Captain Disillusion gets a helping hand from James Randi

Captain Disillusion, superhero/digital hoaxbuster comes up against a brick wall. Finding no digital trickery in the panrty ghost video, he almost hangs up his coat, but he is magically transported into the Isaac Asimov library at the James Randi Educational Foundation, where Randi shows CD that spurious videos don't always have to be digitally manipulated. Trap doors, air pressure and good old fashion humbug set CD back on the right path.

There's also quite a hat-tip to 'The Amazing Meeting', a 3 day skeptic conference in Las Vegas. We won't be going this year, but we have sent some minions to spread the aussie charm.

Enjoy the video and look out for episode 2!

James Randi on the Carlos Hoax

James Randi Speaks: The compass trick

In this video James Randi, the uberskeptic debunks one of Uri Geller's Six tricks. Randi tells us of two of them, the compass trick and suing anyone who annoys him, but I was left thinking, "what are the other four?

Obviously, Uri Geller bends spoons, so that's three. By the way, the trick to spoon-bending is in the name ;) To bend a spoon, you get a spoon and bend it!

Geller also mucks about with watches, draws hidden images and makes stuff fly about. So now we're at six. Having a look through his repertoire, it seems he also dabbled in prediction and dowsing, among other things.

I'd like to know what the five tricks Randi is referring to are. Perhaps some of the ones described above can be collapsed into categories...

Enjoy Randi

Tabocution

It's time again to purge my tabs. This one's a mixed-bag, but there's so many videos that I'll put them all in a section of their own. It should take you more than a week to chomp through all that!

Articles
Jeff Coyne on science organisations and accommodationism- Metamagician
Why Evolution is True- Jeff Coyne
Tucked-in t-shirts are unbiblical- Cynical C blog
Conspiracy theories and muck tunnels
10 most fascinating natural phenomena
How to capture a giant squid- Advice for pharyngulites
Mel Gibson's family values
Atheists target UK schools
Sharia Law
PZ is pro-test
Sex, terrorism, cults astrology, scientology, pareidolia, and other nutbaggery
Perry Bible Fellowship almanac
Subscribe to James Randi's 'Randigram' newsletter!
Religion's parasitic morality
Morality originates in religion... NOT!
Muslims killing children
Jesus and Mo: Thor

Longer videos
Why We Believe in Gods
Dan Barker vs Dinesh D'Souza
Michael Shermer: Why Darwin Matters
Evolution of Gods
BBC: The Darwin debate

Freethought videos (beware, BS abounds!)
Penn and Teller explain the basis of deception
Crucifiction fail
Scientific Proof of the bible
Outnumbered: Karen's spiritual Journey
Former Christian Coalition director argues for torture
Saudi Cleric tells children why muslims should hate jews
Texas and evolution
The perfect gift
Ghost whisperer on CBS News
Lady spots Cheesus!
Randi Speaks: Charles Lynch
Timescape
Dr Phil and an atheist's wife
Christopher Hitchens vs Tom Hartman
Christopher Hitchens vs Paul Edwards
Has Christianity lost the culture wars?
Area 51 scientists explain the Roswell incident

Interesting videos
Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics
Kevin Smith talks about his superman movie
1976 swine flu propoganda
Hummus: The rap
Turbotax: The rap
Siamese crocodiles
Your Momma! (is logging on)
Wacky tribal dance

James Randi Speaks: Barbara Didn't see it

Randi Speaks: Barbara Didn't See It

Randi Speaks. Belief and Flying Pigs

James Randi tests Psychic Investigator

In this video, a very young James Randi puts a 'Psychic Investigator' to the test. It is from a TV series of his called James Randi: Psychic Investigator.

I think we would all agree with her statement at 2:52

The real question is why would a self-aware fraud put themselves through a test like this on national television? There can be a few answers.

She may truly believe in her 'power', which sounds like a difficult thing to do, but it is actually quite easy for someone to give it a go, get some positive feedback (whether true or not), which becomes a self perpetuating feedback loop. It is not often that such a person would be tested and they then have the blinkers of the old 'counting the hits and ignoring the misses' fallacy. Thinking that she has a good chance to be able to display her powers to the public and change some people's minds, she decides to give it a go.

