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Written by Alison Smith
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Sunday, 10 February 2008 |
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The subject line of this e-mail, sent in by Daniel on February 5th, reads: Urgent Request on Travis Walton Travis Walton claims to have been abducted by aliens in 1975. You can read
more about him in his Wikipedia entry, which can be found here. As requested, the blog will now contain the JREF's responses to e-mails that warrant them. Please note that the following e-mail has been edited to remove copyrighted material, but otherwise remains unchanged. |
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Written by Alison Smith
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Wednesday, 06 February 2008 |
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Occasionally, the Challenge e-mail will be swamped with very similar claims. One of these is Perpetual Motion Machines. Most of the time, after the initial e-mail contact is made and a response sent, there is never any further contact with the claimant - presumably because they have not yet constructed the machine. The intial guidelines for submitting a Perpetual Motion Machine to the Challenge are very simple. The applicant must fulfill all guidelines stated in the Challenge Application, and must, additionally, have the machine built and ready to test prior to applying. Here is an example of a response e-mail to this claim: Thank you for your interest in the James Randi Educational Foundation's Million Dollar Challenge.
Yes, a demonstration of a perpetual motion machine would qualify as a Challenge claim. However, the machine must be built and in working order before the application can be accepted.
Thank you again for your interest,
JREF Challenge Desk
Though, in my time at the JREF, I have never seen an actual Perpetual Motion Machine, I have seen a great number of e-mails regarding them. Here are a few that have come in over the past few months, the most recent received on February 3rd.
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Written by Alison Smith
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
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Welcome to the JREF One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge E-mail Blog! With the announcement of the Million Dollar Challenge's close in 2010 has come a renewed interest in Challenge protocols, correspondence, and claimants. With that in mind, the JREF opens the Challenge doors to all interested parties with this blog, which will be updated often, and feature uncut, unedited e-mails that have been sent to Challenge@randi.org. We will only edit the e-mails to protect the identities of the senders, and there will be no editorializing whatsoever. These e-mails stand on their own as evidence of what it is really like to work on the Challenge, and the kinds of claims that are frequently brought to the JREF (though they are usually never acted upon). As you read this blog, keep in mind that the JREF responds to almost all Challenge e-mail, no matter how fantastic the claim. Click "Read More" to see the first showcased e-mails. Thank you for stopping in, and we hope you enjoy your stay. -- Alison Smith
Research Assistant
James Randi Educational Foundation |
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