[video=youtube;S_I8aXrRAVA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_I8aXrRAVA[/video]
"The Search for Chimera" A Lecture by James Randi Presented at The Center for Inquiry / Transnational in Amherst, NY, 12 September 2008.
An Overview of How Science Has Pursued Magic and Miracles in the 20th Century and Into the 21st Century
"The Search for Chimera" A Lecture by James Randi Presented at The Center for Inquiry / Transnational in Amherst, NY, 12 September 2008.
An Overview of How Science Has Pursued Magic and Miracles in the 20th Century and Into the 21st Century
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928) is a Canadian American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician, as The Amazing Randi, but when he retired at age 60, he switched to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims, which he collectively calls "woo-woo." Although often referred to as a "debunker", Randi rejects that title owing to its perceived bias, instead describing himself as an "investigator". He has written about the paranormal, skepticism, and the history of magic.
The JREF sponsors The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge offering a prize of US $1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties.
A great and smart man. He's one of the best debunkers I've known and helped show that Uri Geller's spoonbending was a complete fake. On the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, Carson asked James Randi for advice on how to prevent any trickery. They provided him with their own props and not let any of Geller's people near him. Geller failed miserably and tried to stall time, saying he can still do it.
He started up the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, nobody manage to win the money or even gotten through the preliminary rounds. Most of the time, he figures out their trick and the other times, it would fail to work. He explains some of the failures in the video, most of the failures were funny.