Or she may be a fraud who thinks that she can outwit James Randi (watch out, he's pretty sharp!) with some Barnum statements and cold reading techniques. Out of the three items that she 'receives psychic energies' from, one, she says may have been used for something innocent (which covers her for both a crime situation, or a mundane one), the hammer 'makes her feel glass', which isn't a stretch, using a hammer to smash glass is probably the most common use of the item in a crime situation. She also goes out on a limb with the axe/pick, saying that it makes her think of a heavy vehicle tyre. This could mean it was used to damage such a tyre, that it was transported in such a vehicle, that the crime was committed near one, or that somebody involved in the crime owned such a ehicle. It sounds specific, but has cast the net pretty wide, increasing the chance of a hit. I would say that in a less controlled situation, where she would be able to discuss back and forth abit, it wouldn't take long before she hits on some information that sounds pretty amazing (if you'll pardon the pun, Randi) but is actually no different to a cold reading, fortune cokie or astrological reading.

Have a think about whether she is truly self-deluded, or a charlatain. Enjoy her explaination at 2:52.

James Randi: Questioning the Bible

James Randi + Sephen Novella = Skeptic goldmine!

James Randi on Carl Sagan

There's not much to say. A great man speaking about a great man...

Randi Speaks: Does It Work?

James Randi talks about Theta Healing and Homeopathy



You can check out more of the 'Randi Speaks' series on this player:



or just go to the James Randi youtube channel.

Links for this video are:

Direct link to Theta Healing website http://www.thetadnahealing.co.uk/thet...

More about Jack Myers challenge
http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-04/04130...
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/s...

More info on Homeopathy by James Randi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH...

More info on Homeopathy by Stephen Barret, M.D.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryR...

Video shoot and edited by: Richard Montalvo

Randi Speaks- Who Gets the Credit?

James Randi is a pinnacle of rational inquiry in the modern world.

If you don't know of him, or would like to know more about him, go to his website



In addition to the JREF youtube channel, the JREF produce the swift Bulletin (now the swift blog) and The Amazing Show podcast.

James Randi on the Dave Patterson Show

James Randi is amazing! Find out more here

TAM6 quick fix

It's now a week since TAM and I guess it's a perfect opportunity to start our blog.

So to kick it off, here's a few pics of us at TAM with some of the amazing people that we met.


We bumped into James 'The Amazing' Randi a few times over the weekend and I was even lucky enough to have breakfast next to him on the Sunday morning! We also met up with him at the CFI awards in Hollywood, where he treated Rach, Lloyd and myself to a private feat of mentalism. Good times.

Phil Plait was perhaps the first Skeplebrity that we met. Whilst at the meet-n-greet reception, we were talking to some online friends and out of nowhere we heard "Rachel!" and Phil bounded in and gave Rach the biggest hug ever! It's one thing to meet someone whose work you respect, but for such a person to recognise you and be excited about seeing you is such a bizarre experience!
Meeting Jay Novella (and the rest of the SGU crew) was one of the best experiences at TAM. As the meet and greet was dispersing and people were heading to the cigar party, we spotted the SGU guys and decided to hang around and say hi. It's a good thing that we did, we were just expecting a handshake and a photo, but ended up going out for diner and forging a friendship with them. From that point onwards, we spent a great deal of the weekend with the crew and got on particularly well with both Jay and Evan. We look foreward to maintaining the relationship with these guys.

And last, but not least, Martin Wagner (of the Atheist Experience blog and podcast). What can I say, he's such a nice guy. Meeting Martin was like being reunited with an old friend. From the start, we just clicked. We spent the Friday together and ended up going out to dinner with Martin, Thad, Stacie, Rach and myself. Throughout the rest of the weekend, Martin was like the fourth member of our group. We are truly glad to have met him and can't wait to get out to Austin to meet the rest of the ACA.

Other people that we met at TAM include PZ Myers, Michael Shermer, Penn & Teller, Steve Novella, Richard Wiseman, Daniel Loxton, Banachek and so many more...

We'll be posting some highlights and overviews over the next week or so, keep an eye out for them.

-Alan