I'll start off this week's commentary by giving a few opinions about magician David Blaine's current stunt, surviving for 44 days in a transparent plastic box suspended from a crane, in London. I'll not go into the technical aspects of the matter, but I want to comment on the bizarre attitude shown by the UK citizens who seem intent on giving Blaine as hard a time as they can.

He's a performer, an entertainer, and obviously a highly successful one. He's denied repeatedly that he has any "psychic" powers. He allows people to theorize and wonder about his stunts, and they fill dozens of sites and newspaper columns with strange ideas of how he might be doing these things. Let me make this clear: none of these are mysteries to the conjuring profession. We know how they're done, and we look at them with interest, though we certainly differ with our assessments of the value he adds to, or takes from, the field.

In February of 1956, I replicated Harry Houdini's 1926 survival stunt in a sealed metal coffin measuring 22" by 22" by 6'6" — in fact, an exact duplicate of the original box. I stayed there for an hour and 44 minutes, shown live on the NBC "Today" show. Two years later, in London, I did the same stunt, that time for two hours and three minutes. The reaction I got on both was quite satisfactory and furthered my career, but there were also comments that I was only imitating Houdini, and I chafed under that impression. From that time on, whether I was dangling over the street wrapped in a strait-jacket, or sealed in a gigantic milk-can on stage, I did whatever I could to avoid the almost-inescapable (pun!) comparison.

Similarly, Blaine is being compared with the flagpole sitters of former times, and the many buried-alive fakirs. So what? Violinists are compared to Perlman, and boxers to Ali. That can be a compliment, if you choose to look at it that way. Left to his activities, he's doing just fine. Give him a break.

My fear is that he's being manipulated by his handlers, who are attracted by the money that is attendant on such matters, and often don't much care about damage he might do to himself. When I attempted last week to send a 30-word message to him via e-mail, as I've done before, this time it was intercepted and blocked; the reason given was that it was "too long." Sure. When any artist ceases communicating with the real world — particularly with members of his own profession — he's being manipulated, not handled.

The London yahoos, basing their idea of entertainment on how they behave at soccer games, are pelting Blaine's box with eggs, rotten fruit, paintballs, and bottles. Some golfers were trying to hit him with golf balls driven from the nearby bridge — which could not only inflict injuries on David, but could easily wound — or kill — other spectators. A 34-year-old Brixton lout (34 in calendar years but hardly in intelligence) was bombarding the box "to break him and get him down." Now, there's a great ambition, clearly stated by an intellectual giant. Destroy the act, possibly injure him, and be admired by your friends?

Where does this vandalous urge come from? Are destruction and damage goals these people have set up? How can they defend their actions? Admittedly, David Blaine walked into this with his eyes open, but he could not, I think, have anticipated the hatred and hostility that some Londoners have now offered him. It's mean-spirited, it's rude, it's uncivilized.

Go, David. You're in the papers; they're not.

Reader Harrison Bolter of San Diego wants to recommend to readers of Swift that they check out an organization called Americans United for Separation of Church and State at www.au.org. Says Harrison, it's

. . . led by a lay minister, Barry Lynn, this group has been fighting to keep church and state separate for a number of years, and has taken on all manner of religious zealots like Moore, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and many other Neo-Nazis (not that I'm biased or anything). They publish a great newsletter called Church and State. OK, end of commercial.

Reader Mark D. Proulx, who describes himself as "An Enthusiastic Bright," opines:

I was reading the latest commentary on your JREF website "Benveniste and Josephson on Abandoning Science" and thought it appropriate to mention something about having "non-lettered individuals" on the team of investigators. Aside from the obvious "clique" that surrounds those of academic performance, there is the fact that these individuals support each other altruistically due to the fragile nature of their "work." They MUST support each other for the good of the entire industry (kind of like Gerald Ford's pardoning of President Nixon to SAVE the office of the presidency) regardless of the personal cost, in order to save their industry.

Having worked in the medical device manufacturing industry for a dozen years, I am keenly aware of our FDA rules that require our having a person completely disassociated with the groups involved in testing, developing, qualifying, etc. in order to have an objective opinion, without any biases associated with the project or persons involved. In fact, since I have seen firsthand the benefits of utilizing outside opinions from end users who generally are not near as technically capable as our engineers, I can't understand how any scientific process would NOT involve a completely unbiased opinion — as with an "unlettered person" (by the way...I love that term!) Without the end-user input or unbiased third party, our engineers would be working in a vacuum and would almost never develop devices useful to the public. Thank God for the "unlettered!"

