We're told that the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit last week against the city of Dickson, Tennessee, on behalf of a fortuneteller named Beth Daly, arguing that city officials had violated her right to free speech by barring her from selling her fortune-telling services. The ACLU director said that Ms. Daly is a law-abiding citizen (why that's part of the argument, I cannot tell) who stopped selling $25 tarot readings at the Curiosity Corner New Age Shop, when she was informed that it was against the law. Daly then went to the ACLU for help in getting the law changed, but Dickson officials were unresponsive.

The city of Dickson prohibits anyone from making money as a fortuneteller. The ordinance, modified in 1980, makes it illegal for "any person to conduct the business of, solicit for, or ply the trade of fortuneteller, clairvoyant, hypnotist, spiritualist, palmist, phrenologist or other mystic endowed with supernatural powers." Seems comprehensive, to me. The lawsuit, a first of this kind for the state of Tennessee, asks for the ordinance to be declared unconstitutional and for the city to be prohibited from enforcing the ban.

Now, I have frequent differences of opinion with the ACLU, none of which need be brought up here. On one occasion in New Jersey years ago, the organization supported my right to free speech when I dared to tell some disturbing facts about a local police department there — for which I'm of course grateful. I think the situation with Ms. Daly should come down to whether or not she is performing a genuine service for her clients, or merely giving them the same old malarkey. If the ACLU is so hot to defend mystics, would they consider also defending the local priest or minister who offers to intercede with the will of a deity by offering up prayers....?

Perhaps evidence that Ms. Daly is not very psychic, is seen in the fact that she didn't see this brouhaha coming....?

Good buddy James Oberg (www.jamesoberg.com) received a comment from someone who heard him on a radio program. The writer had accepted the contention of the FOX-TV no-Moon-landing farce that claimed the video cameras used on the Moon would have to be used at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, a ridiculous premise, as James points out. I think his response is worth repeating here. Jenny Dubby wrote to the show. Spelling, etc., as in the original:

I heard nothing from Mr. Oberg that indicates man went to the moon. He came down on a caller about using information from television. I have ask many, many to share one thing that indicates man went to the moon including you. NASA responded in writing "It was on TV for the world to see". I recently had an opportunity to ask why one of the astronauts did not hold the rover (420lb cart) over his head. Rather convincing. I was told that they were afraid he might drop it and damage it. They say they left it there as junk!!! I tried for over 2yrs, with the help of my congressman to obtain the spics [sic] on the camera that they claim took the pictures of the LM taking off of the moon. To my knowledge there was and are none that will operate in a vacuum at 300degs.

Mr. Oberg answered her:

Re your letter based on my "Coast-to-Coast" radio appearance last night: Why should a camera have to operate at 300 degrees? The temperature of the surface in the "morning" area where the astronauts always land was about 0 deg F. It didn't get up to 250 deg F for another week, and the men were long gone by then.

The cameras were essentially in "thermos bottles" — vacuum insulation — and painted white to reflect sunlight. They never heated up. Ditto the astronauts' spacesuits — the heat they had to get rid of was from the physical exertions of the astronauts (and some electrical usage).

300 degrees? That's a myth designed to impress people who don't understand physics. It's used by people who want to deceive you and have contempt for your intelligence and sense — perhaps rightfully so, by the sound of your letter.

Instead of demanding of other people that THEY bring to YOU information you claim to want, prove you really want it by learning how to find it yourself. Otherwise it just looks like a kid threatening to hold their breath until they get what they want.

Free yourself with truth. It awaits you. You only have to reach out with an open mind.

Well said, James. As with so much of what you say, I wish I'd said it....

An Article appearing in The Scientist — a bimonthly that supplies current information for "life scientists" — has alarmed our reader Michael Watters, and rightly so. It treats seriously the application of the "feng shui" notion to the design of laboratory facilities!

Pointing out that there are "dank, windowless labs, with dingy, unpainted, cinderblock walls that give a 1960s feel to the work environment," the article warns that this "can be a huge disadvantage for recruiting." "I had a visitor from Europe ask me why my building looked like a prison," one lab worker is quoted as saying, "This isn't the impression I was hoping he would take back to Austria."

