At the JREF, we know we have one of the cleverest, funniest, artistic, and simply most talented audiences in the world.
But we are, after all, skeptics, and we decided it's time to prove it. So at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7 this year we're holding a Talent Show. Are you coming to TAM 7, and can you sing, dance, juggle, contort, do a light-sabre routine, tumble, prestidigitate, or bend spoons with the power of your mind alone? Then sign up!
And even if you don't want to get on stage and potentially embarrass yourself in front of hundreds of revelers, you can still be a reveler! Come to TAM 7 -- our speaker lineup is great, the extracurricular activities are stellar, and find out why TAMs are the premier skeptical conferences on the planet.
JREF fan Clare Zimmerman alerted us to this brilliant video that illustrates perfectly the basic problem with the all-too-common accusation that skeptics are closed-minded.
Because we rely on evidence before we decide whether a claim is correct or not, we skeptics are not closed-minded! Instead, we filter the ideas that get into our heads, allowing us to separate sense and nonsense. As the saying goes, have an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.
Our account had been suspended by YouTube due to some copyright complaints on a handful of videos we had uploaded. The videos in question have been removed, the proper hoops have been jumped through, and YouTube restored the account. We are currently going though our inventory to make sure any videos that we even suspect might be in violation are removed. There are 200+ of them, so it'll take us some time, but we're on it.
I'd like to thank all our supporters once again for the outcry when this happened. But I'll also gently chide some of you: there were many rumors, accusations, and conclusions jumped-to when our account was taken down. As you can see, no one was attacking us, and no one acted unfairly - the complainants were within their rights, and YouTube acted according to their rules. In fact, when we started conversing with one of the complainants and with YouTube, everyone acted in a civilized and even friendly manner. The matter was resolved quickly and, I think, to everyone's satisfaction.
Because of this, I'd like to personally thank everyone involved with this as well.
So we're back on the air! You can expect to see more Randi Speaks soon, as well as our usual skeptical take on all things unskeptical. Thank you to everyone for your support and patience.
Many years ago, learned people realized that the masses believed many things that weren't true. Why do they still? Many years ago, learned people realized that the masses believed many things that weren't true. Why do they still? In this week's edition, Randi discusses a vist to the first "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" Museum, chopping off Alice Cooper's head, and The Madness of Crowds.
Jenny McCarthy is well-known as an actress and something of a bawdy comedian. But her fame is growing in less elevated circles: she's an outspoken promoter of the anti-vaccination movement. Her claims that vaccines cause (or contribute to) autism are nothing short of breathtakingly ridiculous. It's why she won our 2008 Pigasus Award.
But the bar has been set even higher now: a new website has been created called Jenny McCarthy Body Count. Stark and grim, it has one purpose: to show how many preventable illnesses and preventable deaths have occurred due to unvaccinated people since Jenny McCarthy became the de facto face of the antivaccination movement. The website, created by skeptic Derek Bartholomaus, stops short of saying she is directly responsible for these illnesses and deaths, but her indirect responsibility is arguably relevant.
