Back in 1988, when I first visited China, it was generally believed that there were children there who could split apples with their minds and read words written on paper scraps they held in their armpits or stuck in their ears. Things have changed. And especially now that the JREF is in direct touch with a potential new audience of 1.2 billion folks!
Courtesy of Mr. Charlie Chi, and our good friend Mr. Matthew Hu, a "mirror site" of this one will go up in the Chinese language, starting January 22nd. This is just two days before the Chinese New Year, and it’s our small gift to all our fans and friends in that vast country. It’s an exciting prospect! As you see on this page, a link button is provided, and you can take a peek at the Chinese content if you have the appropriate software — available for free download. Readers who use Internet Explorer may download the Chinese GB2312 or equivalent codes from the Microsoft web site www.microsoft.com/downloads/. Navigator users can go to the Netscape web site home.netscape.com/download/index.html/ to download the equivalent Chinese codes. Both are free.
The weekly page changes on the mirror site will be made by Chi and Hu, and they will provide translations into Chinese of articles and commentary from this web site that they feel will be of interest and benefit to their fellow-citizens.
Chi and Hu have made access to China possible for the JREF. We thank them sincerely, and we fully recognize the additional work-load that this will undoubtedly bring us. Though our colleagues in China will be handling those communications that they feel capable of answering, many will have to be forwarded by them to JREF for consideration. We look upon this challenge with great enthusiasm, and we’ll keep you informed of the progress of this new line of endeavor!
Regardless of philosophical and political differences between our countries, it is obvious that there is a serious need in every part of the world for citizens to be properly informed about quack medicine, mystical claims, and pseudoscientific nonsense. We are all subject to being deceived by "experts," "gurus," and "masters" who want to run our lives and take advantage of our lack of information. I’m proud and happy to have the JREF represented in the Chinese language, and I will certainly be inviting my good friend Sima Nan to contribute articles and comments to the page. He’s a fighter and a humanitarian, and I admire him very much.
If there are ambitious friends out there in other countries who feel they could match this project in their language as well, we encourage them to get in touch so that we may inform them of the necessary rules of agreement.
A remarkable event has occurred at the JREF that I think you should know about. It is so rare that we as an organization, and I as an individual, have never experienced it before. Simply put, a psychic claimant has independently observed an odd factor affecting his claim, has considered its impact, and reversed himself on the claim! This took place just this month, when an applicant wrote:
It has been a number of years since I registered myself as an applicant in the JREF $1,000,000 Challenge, and at this point I wanted to at least inform you of my intent, the subsequent experiment, and conclusion. I had found that I had a telekinetic ability to move metal plates with the motion of my hands, using a plastic wind screen to eliminate small air currents. . . . With time I found I soon could make the rotor spin with some velocity, and took notes as to my performance. After a few weeks it became apparent that the device would not work well on rainy days. Then it hit me, it was a simple static charge on my hands. To make sure I sprayed Static-Guard on the wind screen, and the device would no longer work. ...no million for me.
How refreshing, to experience a genuinely curious and non-delusive applicant! In contrast, the Indonesians who were tested late last year for the preliminary procedure required for the Million-Dollar Challenge — and failed — in Utah, they are still convinced that they have powers. During the Utah tests, we wondered why the "master" of the group would not undergo a test of his own powers, though he was there and chose to simply observe his pupils go down in flames. I think I understand quite well now why he declined. Dr. J. D. Morenski, whose article, "Empty Force Comes Up Empty," is in the last issue of our newsletter, SWIFT, tells us how another very obstreperous and vocal American martial arts "master" known as Dim Mak explained his own refusal to be tested by JREF:
The Amazing Randi has a reputation and business to discredit extraordinary claims. He and the specified individual also do not have a passive acquaintance. Quite the opposite. He also has a lot to lose, as a personal stake of $1,000,000 US if findings were in the individuals favor.
First, I don’t discredit anything; I test claims, that’s all. The claims fall apart, as these did. This is not at all a "personal stake." I have nothing to lose. The million dollars is in a special account, not available to me or to anyone else, for anything but the award. It’s not my money. And, as with these tests, the results are entirely out of my hands and interference. Dim Mak continues his impassioned attack (spelling and grammatical errors as shown):
Dr. Morenski has publically stated ad nauseum [sic] ow [sic] fraudulant, [sic] ludicrois [sic] and nonexistant [sic] this test subject is. Also personal differences have reached a mutual disdain for he [sic] and the tested individual.