The need to "make their labs more amenable visually and spiritually" can be evident, I agree. But to resort to feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of "placement," is ridiculous. You don't need pre-medieval ideas to use common sense. "Personally I think feng shui is bunk," says Charles Nicolet, facility manager at the Wisconsin Biotechnology Center in Madison. "I'm rooted in the belief that if something can't be addressed scientifically, it's probably not worth believing in."

But the article brushes off that closed-minded attitude and goes on to quote "certified practitioner" of feng shui Carol Olmstead, who maintains that it can be applied to lab design. She says she tries to create lab environments

. . . in which positive energy, called ch'i, can flow freely throughout the room. For this to work, the ch'i must first be able to get through the door, so clutter must go. Clutter is the biggest problem I find in all of my clients. It represents postponed decisions and the inability to move forward, by keeping the energy from flowing in and achieving what you can achieve. Windowless labs . . . create stagnant ch'i, through an imbalance of the energy coming from the night and the day. Many labs without natural light have too much yin ch'i (female energy), creating a feeling of coldness, discomfort, and fatigue.

Explains "The Scientist":

Such moods can be countered by bringing the outdoors into the lab. Placing symbols of nature in a room exemplifies the rules of feng shui, which dictate that the elements wood, fire, earth, metal, and water should be balanced within a space. Each element is associated with particular colors and shapes, and establishing a balance between them can be likened to the dynamics of the game "rock-paper-scissors." "Fire diminishes metal by melting it," says Olmstead. "Water does so by rusting it."

And this is a science magazine? Why and when did they abandon science in favor of fantasy? The "ch'i" can't get through the door? There a pool of "stagnant ch'i" in my lab? We have an excess of "yin ch'i" in here? What crap is this? Sure, good colors and inviting furniture and a good view of the outside, can all produce a pleasant work-place, but didn't I once hear that there were about 107 elements, and that we'd dismissed the idea of earth, air, fire, and water being all there is? Even this "improved" list — wood, fire, earth, metal, and water — doesn't seem acceptable, from what I've heard. But what do I know? I'm not a writer for The Scientist.

The magazine tells us that Glenn Takayama, president of Lab Vision, Fremont, Calif., is now a believer in feng shui after he hired "expert" Deborah Gee, having seen her on a PBS television special; he says that her consultation has had a noticeable effect on his lab and office. "There's just a different feeling in here, you can almost sense the difference in energy," he says. "Even my employees tell me things seem more relaxed, lighter." I've news for president Takayama. Maybe, just maybe, the improvement had nothing to do with a very tired old pseudoscientific notion, but more to do with the fact that Ms. Gee is a good interior decorator? Get real!

But I'm sure that tacking feng shui onto any consultation can bring the price up a few notches and bring the satisfaction to the customer that he's tapping into mysteries of an ancient world. Try flat Earth and epicycles, Glenn. That's really stepping backward into the past. Blood-letting and astrology, anyone? Look for it in upcoming editions of The Scientist.

The author of this piece, Hal Cohen, can be contacted at hcohen@the-scientist.

Back in 1967, I received a phone call from Dr. Gerald Hawkins, who was then professor of astronomy and chairman of the department at Boston University. He was famous for his theories about Stonehenge — the marvelous construction in Salisbury Plain, England — which he felt was a Neolithic computer/observatory built for predicting solar and lunar eclipses. The result of his research was a book, "Stonehenge Decoded," written by Hawkins with John B. White. The book caused a good deal of excitement, with opinions both pro and con being hurled about. Personally, I think the authors extracted much more information from the situation than was actually there. Nonetheless, Hawkins was given credit for having developed the science of archaeo-astronomy.

His call to me was to ask about my experiences among the wonderful lines drawn in the sands of the Nazca desert. I happily put him in touch with Maria Reiche, the strange and wonderful old German lady who put Nazca on the map, and who spent decades there studying the lines and the mystery they still evoke. I asked Professor Hawkins if he would be kind enough to contact me as soon as he'd decided that the desert lines had or did not have, any astronomical significance. Late in 1968, I received a second phone call, and Hawkins declared to me his disappointment that his findings were negative. I dared to suggest to him that even a negative result was useful, and that since astronomical alignments had been written off, other avenues of investigation could begin. He gave a great sigh and merely commented, "Yes, that's true, but positive results are far more interesting...."

