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Fani
New Member
16 Posts |
 Posted - 08/22/2009 : 00:32:48
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Last week I sent an email to the Fafnir people mentioning SFN and yesterday they posted this blog at www.fafnirthedragon.com!
One thing I don't get however, is the joke about the Amazing Randi being a wizard (since that is the type of thing that he debunks). Did Randi once claim to have psychic powers and then change his mind or is Fafnir just being silly? Sorry to sound dumb but I don't know that much about Mr. Randi except that he's a debunker.
PS: How do I turn parts of my text into links?  I get an error message when I search for the forum code instructions.
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2009 : 01:26:53 [Permalink]
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Awesome mention in that blog, I really like it.
When younger, James 'The Amazing' Randi was an accomplished magician. I suppose he still is, but as far as I know he's not performing anymore except for the occasional slight-of-hand trick. It's his intimate knowledge of the trade as a performer of magics that makes him such a good debunker. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 08/22/2009 : 03:20:46 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Fani
Last week I sent an email to the Fafnir people mentioning SFN and yesterday they posted this blog at www.fafnirthedragon.com!
One thing I don't get however, is the joke about the Amazing Randi being a wizard (since that is the type of thing that he debunks). Did Randi once claim to have psychic powers and then change his mind or is Fafnir just being silly? Sorry to sound dumb but I don't know that much about Mr. Randi except that he's a debunker.
PS: How do I turn parts of my text into links? I get an error message when I search for the forum code instructions.
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Here ya go.
As I recall, Randi did a mentalist act, among others, but never claimed extordinary powers.
Being on Fafnir is way cool!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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| Edited by - filthy on 08/22/2009 03:22:11 |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2009 : 07:30:26 [Permalink]
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Amusing reference, and the author seems fairly well informed about James Randi and his 'Million dollars challenge'...
Interesting... |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2009 : 08:34:57 [Permalink]
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Fani:
Did Randi once claim to have psychic powers and then change his mind or is Fafnir just being silly? Sorry to sound dumb but I don't know that much about Mr. Randi except that he's a debunker. |
Randi does call himself a wizard and a conjurer. He even wore a wizards robe at times. But it's all in the spirit of fun and showbiz. He has never ever claimed paranormal abilities. And as a skilled magician, he is well suited to recognize that what he considers an art form that takes talent and requires years of practice to become as good at it as he is, abuse by those who do the same tricks, or some variation of them, and claim that they are using paranormal abilities to do them. In Randi's view, pretending that you are something that you are not, for personal gain, is nothing short of stealing. It's also dangerous because it fosters a belief in the supernatural.
He long ago started offering $10,000 dollars of his own money to any anyone who could demonstrate actual paranormal abilities. That grew into the million dollar challenge. He knew that it was all showbiz and it offended him that his art was being misrepresented by the likes of Uri Geller and others.
So yeah, he does call himself a wizard, but only for fun.
As for his current abilities, last year at the IIG awards, he had himself tied with a rope by audience members (all skeptics) and performed an amusing escape. Not bad for an old man. He is still a very good magician. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Saga
New Member
13 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2009 : 09:55:36 [Permalink]
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I was reading through the article and took the liberty to check James Randi's Wiki entry and I found this:
| Randi was once accused of actually using 'psychic powers' to perform acts such as spoon bending. James Alcock relates this incident which occurred at a meeting where Randi was duplicating the performances of Uri Geller: A professor from the University at Buffalo shouted out that Randi was a fraud. Randi said, "Yes indeed, I'm a trickster, I'm a cheat, I'm a charlatan, that's what I do for a living. Everything I've done here was by trickery." The professor shouted back: "That's not what I mean. You're a fraud because you're pretending to do these things through trickery, but you're actually using psychic powers and misleading us by not admitting it."[27] The famous author and believer in spiritualism Arthur Conan Doyle had years earlier made a similar accusation against the magician Harry Houdini. |
Hope it's not too long.
But man, that's just weird. I'd have loved to see the face on James Randi when the guy said that! 
As for the mention, super cool. :D |
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Fani
New Member
16 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2009 : 10:39:38 [Permalink]
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Ah, that makes a lot more sense now! Score one to Fafnir for finding a real-life tidbit that leaves you going WTF? even more than the joke did!
So what was the motive for the Randi/Houdini 'conspiracy' to debunk 'real' psychics? Jealousy? Trying to corner the psychic market? World domination? What really gets me is that it was a professor making this goofy accusation and not some Jerry Springer fan like you'd expect! Remind me never to apply at the University of Buffalo! |
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