I am NOT saying that this practice is perfect; however, my work stands up to criticism. And, uh, I don't fold under the criticism. I anticipate it.

What I find most interesting is the lengths to which people will go to support their belief system — whether scientific, religious or otherwise. I can wholeheartedly agree that the scientific method is the best for competent affirmation of a belief; however, both "science" and "religion" have far too many leaps of faith for me with no attempts at affirmations at all. I have little faith in either, simply because at the heart of it all is a person — with his or her own personal agenda — and an entire industry of individuals with egos so fragile that they shatter upon close scrutiny. To this end, in my humble opinion and MUCH to the chagrin of both groups, science and religion are two sides of the same bad penny....

As Dennis Miller has said so eloquently so many times..."It's just my opinion — I could be wrong."

Mark, science differs from religion in many respects, the most important being that science can reverse itself, it can be wrong and yet survive ever more strongly; religion cannot do this. Any "leap of faith" that science makes must be validated and accepted before it is used, and no person in science operates as an individual, but uses the fabric and the foundation of millions who have gone before, as material from which to build. Decisions, findings, statements, made by a scientist must be affirmed; many very beautiful notions in science "shatter upon close scrutiny," a phenomenon not ever seen in religion.

I disagree with you strongly on your conclusion, but I thank you for expressing your feelings on the matter.

Aside: You're a Bright, yet you're thanking who...?

To get pointers on how to make your very own crop circles, go to www.circlemakers.org/exhibit_a.html

Reader Diana Thoren reports:

Today on [the Montel Williams TV show] a couple told Sylvia [Browne] that their daughter had died about five years ago. (She looked about 17 in the photo.) They wanted to know what she had died from. Sylvia announced, "She was shot." The couple both gave her the most perfect "You're full of sh**" look, then said together, "She collapsed in her room." Sylvia repeated, "She was shot." The father said, "The autopsy -" and Sylvia interrupted him with, "I don't care what the autopsy said. She was shot." The mother said, "There were no bullet fragments, no signs of a shot, she just collapsed."

Montel leapt to Sylvia's rescue (again) and said, "Was she into sports? Because lately there have been kids that came home after being struck in the chest and just died, and didn't have any bruises." The couple shook their heads, "no." By the time Montel and Sylvia finished backpedaling, they had settled for "something in the chest or heart." And that was that.

How in the *blank* does she keep getting away with this?

Diana, Williams is a big name, with a lot of influence. He's also well-educated and intelligent. But his only interest is in getting and keeping viewers, and thus he simply doesn't care. The huge gaffes that Browne has committed on his show — such as this one — surely show him and his employers that she is feeding on the grief and vulnerability that is presented there, and Williams is obviously willing to be part of that cruel process. But this is big business; victims have to outnumber those who profit from such a swindle. I repeat: Montel Williams knows, but he just doesn't give a damn.

We forgot to mention last week that the Ten Commandments monument that Alabama has hanging around its collective neck, was paid for by none other than Dr. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, here in Florida. This silly preacher raised thousands of dollars from his fans to help the Judge's cause. Under the cover of darkness, while the monster rock was being surreptitiously sneaked into the municipal building, Kennedy's team even recorded the crime and sold the video tape to supporters!

Don't pass up the chance to read the material at www.spaink.net/fishman/home.html because it just may vanish, knowing how much money the Church of $cientology will spend to suppress such material...

I was misinformed about the Danish partnership between Karen Boesen and Henry Weingarten, the New York City "financial astrologer" that I mentioned last week. Karen apparently had a divine revelation that Henry was making free with some assets of her astrological association's clients, and severed connections with him a few years ago. Perhaps she didn't cast his horoscope before taking him into the organization? Or he lied about his birthdate to throw her off? Astrology is, after all, a strange science in which the success rate is indistinguishable from chance expectation... But Forbes Magazine, seemingly unaware of Henry's performance record, still quotes him as "editor of Wall Street Next Week." My, my. We mere mortals will just never understand the complexities of running business by the positions of the stars and planets. Hey, President Reagan tried it... A Danish correspondent informs us that Mr. Weingarten's next congress in New York will have as its theme, "Discover how some of the world's best financial astrologers think, advise and manage money." As our informant adds, "Yeah, we have already discovered how..."

