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I am sad to announce that Sadie Crabtree, our indefatigable communications director, is leaving the organization. A new mother, she is moving to London with her wife and son to be with their extended family there. We wish her well. In her time at the foundation, she has helped elevate our presence in the media, and has contributed importantly to the discussion about the best methods to communicate the skeptical point of view to believers. Her talk at The Amaz!ng Meeting last year was a hit in this regard. We look forward to exploring ways she may remain connected with our efforts, even if not as communications director. I asked Sadie for a brief comment on the move, and she has this to say:

"My time at the JREF has been rewarding, and I think the work we do is very important. I am sad to be leaving the organization, but glad to know the JREF will continue doing such great work to share the tools of critical thinking with the public. I'll miss working with the JREF team, but I look forward to staying connected with the organization and staying in touch with the friends I've made here. Travelling with Randi over the past year was an experience I'll never forget. He is truly one of a kind, and it was an honor to help advance the JREF's work."

What Sadie's moving means is that there is now an opening we need to fill for the position of communications director. You can find the details of the job opening here.

We all wish Sadie the best, and hope to see her at future skeptics events, even if not as a JREF staffer.

 

D.J. Grothe is president of the James Randi Educational Foundation and host of the interview show For Good Reason.

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According to a report from the U.K. news source Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review, a local bus stop may be haunted. "Fair enough," I thought upon first reading the headline. "My local bus stop is also haunted, mostly by some guy in an Ed Hardy shirt who always calls me 'Dynamite'." But this article is about another kind of haunting. This article is about a ghost.

Still, it's interesting that these stories count as news. Sure, a ghost, were it proven to be genuine, would be a monumental scientific discovery. It would answer one of humanity's fundamental questions: Is there life after death? And it would raise a host of new questions about the nature of physics, the spirit, and why one of the favorite activities of the disembodied seems to be amateur interior decorating.

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In this talk from the 2010 Amaz!ng Meeting, "Bad Astronomer" Phil Plait had a memorable suggestion for winning people over. The video of this talk is provided free of charge by the James Randi Educational Foundation. More JREF videos and TAM talks are available on our YouTube channel.

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I started feeling sick a month ago, now. First it was a sore throat-- always the harbinger of my winter viruses. Then the brain fog that makes me ask myself questions like "Why is 'un-derstand' a word, but 'derstand' isn't?" And finally the muscle weakness and fatigue that sets me on my couch for hours at a time, watching Newhart on loop. It was time to get serious about getting better: it was time to go to the pharmacy.

For most Americans, that means a quick stop for some Sudafed or a longer trip to the doctor for a prescription. For almost 5 million of us, it means stopping by the local drug store for something deemed gentler and more "natural" by the alternative medicine community: homeopathy. So I thought I would experiment a little and try to cure my illness with Coldcalm, a popular homeopathic cold remedy available at my local Rite Aid, and manufactured by Boiron Laboratories, the largest homeopathic peddler in the world. Knowing my symptoms would normally improve in four to seven days, I thought, if I felt better any sooner, I would give some credence to the medicine's potential power. Here's what actually happened:


Yes, after seven days of attempted contact, Boiron finally told me I could have my money back-- but only if I sent them a receipt dated within the last 14 days, and the bar code from the original box. That sounds fair until you consider that homeopathic remedies only seem to "work" when people feel better on their own, and that's often after a week or more has passed since the product was purchased. The company has conveniently picked a tiny window for returns, in which most people not familiar with the homeopathic scam are virtually guaranteed not to come to the same conclusions I did… yet.

Boiron is selling people fake medicine and profiting off their misinformation, knowing that by the time their customers have found out the truth, it will likely be past the chance for a refund on their bogus product. Will you join me and the JREF in telling Boiron to refund any customer who ever bought their products? If you've bought Boiron products and want your money back, "add a reason" when you sign the petition, and say so!

Click here to take action.

Carrie Poppy is the co-host of the investigative podcast, Oh No, Ross and Carrie. Sugar pills give her a stomach ache.

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In South Korea, a pastor and his wife are currently in police custody for killing their children, according to a report by CNN. The pastor, Park, and his wife, Cho, were accused of killing their three children by starving them to ward off evil spirits. The three kids, aged nine, seven and three, had been ill. But Park and the wife, who reportedly opened a church in 2009, believed it was a sign of evil spirits. They claimed that the children were possessed by demons. So, they subjected the children to a process of deliverance which eventually led to their death. They cut the children’s hair, starved them from January 24 to February 2, and gave them only water. Pastor Park and his wife tied the children’s arms and legs and beat them several times. The three died the same day, within hours. According to the police, the couple in their statement said they were praying in the hope of resurrecting the children! The police in South Korea are currently investigating the case and plan to prosecute the couple soon.  

  1. Last Week At Science-Based Medicine
  2. The Swiss Endorse Homeopathy
  3. JREF Media Roundup, February 16, 2012
  4. The Bloxham Tapes