Maria Reiche died in 1998, at age 95. It was my delight to have known her and to assist her work in a small way when I visited her. She was Teutonically over-obsessed with numbers and measurements, and that caused many of her findings to be doubted, but she did manage to convince the Peruvian government to set aside the desert site as an historical monument, an accomplishment to be celebrated.

In recent years, Hawkins came up with a theory on Euclidean geometry and musical intervals to explain "crop circles," which greatly disappointed me. I see it as a dreadful example of data-searching and pattern-seeking to account for a schoolboy prank. A site devoted to crop-circles exults, as if they'd discovered an interplanetary revelation:

In one case, for example, an equilateral triangle fitted snugly between an outer and an inner circle. It turns out that the area of the outer circle is precisely four times that of the inner circle.

Well, that's just what happens when two concentric circles of radii "a" and "2a" are drawn.... And this is the sort of evidence on which belief in crop circles is based?

Gerald Hawkins died just recently of a heart attack, aged 75.

Someone you won't know — Terence Kingsley Lawson — also died last week. He was "T.K." to me, a chum of mine when I was growing up in Canada. He became a magician before I did, and inspired me to take up the hobby. T.K. was a big, boisterous, performer, with a great feeling for humor, which was a large part of his performance. He long ago moved to British Columbia and actually got a "real" job, so magic went back into the hobby phase with him. I'll miss you, T.K.

Scientific American had the following in its newsletter recently, the abstract of a new U.S. patent:

Apparatus and method for detecting and identifying organisms, especially pathogens, using the aura signature of the organism, patent 6,466,688, Thomas P. Ramstack of Silver Spring, Md. A technology for detecting "auras," or "electromagnetic fields created by the action of the cells of all living organisms." It purportedly screens for pathogens involved in disease or biowarfare. "Typically, the auras of diseased persons bear telltale colors, and the auras may have holes or gaps not normally present in healthy persons. An illness can often be detected as a dark brown glow in a person's aura."

No comment.....

Go to http://www.netspeed.com.au/ttguy/ for a few laughs, please....!

Reader Kevin Klein, noting the "capture" of Saddam Hussein's two sons, offers the following thought:

With a $25 million bounty offered by the US government for information leading to the capture of Mr. Hussein, why haven't any so-called psychics used their powers to earn a little spending money? Surely Ms. Sylvia Browne would find 25 million bucks enough motivation to engage her paranormal powers in the hunt for Mr. Hussein! And now that Mr. Hussein's sons have "crossed over", so to speak, can we expect Mr. John Edward to joint the hunt?

I'm not holding my breath...

Mr. Klein, I'm surprised at your ignorance. Saddam and his sons were killed way back at the start of the attack on Baghdad! How can we doubt the statement of "psychic" Riley G. Matthews, Jr., who, as he predicted on March 24th, 2003, referring to himself in the third person:

[He] conducted a remote viewing session shortly after the Iraq war started and his viewing revealed that Suddam [sic] Hussein and his Sons were in fact killed in the initial US aerial bombings of the Baghdad military targets. Riley G's viewing also revealed that the present Iraq Military regime would be withholding the deaths until after the US invades Baghdad. Shortly before the city of Baghdad is liberated a special news release by the Iraqi military will relay that Saddam and his sons died fighting for Iraq. This release would be done to keep the present Saddam regime in some sort of power with the Iraqi military and terrorist ties, and not to give credit to the US for killing Saddam on the first strike in the war. Riley G believes that if the truth about Saddam's demise was known to the Iraqi people that they would revolt and break-free of Saddam's terrorist control and take up arms against the Iraqi military.

Riley G's remote viewing also revealed that Saddam's people may in fact release a chemical attack in the final hours of the war to kill as many US military members and his own people as possible. The belief is to martyr them all rather than allow a free Iraq.

Just par, for remote viewing! Five "revelations" wrong out of five! But nine days before that, this potent RV'er had said that he had:

. . . a strong suspicion that when we (USA) start our direct invasion of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein's troops will fire off those Chemical weapons that he does not have . . . and wind up killing off his whole city... Better to martyr them all that [sic] surrender to the evil USA...

Six out of six...

I've decided to abort our current "ESP" effort that began two weeks ago, because my readers are cleverer than I thought! My supposedly secure encoding of the correct answer was solved by seven readers! I was unaware that they would be so familiar with the ISBN codings.... I won't make that error again. My next coding will be better, I assure you. Yes, we'll continue. Another choice of target has been made, it's sealed away, and we begin again.