You make of that whatever you can. It boils down to lame excuses based upon created problems. Attitudes and philosophies are freely invented to demonstrate the incompatibility of the persons involved, all of which mendacity does not address the major question: can these people perform as claimed? So far, the answer is a resounding, No! Not even for a million dollars!
Several readers, among them Stuart Slade, chided me for missing — a couple of weeks ago — an important fact regarding the item about the astrologer who predicted Al Gore's victory at the polls. Says Stuart, that's not the only thing she got wrong. He refers me to this section, where I quoted the astrologer’s press agent:
"She accurately foretold . . . Britain's 1990 contest for prime minister when John Major unexpectedly beat Margaret Thatcher." Actually, he didn't. Due to a very narrow win against a different opponent, Thatcher resigned from the leadership and nominated John Major as her successor. There was then a second election against a different opponent, which John Major won convincingly. Thatcher never ran against Major, let alone got beaten by him. So here we have an astrologer who not only can't get the future right, she can't get the past right, either!
It was careless of me to merely quote that part of the astrologer’s claim without checking.
Another claimant for the million-dollar prize was put to the preliminary test recently. He claimed that he could easily detect whether a simple dry-cell was charged or not, by having the positive pole pointed at his throat. We’re no longer astonished at this sort of claim, which the claimants themselves are very capable of testing double-blind, quickly, and easily, for themselves. The fact is that they just will not perform such a test before coming to us with their claim, though we urge them to do so to avoid tedious involvement of the JREF and themselves. They insist that they don’t need to do a test, because they’re convinced of their powers. Well, this was another such case. The claimant, a dentist, went to a local volunteer working for the JREF, agreed in advance that the test was acceptable and adequate in every respect, and was tested. The results of 34 trials were that he got 15 hits and 19 misses. Random chance would call for 17 and 17, but his score is within expectation; his score did NOT differ significantly from chance. The claimant took it well; some embarrassment and a desire to leave quickly, which was understandable. He opined that he had simply failed the test, and had no objections — at first. Then he thought it over, called in to express his renewed belief, but at this point in time he has decided that on that occasion, at least, he could not perform as he had expected. He can, of course, return again to be tested.
So once again, a claimant has performed the preliminary test, and has failed — getting just what would be expected by chance alone. But that’s what always happens. We’re not at all surprised.
After I’d written here that Sears was selling a line of useless strap-on magnetic health products, I was informed by several readers that Sharper Image also sells it. Remember, they’re the company that also brought you the magical — and very expensive — "Laundry Balls" that they claimed cleaned clothes without soap? One reader noted:
I'm well aware that Sharper Image essentially sells attractive, over-priced junk, so their participation in this magnetic therapy thing is no real surprise. They cover their bases by mixing anecdotal evidence with their scientific claims, by admitting that no one knows how magnetic therapy works but suggesting it's worth a try and by making certain that no one can accuse them of giving out medical advice (these are not band-aids, folks). They're selling devices that retain body heat which in itself should be enough to reduce pain and increase flexibility, at least that's how I think my heating pad works.
Ah, but just in time for the debut of our Chinese "mirror" site, we see that an American Chinese named Alex Chiu is peddling yet another phony magnetic product, a set of "Immortality Devices®" through the Internet. These are simply composition magnets — worth about one or two cents apiece in bulk — fashioned into a foot-clamp (see illustration from his catalog!) and pinky-finger rings. Anonymous testimonials assert "my white hair is turning back to original black," "I no longer feel as bloated after eating as I once did," and "my wife now uses a lot less pain pills than before." These are hardly as enthusiastic as the claims made in the text: " . . . pairs of polarized magnets . . . that strengthen and focus the flow of chi, promoting health, healing, and energy. Stop aging or your money back. . . . [the devices] are believed to stop you from aging permanently!" And all this — as shown in the illustration — can be yours for just $114.95. If you don’t mind looking silly and walking funny and you’re a fan of the Marquis de Sade, that is. When will the Food & Drug Administration do something to stop this nonsense? Perhaps just after they make Dr. Scholls and Florsheim Shoes stop bilking the public with their brand of much more sophisticated quackery. If Alex Chiu (www.liveforevernow.com) lives forever, he’ll get the million-dollar prize. We’ve set 1,000 years as "forever." No, wait, I’ll make that 200 years, so we won’t have too long to wait. However, if one of his customers dies at a younger age, he loses....!
