|
|
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 10/31/2007 : 13:28:30
|
This list for dealing with Randi and his Million Dollar Challenge seems right on the mark. For example: | • Don't ridicule Randi. Randi has seen you coming. The old man never got a degree, but he knows more about the workings of science than half the Ph.D.s in America. Randi will make faster work of you than Chuck Norris if you underestimate him. |
|
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
|
|
marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2007 : 14:49:27 [Permalink]
|
| Very enjoyable read. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
|
 |
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2007 : 15:47:36 [Permalink]
|
They certainly have Randi's personality down pat, eh?
|
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
|
|
|
Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2007 : 16:16:57 [Permalink]
|
Thats awesome. The "Don't Ridicule Randi" line made me LOL.
He posted some of that over on JREF also. Good stuff!
|
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
|
|
|
|
Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2007 : 19:50:41 [Permalink]
|
Originally posted by Ricky
Make sure you catch the video that is linked in there. Really good stuff.
|
Thanks, that was good stuff. I have a cousin who was "treated" by a psychic surgeon in the Philippines twenty or more years ago. I was never able to convince him that the surgery was slight of hand. I wish I'd had the Randi video at the time, though even then they guy might have rejected the evidence of fakery.
|
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
|
|
|
bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 18:28:55 [Permalink]
|
Mooner.....
Rob Beschizza got it exactly right! A couple of years ago, I ran across a website whose owner/operator was devoted to debunking the debunkers! Among other things, he made statements that Randi had misbehaved badly with regard to the $1M prize and an applicant for the prize named Rico Kolodsky, who stated he could go for months without food, only water, and suffer no adverse effects or lose weight. His is a "Breatharian" religion and pretty weird.
Kolodsky, a German, had written a letter to Randi stating that he wanted to apply for the $1M and asking Randi to test him! Randi replied with the following letter:
Well, it seemed to me that Randi was out of line. He had apparently dismissed poor Rico out of hand, calling him a liar, and refusing to test his "breatharian" abilities. I started writing Randi, and we had quite an exciting exchange of e-mails for a while. Randi can be quite sharp-tongued, and I'm afraid I returned fire! I essentially took the position that Randi was being hypocritical in not testing this nutcase!
To make a long story a little shorter, I prevailed, Randi relented and agreed to test Kolodzey. Randi had no idea where Rico was or how to locate him; having lost all the files on the case.
Now I had to find Kolodzey and tell him the good news. All he had to do was show up in the USA, enter a controlled confinement for a few months, eat no food, and not starve to death or lose weight! In return he would receive a million dollars, a tidy sum for a poor boy from Germany!
I undertook the task. After visiting several hundred websites and talking to more Kooks than I care to remember, I finally ran him down. His English was none too good, so I tried writing him in German. Turns out his English was better than my German!
Anyway, after endless back and forths, with myself acting as mediator between Randi and Rico, we three settled on a simple protocol for the test involving a cheap hotel room in Fort Lauderdale (Randi's home and office area), several around-the-clock guards to assure no late nite cheeseburgers smuggled in, etc. Everything was looking great! Randi and I worked out an estimated cost for the entire event including plane fare, hotel room, guards, and bottled water; which came to about five thousand dollars. Kinda depended on how long he lasted, obviously.
So, after about two months of negotiations, I finally wrote Rico with the specifics as to time, place, and conditions of the test - all primarily designed by Randi and communicated and "sold" to Kolodzey by me.
Rico (we were on good-buddy first name terms by now) agreed to all the conditions - which was a real achievement considering how unreasonable and unrealistic Kolodzey was at first. He wanted to be tested in Hawaii with a beach nearby! And there originally was a need on his part to have lots of flora and fauna (yes, real fawns) in the test environment to fulfil some of the Breatharian religious tenets!
Anyway, it got to the place when Rico said "send me the plane ticket".....DUH!! Rico, you are paying all the expenses of the test, it's in Randi's contract that I sent you to read!! Oh, I don't have that kind of money to go to the US and pay for all that hotel and guards and things. Randi should pay for all that, he's a millionaire. But, Rico, you'll be a millionaire too after you win! Well, I don't have enough money to get there! Besides, if Randi wants to see what I can do, he certainly can afford a few thousand dollars to test me. If he can afford to give away a million dollars, he can afford a plane ticket!