I was disappointed to see that 19 out of the total of 284 responses arrived without the "psychic estimate" we required. Those entries were rejected, leaving 265. And one entry came in to the general JREF e-mail address, not the one provided. Read the instructions, folks! This was not really meant strictly as a test, though we used that term. It was a form of survey, to study which targets might be more attractive, and, to see if guessers might tend to select targets by position in a list. The results so far have been very interesting in both those respects....

If all targets had an equal chance of being selected, each would get a little less than 11 of the votes. As it is, the chosen target obtained 19 votes, and though only 26 of the total of 265 guessers gave above-zero estimates of their psychic powers, 4 of those estimates were given by those who "hit" the correct target, estimates of 1, 2, 3, and 10! And that 10 was the only 10 in the entire data pool!

Here are the results of the aborted test, targets on the left, votes on the right:

And the one that was the actual target? That was the "Empty bottle."

So, we're starting again. At 4 p.m. EST on July 25th, a new target was randomly chosen from the list of 25 above, and was locked into the Remote Viewing locker. Just so that you'll know we're careful about selecting, I sliced up the above list into strips, shuffled them up, and dropped them from a height onto the floor, announcing that first one to flutter down and land over a certain line on the floor, would be the new target. And that target is coded as: "aigdelbstt."

Okay, all those who have nothing better to do, try working out THAT code! Hah! (I reserve the right to apologize for my confidence, if anyone does work it out....)

PLEASE: send guesses only to Jonathan@randi.org, and include your estimate of how much psychic power you think you have. Guess and estimate only, please.

Three bronze plaques belonging to the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, inscribed with Biblical passages, were removed this month from scenic spots at the Grand Canyon's South Rim, in response to an action by the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. It was found that the plaques violated the U.S. Constitution's precepts on separation of church and state. However, they've just been hastily reinstalled pending further legal decisions. In the present political atmosphere, I don't hold much hope that they'll be leaving again.

As a national park, the Grand Canyon is run by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The plaques were placed at the busy South Rim 33 years ago "to honor God for creating the majestic canyon in northern Arizona." A spokesperson for the ESM said, "We are very happy they are back up and giving glory back to God again. We are all praying now that they will remain up."

Consider: for 33 years now, this deity has been receiving notice that he's a nice guy for using millions of years of eruption, erosion, upheaval, and weather to produce the canyon. In fear that he might take it away and disappoint all those tourists, let alone the loss of revenue, the powers-that-be (really be!) have re-posted the area to satisfy the deity and avoid confrontation. One of the Nat King Cole renditions that I have in my car's CD player goes: "It's a Barnum and Bailey world, just as corny as it can be...."

Though I'm saving most of the critiques I got on my page of last week, perhaps even turning that great volume of material into a minor book, I'll share with you now one very valid point from reader John Renze. I'd written: "Science is a search for basic truths about the universe, a search which develops statements that appear to describe how the Universe works, but which are subject to correction, revision, adjustment, or even outright rejection, upon the presentation of better or conflicting evidence." John commented:

This is true of science, but it is also true of philosophy and history, among other disciplines. The key characteristic of science which separates it from all other fields of endeavor is experimentation. Once a scientist has developed a model which fits all of the data he or she has available, he or she designs an experiment to test this model. The design and results of an experiment are as important a step as the development of the model itself. A scientist does not just wait for "the presentation of better or conflicting evidence," he or she actually goes out and tries to create such evidence. The absence of such evidence to the contrary despite great effort expended to produce it, is responsible for the great deal of confidence we have in scientific claims.

Excellent point, John. I'd neglected to include experimentation — and the willingness to experiment, regardless of the outcome — in my piece. I'll certainly add a section to cover that.

A frequent correspondent is "Charlie in Dayton," who was the first to correct an error of mine in Biblical "truths," and since that boo-boo appeared several delighted believers have celebrated my ignorance. From Genesis 4:25:

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

Oops! I'd forgotten about the replacement for Abel. And I'm also informed that in Genesis 5:4 it says that Adam had other sons and daughters. Sorry....! I blame it all on the fact that I have little interest in mythology.