The following quotation, sent to me by Mike Conefrey of Virginia, can be found in "The Lunar Men" by Jenny Unglow. Writing that ignorance and credulity had always marched together and had "misled and enslaved mankind," Dr. Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of the better-remembered Charles) wrote in "Zoonomia IV" that Philosophy, or experimental science

. . . has in all ages endeavored to oppose [the progress of ignorance and credulity] and to loosen the shackles they had imposed; philosophers have on this account been called unbelievers: unbelievers of what? Of the fictions of fancy, of witchcraft, hobgoblins, apparitions, vampires, fairies; of the influence of the stars on human actions, miracles wrought by the bones of saints, the flight of ominous birds, the predictions from the bones of dying animals, expounders of dreams, fortune-tellers, conjurors, modern prophets, necromancy, cheiromancy [chiromancy/palmistry], animal magnetism, metallic tractors, with endless varieties of folly? These they have disbelieved and despised, but have ever bowed their hoary heads to Truth and Nature. . . .

Readers often suggest that I'd approve of certain rather drastic methods of handling purveyors of nonsense, and I usually disagree. Two current examples:

Another divine commandment, this one from Exodus 22:18, declares: "Do not allow a sorceress to live." No, I don't support that, but I'd endorse, "Do not allow a sorceress to live comfortably." Hi, Sylvia!

Physicist Peter Hagelstein, speaking recently to the 150 scientists attending the recent 10th International Conference on Cold Fusion in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told the assemblage, "Well, we're here. Many people in the scientific community feel we should be shot." No, no, no! I think they should be ignored. That's even worse...

Many, many readers sent me articles on Sweden's Lund University, one of the oldest seats of learning in Scandinavia, which has announced that it will take a quantum leap into the ridiculous by appointing northern Europe's first "professor of parapsychology, hypnology and clairvoyance." Damn, why didn't we think of that? Some 30 candidates, including a self-professed Indian medium and an American named Heaven Lord, applied for the post, which was financed by a donation. The position, says the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, should be known as the "Ghost Professor."

He or she will be solemnly, officially, appointed by Lund University Dean Goran Bexell, and will be expected to start work in 2004. The Dean may have to hide a snicker or two, but he'll manage, when he reflects on the clout that having such an attractive pseudoscience on the Lund University roster, will bring. The university's success depends on registrations, and just a few students lured in by this quackery will make a noticeable difference in the revenues.

"Hypnology" is said to be "the science of the phenomena of sleep and hypnosis." Our good friend Sven Ove Hansson, professor of philosophy at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, responded to media inquiries by saying, "Verifying the existence of paranormal phenomena does not seem to be a promising field of science." Dr. Hansson, the author of "Förklarade Mysterier," a 1986 book dealing with paranormal claims, was kinder than I might have been. Note that Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and Scotland's Edinburgh University also have chairs in parapsychology. I have no difficulty with that, providing that the chairs are filled by posteriors topped with brains.

From New Zealand, reader Sharath Chandra:

I am a first year engineering student here at The University of Auckland. About a month ago, I stumbled upon this TV show called "The Profilers" on TV Two (we have only four regular TV channels). It claimed to be a NZ-based show which brought together a panel of four "profilers" who would question a person and then tell them what had happened in their past, though I can't see of what practical use that could be! The panel consisted of a clairvoyant, an astrologer, a numerologist, and two other people who called themselves some "ologists" — they have weird names.

So the program went like this: the host would call out people — real people apparently, who'd had a significant life-changing incident. The profilers would ask a couple of questions each and then retire into their rooms and come up with what they thought was the actual incident. And they had this real cool buzzer that sounded whenever they got it right — which was always — even I got a tingling down my spine when I heard it! So yeah, that was how it went.

But apparently all the four "profilers" had a pre-program interview with each of the "clients"! There you go, just when you were wondering if this was the real thing! The host himself was not a layman, he was a handwriting "expert"! So when the profilers were in their rooms racking their brains to come up with a solution, this guy would seat the client beside him and ask him/her to write something down for him and then would tell him/her what kind of a person he/she is.

And then there was this name-analysis guy who told us that all Pauls were liars! I thought he was joking but he actually wrote down "Paul" on a whiteboard and proceeded to explain why Pauls tend to be liars. Makes one wonder what is stopping them from lying about their name!

I thought this was a one-time show, since TV Two tends to do whacky things occasionally. But when I heard the host saying, "Come back next week, for we'll be back with more magic from the profilers," I knew I had to do something. I sent an email to the guys at TV Two telling them off really badly for irresponsible telecasting. This was the first time I have ever done that kind of thing so I kind of gave it my all, and by the time I pushed "send," I was really proud of myself.

"The profilers" never had a second episode. They probably got more hate mail than they could read!

Sharath, it's quite possible that this was what's known as a "pilot" or "example" show that was done in hopes that a series might develop. Such items are often simply shown just as "fillers," and/or to just pay the production costs, when no one shows any interest. However, there have been similar series in other countries that have run as many as six and eight shows before expiring.