And there it ended! I even offered to pay his plane ticket to Florida, if he would handle the rest and he just stopped writing. I sent his refusal to Randi, who said, in essence, I told you he would back out, they always back out! He was right! I told him so, and no hard feelings for time lost on either side, and we remain on good terms and correspond occasionally to this day!
|
| Edited by - bngbuck on 11/02/2007 18:31:27 |
|
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 19:55:52 [Permalink]
|
Sorry, but I think the living-without-food-for-years claim is entirely deserving of dismissal. Let the claimant get backing from a scientist before bothering JREF.
|
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 11/02/2007 21:13:49 |
|
|
|
bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 21:03:37 [Permalink]
|
Mooner....
Well, all I know is thst Randi saw fit to reverse his original appraisal. Do you think he should rewrite the Challenge so that "obviously impossible" challenges like "I can make myself invisible" can be categorically denied? |
|
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 21:16:53 [Permalink]
|
Originally posted by bngbuck
Mooner....
Well, all I know is thst Randi saw fit to reverse his original appraisal. Do you think he should rewrite the Challenge so that "obviously impossible" challenges like "I can make myself invisible" can be categorically denied?
|
No, but the guy still is able to submit his claim, by the new procedure of first getting scientific backing. If that's impossible for him, then too bad. There have to be some restraints on the claims submitted, or Randi and Co. would be forever overwhelmed with such specious claims by delusional (or dishonest) woo-woos.
|
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
|
|
|
recurve boy
Skeptic Friend
Australia
53 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 23:52:36 [Permalink]
|
Originally posted by HalfMooner
Originally posted by bngbuck
Mooner....
Well, all I know is thst Randi saw fit to reverse his original appraisal. Do you think he should rewrite the Challenge so that "obviously impossible" challenges like "I can make myself invisible" can be categorically denied?
|
No, but the guy still is able to submit his claim, by the new procedure of first getting scientific backing. If that's impossible for him, then too bad. There have to be some restraints on the claims submitted, or Randi and Co. would be forever overwhelmed with such specious claims by delusional (or dishonest) woo-woos.
|
Not to mention, that for this particular claim, Randi could have been accomplice to killing a man if the applicant had insisted on fasting even if he was clearly in trouble.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmuheen
Perhaps Randi only reversed his position knowing that the applicant would have backed out before anything started. |
|
|
|
Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 00:17:51 [Permalink]
|
Half said:
No, but the guy still is able to submit his claim, by the new procedure of first getting scientific backing. If that's impossible for him, then too bad. There have to be some restraints on the claims submitted, or Randi and Co. would be forever overwhelmed with such specious claims by delusional (or dishonest) woo-woos.
|
Yeah, like that lunatic latinjral (who's acct has apparently been purged) who was insisting that his blurry video of the WTC collapse was "proof" of something supernatural. He apparently even stalked Randi at one of the TAMs.
|
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
|
|
|
|
bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 01:08:18 [Permalink]
|
Recurve.....
No, Randi's protocol required medical examination and weighing after ten days. If significant weight (more than 5 pounds in Rico's case) was lost, Rico (who claimed there would be no weight loss) forfeited. If he passed out, (adverse effect) Rico lost.
And Randi, after changing his mind, was assertive in declaring that he was wrong in not permitting Rico to continue in his attempt after the first letter that Rico sent him.
I exchanged e-mails with Kolodzey just late last year. He still maintained that he would go three months without eating a bite, not lose weight, and remain healthy. He still wanted Randi to pay for the whole thing. He is crazy as a loon and will remain so for the rest of his life. But Randi would not allow him to hurt himself -- the old fox is way too smart for that!
Mooner is right about Randi being deluged by nut cases, so he has added a new rule involving a respectable scientist of some sort in introducing the claim, or the claim being made by a prominent quack (John Edwards, Silvia, Uri, etc.) who is flummoxing the public.
However, Randi would accept Kolodzey back to test tomorrow, and might even pay his way here and way back to Germany after he failed, if Randi could see substantial TV or media coverage of the event. When I was trying to get Rico to come and test several years ago, I tried to interest several booking agents into taking on the project of selling it to a network or production company. I got absolutely nowhere! Not enough public interest in that sort of thing without big names (Randi's big, but not that big) I ended up feeling like a fool for trying! |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
"Wired" has 10 tips for dealing with Randi