You can just imagine how the agitated believers have jumped on this example of my abysmal ignorance of Scripture. To them, my entire essay is damned because I forgot about Seth, and didn't mention that Adam lived 800 years. Other parts of this garbled and contradictory book, the Bible, tell the uncritical faithful that Adam and Eve produced bushels of descendants (no TV, stamp collecting, or other distractions, don'tcha know) and thus incest gave rise to the whole human race. Ah, no! squeal the faithful, this is yet more evidence of my ignorance: incest wasn't against The Rules until after Adam and Eve turned out this mass of kids!

As I said before, you can't win an argument with the credophiles. They cling to their delusions, they won't entertain any reason or logic, and they merely repeat the same old lies and errors repeatedly, satisfied that since their thinking has already been done for them, they're safe from the facts. And, remember, the Guy in Charge is very fierce, and not to be doubted....

There's just such a huge amount of feedback — pro and con — over this essay, that I'm seriously considering turning it into a book. The writers of the objections do such a great job of sinking their own boat, that hardly any commentary need be added, in my opinion.

To the many readers who made useful, interesting comments, or merely said, "well done," I apologize for not getting back to you with an acknowledgement. There were just too many to handle.

In India, our good friend B. Premenand has been tirelessly battling the "god-man" Sathya Sai Baba, who we have referred to frequently on this site. Now, it appears that at least some of the lies and wild claims of this "guru" are being noted and acted upon by responsible persons, despite some continuing blind acceptance of the Baba's divinity and purity.

For example, the US State Department's "India — Consular Information Sheet," of November 23, 2001, carefully avoids naming Sathya Sai Baba, though it warns of reports of sexual abuse of males by an un-named religious teacher there in its Travel Advisory section. Can we suspect political reasons here? However, since the Baba has announced his intention to visit the USA soon, the State Department and FBI might very well choose to take action if this happens. The Indian Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, and three high-profile co-signatories of a public letter issued in India say that the contentions of illegal behavior are "wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba." This can be seen at www.saiguru.net/english/news/020927oppenletter.htm . British Prime Minister Tony Blair has written a letter assuring one of the House of Commons members, Hon. Tony Colman MP, that he will not meet Sai Baba, contrary to previous reports that he would, and strong national parliamentary action is being prepared in the UK and Australia. The New York Times, Nov. 1, 2002, to be seen at www.saiguru.net/english/news/021201nytafriend.htm and the International Herald Tribune of November 3, at http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/taroorsarticle.html ran completely different, badly unbalanced stories favorable to the Baba, likely stimulated by his newly re-vamped propaganda machine. The NYT, still smarting from their recently-revealed unprofessional carelessness, seemed to be oblivious to the well-known and thoroughly publicized scandals about the Baba. Anyone doing the simplest web search in recent years would have immediately seen references adverse to the Baba. Recently, the American ex-astronaut Dr. Brian O'Leary said that he had, following the receipt of documentation, cancelled his scheduled appearance in Chennai, India, which would have essentially endorsed Sathya Sai Baba, and he said that he is terribly sorry that his good name has been misused by Sai devotees. He's taken action with those concerned to prevent this from happening again. See http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/directlytonews.html , posting for Tuesday February 18, 2003.

A few years ago, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester stopped Sai Baba sect meetings there, as has been done at the University College of London, at Downey House public school, and at Lord Wandsworth College. The setting up of Sai schools has been curtailed significantly, and the Sai School in Hartford, Connecticut, fully sanctioned to commence operation, was closed by the intervention of several activists who petitioned for its closure. Owners of Sathya Sai Baba meeting venues, such as schools and community organizations, have been shown the abundant evidence about the Baba, and have been canceling functions. This constitutes defeat at the hands of the very communities the Sathya Sai Organization would wish (for example, via its secular Human Values push) to win unto itself. A new project is geared to put the facts at the disposal of influential "New-Age" promoters such as Wayne Dyer and Doreen Virtue, and those publishers, bookstores and associations who promote their work, who write and speak favorably about Sathya Sai Baba. I've little hope that this information will shake the faith of those who make money from promoting such nonsense....

