[HN Gopher] James Randi Has Died
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James Randi Has Died
Author : omnibrain
Score : 241 points
Date : 2020-10-21 21:27 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (web.randi.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (web.randi.org)
| MrZongle2 wrote:
| Prove it.
| rustybelt wrote:
| Damn, beat me to it. It would be ironic if he became a ghost.
| pmiller2 wrote:
| I wonder if he left behind a secret phrase, like Houdini, so
| some trusted people could know for sure if it was him
| communicating with them from beyond the dead, or not. I hope
| he did.
| api wrote:
| He'd show up at seances chastising the participants for
| believing in such nonsense.
| ApolloRising wrote:
| RIP - You lived a legend
| TheRealDunkirk wrote:
| Did he ever reveal what was in the safe? The contents of which he
| bet $1M that no one could divine? I just searched, and couldn't
| find mention of it.
| limaoscarjuliet wrote:
| I have always been impressed how well he presented information. I
| will miss him so much.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| I remember the 3-4 months I used my copy of Flim-Flam
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flim-Flam! to take down my
| relatives' delusions.
|
| I guess I was probably as insufferable for them as they were for
| me, so thank you James Randi for helping me let them all know
| what's what!
| triska wrote:
| RIP James Randi, and thank you!
|
| I often think about how brilliantly and carefully the setups were
| designed, thought through and explained. For example:
|
| Interviewer: "Which pipe was the water running through?"
|
| James Randi: "Well, I'm not supposed to know that! I'm supposed
| to be doing this in a double-blinded fashion. [...]"
|
| Interviewer: "Did he get the right one?"
|
| James Randi: "I can't tell you that."
|
| Source: https://youtu.be/cqoYrSd94kA?t=1405
|
| The setup in this case was so well designed that the participants
| themselves praised it:
|
| James Randi: "The tests that were done, were they adequate to the
| purpose?"
|
| Participant: "The testing, as far as I was concerned, and I think
| as far as the rest of the diviners were concerned, was done as
| fair and as square as could be."
|
| Source: https://youtu.be/cqoYrSd94kA?t=1937
| flobosg wrote:
| More information about that dowsing test:
| https://www.skeptics.com.au/resources/articles/australian-sk...
| hermitcrab wrote:
| What a loss. Few people have done as much to champion rationality
| as The Amazing Randi. And he was very entertaining while he was
| doing it.
| gitgud wrote:
| He was one of the greatest magicians to ever live, but wanted to
| teach the audience how magic is just deception
|
| He made it his life's work to disprove all people abusing the art
| of magic to con others into believing something that isn't
| real... Rest in Piece Randi
| tombert wrote:
| In January 2010, I went on a binge of every James Randi video I
| could find on YouTube. Him debunking psychics, talking about
| religion and faith, talking about magic, the works. I got so
| obsessed with him, that I found his website, and sent a very
| generic "fan email" to him, saying that I respect what he did,
| and think that he should keep up the good work.
|
| Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick "thank you!"
| message. I told my dad about this, and since we lived in Orlando
| at the time, and Randi was in Fort Lauderdale, he suggested we
| ask to buy Randi lunch. I figured there was no harm in sending
| the email, and much to my surprise, Randi agreed!
|
| We drove over to Fort Lauderdale, and he actually spent the whole
| damn day with us, talking about psychics, doing magic tricks for
| us, talking about science fiction novels, etc. He was an
| incredibly awesome guy, and I thought it was beyond cool that he
| decided to hang out with some dorky fans from the internet.
|
| RIP Randi. You made the world a better place, and you will always
| be missed.
| Touche wrote:
| Wow, what an amazing story.
| Romanulus wrote:
| That's awesome! When I was in my early teens I went through a
| similar stint and also emailed him with my thoughts, kudos and
| thanks. Also to my surprise he wrote back with a genuine
| message and note.
|
| What a guy.
| cogman10 wrote:
| One of my favorite James Randi actions was the debunking of Uri
| Geller.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTn0t_7pGZo
| allenu wrote:
| RIP. I remember going to The Amazing Meeting (skeptics
| convention) years ago and running into a coworker there. It was
| his second time attending and he spotted James Randi and told me,
| let's go say hello and that he's super friendly and will chat
| with anyone. We went over and lo and behold he was super friendly
| and welcomed me to the con warmly.
|
| I was familiar with his debunking work, but not much beyond that.
| I watched the documentary about him, An Honest Liar, later on and
| was impressed with him as a human. Worth checking out to learn
| more.
| SoSoRoCoCo wrote:
| Who is the successor to Randi's tenacity, wit, and intellect?
|
| I used to hope Shermer or someone born out of Skeptic would take
| up the mantle (and I appreciate comedians like Gervais who take a
| swing at it) but I don't see anyone who hits as hard and
| succinctly as Randi did. I think it was also his showmanship that
| made it all work so perfectly.
| nabla9 wrote:
| Randi exposing Uri Geller in the 70s was huge event.
|
| Previously Uri Geller had passed DIA funded experiment conducted
| by Stanford Research Institut. The paper of this experiment was
| published in Nature.
|
| Geller was making millions. He was global celebrity.
| savanaly wrote:
| I first learned about him through some things Martin Gardner
| wrote, I believe. But I felt like I came to know him a lot better
| from watching the movie An Honest Liar [0].
|
| [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2246565/
| nosmokewhereiam wrote:
| He made fighting disinformation something for others to strive
| for, or at least that was my view of him. "Critical thinking is
| as to friendly fire isn't"
| core-questions wrote:
| > "Critical thinking is as to friendly fire isn't"
|
| Parser error on line 1
| cyberbanjo wrote:
| Critical thinking : not critical thinking :: friendly fire :
| not friendly fire
| neolog wrote:
| I still don't see how to parse it.
| Thasc wrote:
| Friendly fire isn't friendly, but critical thinking is
| critical.
| macrael wrote:
| I feel this one. I'm trying to remember what I read most about
| him. I watched old episodes of his skeptic TV show, exposing
| fraud after fraud (who never once repented) and I remember an
| article about him continuing to trade magic tricks with other
| magicians.
|
| .
| scosno wrote:
| RIP James Randi.
|
| My short anecdote. As a kid in 1984 in NJ I went to a high school
| where an english teacher claimed to have psychic abilities. At
| first I was enthralled but as I leaned toward scientific thought
| I grew skeptical. In english class with that teacher we ended up
| having debates as a project. I chose to debate the non-existence
| of ESP. James Randi lived in NJ at the time and I wrote or called
| (I don't remember) him to learn more to debunk these abilities.
| To my surprise, he invited me (and my father) to visit him at his
| home. He shared with me his thoughts, taught me an illusion (to
| use in my debate), and even shared that he had a file on my
| teacher who had claimed psychic abilities publicly and that he
| had failed Mr. Randi's tests. Thank you James Randi for your
| time, patience, education, and encouragement to pursue scientific
| thought.
| kejaed wrote:
| How did the debate go?
| scosno wrote:
| I got an A!
| hobby-coder-guy wrote:
| That sucks. The much younger identity stealing husband was a
| surprise in the recent documentary.
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