sister who was at least 5 years old, making her about 7 years old at the time. There is also another picture behind it which could be a cousin or even another sister, but pondering on this too long isn't a lofty idea. The two objects bearing the insignia of the British flag, and what appears to be English currency on the table, mean that she lives in England. The GCSE school book of science and chemistry is also an indication of her age, as well as her nationality. During year 9 (ages 13-14) students choose what subjects they want to study, but in this case, I believe that those years have passed and she is now studying for the GCSE exams which take place around ages 10-16. This holds true for the subject of chemistry and the many sheets of paper that she will be using as flashcards on the left. Now, the two golden trophies are first place prizes. The one in the shape of a trouble clef is an award given for a top musical achievement which is likely involving a musical instrument of some sort, the standard trophy is likely a sports achievement, considering the dark-framed framed photograph below is depicting what appears to be a lacrosse team photo at the end of the school year, as the particular uniforms are not proper for many other sports and their posture rules out many other similar possibilities.

The Game of Deduction has begun... You have one minute to deduce as much as you can about the image below.

The winner will be chosen by their accuracy, most of all.