It's beginning to look a lot like reason ...
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Friends,
As we near the end of 2011, I'm pleased to say that this has been the JREF's most productive and effective year on record.
We've made some major strides this year in standing up for rational thinking in a world of widespread belief in the paranormal and other harmful claims -- our media work including our appearance on Primetime Nightline, our nationwide challenge to proponents of homeopathy and the pharmaceutical chains that peddle it, our zombie horde that made headlines at James Van Praagh’s “Spirit Circle,” our new free educational materials, the grants and scholarships we've awarded, our support for local grassroots activism, our new ebooks and mobile apps, the ever-increasing success of TAM, and much more!
None of that would have happened if not for the support we received from concerned and dedicated skeptics and science advocates like you during last year's Season of Reason. Like most other nonprofits, the majority of our annual donations come in during this critical year-end period, and that largely keeps us going for the following year.
Now we at the JREF are focused squarely on 2012... and it's beginning to look a lot like reason.
James Randi at the University of Colorado Next Week
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The University of Colorado Physics Colloquium is a series of lectures featuring some of the brightest luminaries of science and science education. James Randi is honored to be speaking at the Physics Colloquium next week. This entertaining and insightful lecture will include Randi's thoughts on scientific skepticism and how the application of critical thinking is essential to making sure all of us, from professors to students, do not fall victim to our own powers of self-deception.
The lecture will be held Wednesday, December 7, at 4:00pm in Duane G1B20 at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The event is free and open to the local community, and you can find more details here .
The Burzynski Clinic
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- Written by Dr. Terry Simpson
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The Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas has been in the news lately – but not in a good way. They’re offering an experimental cancer therapy called “antineoplastons”. The therapy costs patients thousands of dollars (not covered by insurance) and has not undergone randomized controlled trials to prove its efficacy over other treatments.
Ever since the discovery that mustard gas (an agent used in chemical warfare) was found to reduce lymphoma cells, the field of oncology was born. This study of cancer is where you kill bad cells, and some good cells. Ultimately, the patient relies on the research in the field to have the most benefit with least toxicity. Only, sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. Often the journey of the cancer patient is not a pleasant one, with nausea, vomiting, hair loss, lethargy, and the feeling that you have the flu. Too often chemotherapy is like carpet bombing- you bomb everything and hope the good survives. When it doesn’t, the collateral damage can be a life – as it was with my brother who died after becoming septic from his first round of chemotherapy for lung cancer.
James Randi Answers Questions from Mexican Students
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Recently, James Randi took the time to conduct a Skype video chat with students at 
Mexico's Tecnológico de Monterrey, a higher education institution dedicated to creating new generations of entrepreneurs. In 2010, Professor Felipe Quintanilla helped to form a student group devoted to science and critical thinking, and they have enjoyed conferences with notable leaders in the skeptical world.
Randi answered student questions about his history as a magician and how a background in conjuring gave him the unique ability to recognize the tricks used by charlatans to fool the public into thinking they have supernatural abilities. He also discussed the founding of the James Randi Educational Foundation and how we have furthered our mission of science advocacy and education over the years.
Special thanks to Professor Quintanilla for allowing his students a chance to speak with Randi reinvigorate their passion for critical thinking.
Witchcraft and the Nigerian Court System
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I am writing to express my outrage over the conviction of two people for witchcraft in Bauchi state, Nigeria. Sadly, this misjudgment by a court of law has not received the opprobrium and condemnation it deserves. In August, it was reported that two persons, Adama Mamuda and Ibrahim Shehu Ganye, were sentenced to two years imprisonment by a magistrate court in Warji over their alleged involvement in witchcraft. They were ordered to pay the sum of a hundred thousand naira (around $700) to the so-called ‘betwitched’ woman, Hafsatu Sani, as damages for the suffering and trauma she went through. In July, a police inspector, Mato Albasu, had arraigned the two for conspiring and imprisoning Sani through witchcraft for four years. According to the police prosecutor, this was contrary to Section 216 of the Penal Code. He claimed that the two accused persons confessed to the crime. He told the court that one of the accused persons, Adama, took away the spirit of Hafsatu and gave it to the co-accused, Ibrahim. Since then, the spirit of Hafsatu had supposedly been in the custody of Ibrahim.
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