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Category: Latest JREF News
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In case you missed it, please check out the JREF's October News & Updates, in which Randi writes about the JREF's digital evolution: 

For those of you who have supported the JREF since our inception in 1996, and even for those folks who are new to our coterie, there are a plenitude of reasons to be delighted. For instance, the JREF plans in the short term to enter the realm of digital publishing with skeptical titles poised for release on the iPad and iPhone, Kindle, and other digital schemes. We are increasing our video content on Randi.org. We have also launched a new Grants for Educators program and our Regional Workshops are a reality with St. Louis, Chicago and Louisville already on record as the first of many such planned skeptical assemblages. We also recently awarded four new academic scholarships.  

Elsewhere in the newsletter, we congratulate the winners of the academic scholarships, introduce readers to two new JREF fellows (who, in fact, need no introduction, since they're Jeff Wagg and Karen Stollznow), round up the blog coverage of TAM8, point you towards some new-ish JREF videos (including a very cool clip of Dr. Richard Wiseman discussing Sai Baba), and lots more.

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Peter Thiel is a geek's favorite billionaire. Thiel, the German-born entrepreneur who, with Elon Musk, co-founded PayPal in the 90s, has spent the last decade mobilizing his billions in the service of genuinely visionary, often sci-fi-ish projects. (He has also financed at least one really bone-headed stunt. Sorry, Peter.) He was, famously, Facebook's angel investor, and he is the greatest patron of Patri Friedman's SeaSteading Institute. He's the lead backer of the Singularity Institute, and has recently dumped considerable capital into Musk's space exploration firm, SpaceX.

We at the JREF like Thiel primarily because he's so audacious. Sure, the SeaSteading project is likely a dead end – but what if it's not? Yes, Singularity studies may not bear fruit in the near-term – but what if they do? Reasonable people from all walks of life think privatized space travel is a terrible idea. But what if they're wrong? Thiel takes big risks with possibly enormous payoffs – payoffs for himself, personally, but also for the world in general. To us, this is a sign of nigh-heroic chutzpah. 

According to Slate's Jacob Weisberg, it is a sign that Thiel is an intellectual midget.  

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pacmanBefore becoming director of educational programs at the James Randi Educational Foundation, I worked in the Department of Science and Galleries at the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC). The SLSC is the fourth most-visited science and technology museum anywhere and twenty-fourth biggest museum of any kind in the United States. Its mission is to advance the community’s understanding of and appreciation for science. In most regards they do a great job of this. They have a world-class museum as well as robust educational and outreach programs that go a long way to elevate the standing of science here in Saint Louis, particularly to the under-served.

The big question then is this — why would an institution work so hard to promote science only to undercut their own message by offering pseudo-scientific ghost hunts that run counter to the SLSC mission?

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The fear of witchcraft is more dangerous than witchcraft itself. The former leads to wide-scale imprisonment, torture, and execution, while the latter is a mostly-harmless delusion.  

Unfortunately, this is not always the case.  

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Category: Newsflash
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Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo in medicine.

  1. Dr. Lovaas, We Barely Knew Ye
  2. The President of the United States -- On Mythbusters!
  3. The Science & The Humanity: How Literature and Critical Thinking Are Clearing a Dead Man's Name
  4. The JREF In Three Major Media Outlets