R.I.P. James “The Amazing” Randi

FastEddieB

FastEddieB

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Fast Eddie B
I’m sure some here are unfamiliar with him, but he was an icon in the modern skeptical movement. He was a talented magician that toured with Alice Cooper, but is maybe best known for debunking charlatans and frauds such as Uri Geller and Peter Popov. He made appearances on the Johnny Carson show doing such dubunking, easily found on YouTube.

Anyway, he passed away today after a long illness. Not unexpected, but he was an inspiration to a lot of folks. If anyone is interested a documentary was made a few years ago of his life, called “An Honest Liar”. It’s quite a story.

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I always liked watching him on Carson. Remember one expose, where they'd discovered a faith healer's staff was pre-interviewing attendees to pass information to the "healer" via an ear plug.

"I'm not saying that God DOESN'T talk to him...but if He does, God is talking on 23.445 megacycles...."

Ron Wanttaja
 
And what WAS the deal about bending spoons? I never got that.
 
kyleb said:
And what WAS the deal about bending spoons? I never got that.
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He weakened them before hand, brought them out, and could easily make them bend with just a thumb and finger, saying he could do it with his mind.
 
RIP to a truly "amazing" and courageous man. Being a public skeptic isn't easy - he'd have been executed in a horrible manner in earlier centuries.

He wasn't an "in your face" skeptic - he was factual, entertaining, and graceful in his presentation. As such, he's been very influential in the way I look at the world around me.
 
I recall a crazy paper published in Nature suggesting that water had memory of medications. Nature sent a team of investigators that included the Amazing Randi. Made for a fun read. RIP, he'll be missed. Still lots of con artists plying the psychic trade, and now they do it on TV.
 
steingar said:
I recall a crazy paper published in Nature suggesting that water had memory of medications. Nature sent a team of investigators that included the Amazing Randi. Made for a fun read. RIP, he'll be missed. Still lots of con artists plying the psychic trade, and now they do it on TV.
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Ah, yes...the Benveniste Affair, in 1988. I remember it well. Benveniste and a number of co-authors published in Nature an article on homeopathy (in this case, the activity of an anti-IGE antibody at dilutions at which no antibody remains), which the journal allowed on the condition that outside researchers try to replicate it and publish a follow up. The follow-up team included scientists, but also James Randi and fraud investigator Walter Stewart, working under Benveniste's eye in Benveniste's own lab, as I recall. They demolished his claims, failing to replicate any of his work. Not the first time the memory effect of water had been disproven, but certainly the most high-profile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benveniste_affair

Benveniste never admitted to the fraud; he continued to work in the field, and years later claimed he could transmit the homeopathic effect over telephone lines to a distant water sample. For this, he was awarded his second ig Nobel prize (that's a parody prize, for work that 'cannot, or should not, be reproduced') in 1998.
 
I recall a video in which James swallows an entire bottle of homeopathic sleeping pills in front of an audience.
You can make a lot of money lying to people.
 
Homeopathy may have seemed feasible until modern physics rendered it virtually impossible.

What’s confusing is modern usage tends to conflate “homeopathic” with “natural”, when they have nothing to do with each other. And there’s nothing inherently “better” about a “natural” cure anyway.

Adding to the confusion is misleading packaging. Studies have shown that zinc may have a very small effect on the duration and severity of the common cold, so taking zinc at the onset of a cold may be a reasonable thing to do. But look at what Zicam says about their product:

“Unique Clinically Proven Homeopathic Formula Shortens Colds At the First Sign. Save Now! Be Better Faster With Zicam® Cold Remedy Zinc Lozenges! Learn More About Zinc & Colds. Cold-Shortening.”

If it has a measurable amount of zinc as an active ingredient, IT’S NOT HOMEOPATHIC! Homeopathy is based on diluting out ALL of the active ingredient and counting on the “memory” of it to somehow work. No wonder people are confused.
 
He exposed Peter Popov for the phony, lyin' charlatan that he was...and a few years later, Popov was back at it! People will believe what they want to believe.

I really enjoyed watching Randi - a sad tale in some ways. The "Honest Liar" documentary was a great one. I wonder if Yuri Geller could fly IFR with no instruments...
 
I remember seeing him on Carson debunking psychic surgery. I have one of his books, so maybe I'll have to pull it out and read it again. Interesting character, did lots of good stuff exposing charlatans.
 
A quote of his just posted to the International Skeptics forum, formerly the forum of the James Randi Educational Foundation...

“One day, I'm gonna die. That's all there is to it," he says matter-of-factly. "Hey, it's too bad, but I've got to make room. I'm using a lot of oxygen and such — I think it's good use of oxygen myself, but of course, I'm a little prejudiced on the matter."
 
I saw him live in a small auditorium at Adrian College in 82 or 83. He was very impressive in person.
 
Someone on his old forum just reminded me that he thought he could successfully predict the day he would die.

He did that by always having a card in his wallet predicting the current day as the date of his demise. Eventually he had to be right, which would be AMAZING!!! A modern day Nostradamus, I tell ya!

Sadly, I hear he gave up that practice some years ago.
 
FastEddieB said:
A quote of his just posted to the International Skeptics forum, formerly the forum of the James Randi Educational Foundation...

“One day, I'm gonna die. That's all there is to it," he says matter-of-factly. "Hey, it's too bad, but I've got to make room. I'm using a lot of oxygen and such — I think it's good use of oxygen myself, but of course, I'm a little prejudiced on the matter."
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Does that make “R.I.P.” similar to “you’re wrong, so **** you”?
 
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