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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 01/23/2008 : 21:55:03 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by drmabus
don't believe everything you hear.... |
Like that the challenge "has been running for over 40 years." |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/24/2008 : 02:58:43 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by drmabus
don't believe everything you hear.... |
Like that the challenge "has been running for over 40 years."
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Actually Dave, it has, more or less: | The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) currently offers a prize of one million U.S. dollars to anyone who can demonstrate a supernatural ability under agreed-upon scientific testing criteria. Similar to the paranormal challenges of John Nevil Maskelyne and Houdini, in 1964, Randi put up $1,000 of his own money payable to the first person who could provide objective proof of the paranormal. Since then, the prize money has grown to the current $1,000,000, and has formal published rules. No one has progressed past the preliminary test which is set up with parameters agreed to by both Randi and the applicant. He also refuses to accept any challengers who might suffer serious injury or death as a result of the testing they intend to undergo. |
I've come of the opinion that drmabus is getting a good chuckle at everyone's expense, but if not, I must ask: Why should Randi not take two years to shut it down? After all, it's his trip and therefore he can set any timetable he wishes.
I dunno -- look at it this way; maybe he wants to give everyone, including you, drmabus, a last, slim chance to get into his green. No one's going to, of course, simply because under controlled conditions (agreed upon by both parties in advance of the test) these various claims waft away like swamp gas in a summer breeze.
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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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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2008 : 07:47:37 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by filthy
Actually Dave, it has, more or less |
Well, according to Randi:It was March 6th, 1998, when the JREF Million-Dollar Challenge first came into existence. That's almost ten years ago.
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If I'm not mistaken, that's when his challenge became other than a sort of nickle & dime side-bet and got organized, funded & publicized. With predictable results -- the woo-woo crying foul and the rest of us ruining keyboards with various liquids that were not intended to be expelled through the nostrils.
I really don't know what the problem is with those who squeal about the challenge. After all, the whole thing was/is pretty straightforward and it's neither money out of their pockets nor skin off their noses. I think it would have been better if those tested had a little something to lose other than phony reputations. Then their piteous wails of misery would have had a little (but not much) credence.
As I (only vaguely) recall, no one nabbed the 1-K, either.
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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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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2008 : 08:31:28 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by filthy
Actually Dave, it has, more or less |
Well, according to Randi:It was March 6th, 1998, when the JREF Million-Dollar Challenge first came into existence. That's almost ten years ago.
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Technically, the JREF challenge started when the JREF came into being in 1996 and made official in 1998. But Randi has been offering money since 1964 to anyone who could demonstrate psychic abilities in a controlled setting, after passing a preliminary test.
History of the challenge
So it really depends on how you look at it. To my thinking, the challenge has been around in a more casual form since 1964 or 1968 as Randi tells it, and made official with organizational backing in 1998. I have no doubt that when Randi was offering his own money, he was good for his word and good for the money he was offering, which grew over time.
I knew about the challenge before there was a JREF.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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How we stopped Randi's Million Dollar Challenge