For those of you in the South Florida area, I’m doing a lecture at Florida Atlantic University at 19 h. on Tuesday the 30th of this month, at the Liberal Arts Auditorium at 2912 College Avenue, Davie. Free admission to the public. Other appearances are always available for perusal on the "Scheduled Sightings" page here.
One of our puzzle-solvers made a good point last week, pointing out that I’d fallen into the habit of using the awkward measuring standards that we in the USA are still saddled with: inches, pounds, Fahrenheit degrees, p.m and a.m. clock time, etc. Though the whole rest of the world has switched to the metric system and a 24-hour clock long ago, we Americans cling to an awkward set of archaic rules that is difficult and definitely medieval. Well, appropriately sensitive to our readers’ opinions, from now on we’ll be metric. (Notice the lecture time above.) So there. The cylinder of last week would have been something like 15 cm. in length.... We’ll convert over the rest of the web page content, as we re-organize it....
Reaction to our request for commentary on the revamped web page has been heartening indeed. Lots of remarks came in, almost all complimentary, but with a few caveats as well, just what we were looking for. We’ll add a discussion board here as soon as we work out how to do that, and certain buttons will appear as well. You write, we read. Thanks, and the volume of responses made it impossible to reply to many, though all were appreciated. Credit is due our webmaster, Jeff Kostick, who is doubtless available to serve interested parties in a similar fashion. That was a shameless "plug" made in sheer abandon.
As for the weird hole-in-a-sphere puzzle, we got mostly correct answers. There were so many responses to this, too, that I could only reply to a small fraction of them. Some errors involved squaring the radius rather than cubing it, and there were a few outright arithmetical mistakes. We accepted 36 cubic inches or 113.1 cubic inches as correct answers. Here’s the diagram again, to help you. (By my own omission, this illustration was not put up on the page until 6 p.m. Saturday. Apologies.)
A few readers used calculus, most simple opted for algebra, but those folks missed the easiest way of all. In the illustration we provided, the radius of the drill used would be a little over 1.5 inches. If the problem has a unique solution, you can reduce the diameter of the drilled hole to zero, and the remainder of the sphere is then simply the present (undrilled) volume, which is 4/3 of pi times 27! Where do we get that 27? Imagine it this way: suppose the hole is of very, very, small diameter, so small that the "caps" at each end are insignificant. So we can forget the volume-of-a-cap formula. The height of the cylinder (H) is 6 inches, so the diameter of the sphere is now also 6 inches. That makes the sphere radius (R) equal to 3 inches, and 3 cubed is 27. If we now make that "very, very, small diameter" equal to zero, R is still 3.
In these illustrations, showing the smallest- and largest-drill-diameter cases, we see the sphere at its smallest possible size — 6" diameter — and at its largest, approaching infinity as the diameter of the drill gets larger. In the latter case, we’d have a tiny "girdle" and two enormous "caps." But it would still work!
By algebra, you can rewrite the given equations in terms of the sphere’s radius, R, and reduce it down to 36 pi, because the variables all cancel out neatly. In any case, you get the same answer no matter what "r" is, including zero. This is the "reduction" method I mentioned last week. Reader Lou Benaquista expressed it as several others did:
It does not matter how large the sphere is: the larger the sphere, the more material is drilled out, but the remaining amount remains the same. So the easiest way to calculate the remainder is a hole with r=0. The remainder is the volume of a sphere with a radius of 3" . . . .
A delicious problem, and a difficult one. This week, as you see by the illustration, we return to a variation of that strange light-bulbs-and-switches situation, but perhaps a somewhat easier version. Here it is. Downstairs you have three switches — all in the "off" position — only one of which can turn on the one light bulb upstairs. Question: If you can operate any or all of the switches, on or off, any number of times, what’s the minimum number of times you have to go upstairs or downstairs (each is counted as a separate trip) in order to determine which switch is connected to the bulb? No, you can’t see the light from downstairs, you can’t send your wife upstairs to look, no sound effects, all to take place within 15 minutes (no waiting 30 years for the bulb to expire!) and you can’t have a video camera on the bulb upstairs, etc., etc. This is a pretty easy one, I think. Answers, as always, to randi@randi.org, please.
