Our most excellent friend in Italy Massimo Polidoro now has a YouTube channel with some of his TV appearances in English at: http://www.youtube.com/MassimoPolidoro. I think you can realize just how effectively I influenced this remarkable skeptic by inviting him to learn at my knee for a couple of years, well before the JREF was brought into existence. Ah, if only I had another dozen like Massimo...!

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The San Jose Mercury News reports the following:

A 27-year-old woman who allegedly is from a family of fraudulent psychics has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for tricking a brokenhearted woman out of $108,000 and a Corvette, after she promised to rid her of evil spirits.

The conviction was for "Theft Under a False Pretense," which I think is a fine charge to make against those who claim psychic abilities and ask for money to demonstrate them.

But wait! There's more to this story...

This comment has been circulating about among the woo-woos:

I don't know who suggested using the Benveniste experiment as something which would invalidate or disprove homeopathy, but whoever promoted that concept failed to appreciate or understand what homeopathy is about or what it can do. If it was Mr. Randi himself, I am afraid that he has done a disservice to humanity by sowing confusion in the minds of people whose sufferings could have been alleviated had they not been discouraged from considering homeopathy as a viable and valid alternative when the modality they are presently relying upon is not? [sic] producing the desired results.