Bob Park's APS "World News" site just ran this item:

POLYGRAPH ROULETTE: DOE HAS MASTERED "THE EXPECTATION GAME."

A two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences, "The Polygraph and Lie Detection," showed polygraph testing to be less than worthless (WN 18 Apr 03). You might have expected at least a token decrease in testing by the Department of Energy. Instead DOE boldly reissued the old policy, which would subject about 20,000 employees to random character assassination. There was an immediate outcry from employees, and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) convened an Energy Committee oversight hearing on Thursday, where DOE announced that a mere 4,500 employees with top-secret clearance or positions in intelligence will now be subject to having their careers trashed by polygraph roulette. It was a victory for Sen. Domenici, who praised DOE for its enlightened policy. But nothing in the NAS study says the polygraph works better if you have top-secret clearance.

You'll remember that a Steven J. Hatfill came under FBI suspicion in the anthrax matter, and lost his security clearance after a CIA-administered polygraph test yielded "inconclusive" results. Sources familiar with Hatfill's work record said that CIA polygraph examiners tested him as part of his application for top-secret clearance. They reported "inconclusive" results to questions about his years and relationships in Rhodesia and South Africa, and as a result, his regular security clearance was suspended. These agencies insist upon using this primitive, ineffective, and sloppy technology, and it seems that nothing can dissuade them from it.

The FBI, over a period of several years and at great expense, investigated a CIA officer they suspected of treason, and arranged a situation in which, without having his suspicions raised, he was subjected to a polygraph test. He passed that test so well, that the Bureau became all the more convinced he was guilty — because he was so competent at passing the test! Following that, they tried to set him up via a fake Soviet offer for his defection. Since he immediately reported that attempt to his superiors, the FBI became absolutely convinced of his cleverness; reporting a defection offer was such a cunning method, they decided, that it meant he was a super-spy. The only thing that led them to abandon this tack, was when they were listening to a secret tape-recording, sure that the voice they were hearing was the CIA operator's, and a brave agent suggested that it sounded more like the voice of Robert P. Hanssen, a highly-placed agent inside the FBI, and probably the most outstanding American traitor in modern history. It was.

The lesson, students? If the subject fails the polygraph test, he's lying. If he passes, he's really lying. Got that?

As if we needed more evidence that the currently-available software that purports to translate other languages, actually does so in a useful way, this posting dropped into my mailbox. This was "translated" from German, as shown by the placement of the main verb at the end of the sentence. It's apparently supposed to be evidence for UFOs...

Mark shattering proofs of UFO's! For the first time for strong nerves arranged. . . . Exciting sighting reports from all the world! They unpack pilots finally no matter whether you hand in! new videos, even official documents. Also radar photos provide proofs!

Alone high-profile scientist hands it for the secret with-now turei: You don't exclude it for ausser for us, that now any more also other intelligent life in the space gives. Contacts to us are already taken. Don't have sold longer for stupid! We have it when human race not necessary, us shut himself off the unknown person.

Prepare for a quite new future.

Okay. Hurry I the solution for.

Reader Dan Edman, Stockholm, Sweden, sends us this item:

You probably get hundreds of tips on new quack-sites like this each week, but this must be one of the silliest, cookiest and most inconsistent sites in a long time. From the beginning:

One sunny weekend afternoon I took a bike trip into Stockholm city. On my way to this record store I wanted to check out, I came across a rather disturbing (but also intriguing) poster. At least 1.5 X 2 meters in size, it totally covered a wall next to this acupuncture/chiropractor shop. The message? "Music Acupuncture!" Yes, ladies & germs! No need for your local witchdoctor to stick needles and pins into the wrong parts of your body. (What better way to locate your wallet?) Now, there's a totally painless way, thanks to Mr. Michael B. Johnsson and his set of overpriced, utterly unlistenable CDs, all filled with the same new-age, "eastern" cling-clang and a "soothing" birdsong-loop. Yes, I kid you not! I strongly suggest you go to www.musicacupuncture.com and check out one of the most hilarious quack-sites in a loooong time. Need I say that hot words like "frequencies," "vibrations," "energies," "meridians," etc., are plentiful? Hey, there's even mp3s to download. But the items that really cracked me up were the "Feng Shui" CDs. I thought FS was all about things like not having books laying around in the bathroom since their wisdom will get flushed out and other such nonsense. Apparently you don't have to redecorate your livingroom Asia-style for $5000, just buy the CD for $59 and all those nasty negative vibrations that keep interfering with your TV remote control will curl up and die a most horrible death. The "Super Feng Shui" edition could be a perfect gift to your worst enemy. The site boasts of how "This CD is equivalent to 5 million acupuncture hours." Ouch! That's gotta hurt!