In Australia, the Sai National Conference, scheduled at the University of Adelaide, April 18-25, 2003, was just cancelled. The Vice-Chancellor of the university had appointed a senior staff investigator to explore the matter, and within the month he cancelled the venue, catering arrangements, and all. The state's leading newspaper, The Advertiser, of Tuesday February 18, 2003, stated: "South Australian Sai Baba leaders say the allegations are unproven and plan to continue with the event, vowing to fight the university's cancellation." As we've said before, no amount or quality of evidence will shake the faith of true believers. Sai conference spokesman Ken Soman told the Advertiser, "We have an arrangement with the university and we are paying the student union $30,000 to cater the event." Again, big Sai dollars refused to speak all languages. See www.saiguru.net/english/news/030224univadelaidecancels.htm

Still, for many weeks the Sai Organisation maintained its Conference website, now withdrawn. None of the invitees accepted the invitation to attend as special guests, yet for many weeks, the authors mentioned on the website, T. Sri Ramanathan and Ken Soman, claimed to have invited the Prime Minister, Premier, Lord Mayor and Roman Catholic Archbishop! The Lord Mayor said that he had not in fact been invited! The Chief Administrator for the South Australia Premier, Mike Rann, said "We did receive an invitation. We looked at it and said mmm, no!" Archbishop Philip Wilson's private secretary reported that, in response to the revelations about the god-man, "The Archbishop is discussing the matter with his advisors.": She reassured all that the Archbishop certainly would not accept any invitation by the Sathya Sai Organisation. The Advertiser also confirmed refusals of these same individuals to attend the conference.

Not the least of Sai Baba's garbled, contradictory and unscientific statements about the world are his comments on magnetism, to be seen at www.saiguru.net/english/articles/56Bmagnetism.htm. In a public discourse March 13, 2002, he told thousands of rapt devotees that his divine magnetism holds him to the ground, impeding his feet and hand movements. "So when I put my foot down, the whole foot stuck to the ground. It is a little hard to lift a foot that is stuck. Wherever I walk, it sticks there. Whatever is held, it sticks to my hand. This magnet is not in everyone like this. This magnet is so powerful only in Divinity." No, I think not. This is known to mere mortals as, gravity. Look it up, Baba.

I suggest that you look at www.nzarh.org.nz/journal/autumn00.htm#SAIBABA to obtain a fuller look at this odious man's reputation as revealed by real research.

I must sincerely thank Australian Barry Pittard for this updated information on the Baba's accelerating slide into obscurity.

When I see a headline like: "BBC team says it has shown there is no such thing as the Loch Ness monster," I have to wonder how this miracle was accomplished. Short of draining the entire loch, I can't imagine how it was done.... However, bearing in mind that headings are often written by specialists who appear not to have read the article for which they've prepared provocative introductions, and often seem to have been taken right out of grade school, I was in a forgiving mood, validated by the opening paragraph:

Using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to ensure that none of the loch was missed, the team surveyed the waters said to hide Scotland's legendary tourist attraction but found no trace of the monster.

"Found no trace of the monster" is quite different from having "shown there is no such thing as the . . . monster." Cleverly, the team moored a buoy several meters below the surface of the loch as a test target for their sensing devices, and that was easily found — but no monster was detected. They went from shore to shore, and top to bottom, covered everything in the loch and saw no signs of any large living animal, though they got some good clear data of other sorts, on the famous loch.

There was more to their cleverness. As a test of the reporting abilities of witnesses, the BBC team researchers concealed an ordinary fence post beneath the surface of the water and suddenly raised it in front of a party of unprepared tourists. Interviewed afterwards, most witnesses said that they had simply observed a square object, but several of them drew monster-shaped heads when asked to sketch what they thought they'd seen.

Remember, it would be the "monster" reports of such an encounter that would be recorded and published, in such an event, and if the others were mentioned at all, those would be of the witnesses who "didn't see the monster's head," as if the monster's presence was the basis of the event.

Well done, BBC!

I'm off to the UK, and I'll try to get a page off to our webmaster, Jeff Kostick, in time for next week. Meanwhile, it's been pointed out that our "search" facility does not work very well, and a good friend suggested a way of using a well-established and very efficient system, instead. To find anything on the archives of the JREF page, just enter the subject in the "search" box as usual, then hit "Go!" and you'll be taken via Google (Google knows everything!) and shown only references that are on our web page. Thank you for being there, Google!

Magic......! James Randi.