Finally, 3 thumbs up for the amazing work at JREF. I can't tell you enough how educating, often entertaining, sometimes scary it is to read the commentaries every week.

Rich Karpen tells of his coming-of-age in the real world:

Ian MacMillan's piece in the August 29th issue of SWIFT about perpetual motion reminded me of my one foray into this field, almost 40 years ago, when I was in fourth grade. I had read a book about basic electricity which pointed out among other things that an electric motor and an electric generator are essentially the same thing. If you input electrical energy the armature turns and you have a motor; if you turn the armature physically electrical energy comes out and you have a generator.

This got me thinking: what would happen if you attached the armatures of two such devices together, started the first one turning with a battery, then used the electricity produced by the second one to power the first one, then disconnected the battery? Wouldn't it just keep turning?

I drew a diagram of the device, which I called a "Self-Running Motor," and showed it to my father. He said it looked like a Perpetual Motion machine, an expression I had not heard before. To his credit, though, my dad encouraged me to go ahead and try to build one.

I was excited. I had a great discovery. Why had no one thought of this before? I imagined all of the free energy that would be produced for the good of mankind, and how I would go on TV, modestly taking credit for it.

I took my friend Bruce on as a partner and swore him to secrecy. We pooled our meager resources, went to the hobby shop and bought two small electric motors. I took some insulated wire and a push button switch from my Lionel train set. We attached the motors to a board and linked the armatures together with a short piece of plastic tubing. I then connected the terminals of the two motors together and connected the terminals of the first motor to the switch and to a 1˝-volt battery, one of the huge kind they had back then, about the size of a water glass with both terminals on the top. I then took a deep breath, pressed and held the button and — nothing happened.

Now that I think about it, I suppose the problem at that point was that I had essentially hooked up both motors to the battery in parallel, and either the battery didn't have enough power for both of them at once, or they were trying to turn each other in opposite directions. In my youthful enthusiasm I skipped right over this, though. My first question was, "Why won't the generator power the motor?" I theorized that perhaps it wasn't producing enough power.

The electricity book had also explained the principle of the transformer, so I tried to increase the voltage of the generator's output by wrapping different-sized coils of wire around opposite sides of a steel ring I had broken off a gyroscope. Not surprisingly, this didn't help.

I told my father about my failure. It was obvious that I had had other technical problems, but it was at this point that he explained to me about friction. "No, that's not it!" I shouted, and went to my room.

Later, I looked up "Perpetual Motion" in my children's encyclopedia, which told me that it is an old idea, that many people have tried to build one but scientists say that it's impossible, and went on about the friction problem. Years later, I read in my school science book a discussion about this exact scenario: what happens if you try to get a motor to run a generator to power the motor.

Incidentally, I remember that the entry in that children's encyclopedia about "Ghosts" explained that they tend to be either optical illusions or the results of over-active imaginations (it didn't get into hallucinations), and that there are no real ones: more or less your take on that subject.

I wish I had known at the time how easily Tom Bearden got a patent for a PPM that doesn't work — that's what I had. I could have made a fortune. Hmm, I still could, couldn't I . . . ?

No way. I beat you to it...!

Seriously, I wish that all kids could have the opportunity of testing their ideas. As a youngster, I built Tesla coils with mailing-tubes and Quaker Oats boxes, short-wave radios with ganged galena crystals and a 100-foot antenna/aerial, even a primitive TV set-up — using a cardboard Nipkow disk! The Tesla coil just about fried me, the short-wave was mostly Morse code far too fast for me, and the room-to-room TV transmission gave fuzzy orange rectangles with slightly darker and even fuzzier digit-targets superimposed. I also had all sorts of unworkable ideas I tried out. These were great adventures, and my buddy Gary Haines and I felt like the Tom Swifts of Toronto, Canada.

Wouldn't take back a moment of it. Well, except maybe the time we connected up the Ford ignition coil to the favorite urinating spot of the local dogs. We'd no idea that a dog could cross its hind legs in mid-air like that...

Further attribution offered by a reader: The "under God" expression comes from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:

"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

A chap named Montague Keen has been having a great romp by reviling me on the Internet, and I refer you to www.victorzammit.com/articles/montague.html for a sample. Take a look, and maybe you can offer me some approaches to handling this. I get so many inquiries about Keen's tirade, that I'll have to spend some of my valuable time trying to enlighten him in this regard. Perhaps next week, you'll see a detailed discussion of this brouhaha. Stay tuned...!