About Randi's million dollar bond.

[Psibeliever]

Since the big city New York banks are going under, is the bond worth anything? If it ever was worth anything, that is.

[BannedBySkeptiko]

Originally Posted by Psibeliever

Since the big city New York banks are going under, is the bond worth anything? If it ever was worth anything, that is.

Goldman Sachs has restructured, but Randi's bond still there, where it's been for years. Psibeliever, you could answer your own question would you bother to check.

Anyone willing to put forth a serious effort can check this out. Randi and JREF acted perfectly honestly and sensibly. For all the problems currently facing the financial markets, the JREF challenge is just fine. That investment-grade bond is, was, and will continue to be, the real stuff.

Psibeliever will fail to get that million, but not because the million is not there -- it is. He will fail to win the JREF million-dollar paranormal challenge simply because he cannot show anything paranormal.

Same story, over and over. Psychics can rant and rave against skeptics, but when it comes time to see what's real, for real, the psychics have folly and failure and excuses.

We skeptics, well, we tend to come off as boring. When a psychic fails a fair test, as 100% of them have before, well, we'd like to get a bunch of attention, but we can't honestly argue that yet another failure is news.


-Bryan

[Lekatt]

Originally Posted by BannedBySkeptiko

Goldman Sachs has restructured, but Randi's bond still there, where it's been for years. Psibeliever, you could answer your own question would you bother to check.

Anyone willing to put forth a serious effort can check this out. Randi and JREF acted perfectly honestly and sensibly. For all the problems currently facing the financial markets, the JREF challenge is just fine. That investment-grade bond is, was, and will continue to be, the real stuff.

Psibeliever will fail to get that million, but not because the million is not there -- it is. He will fail to win the JREF million-dollar paranormal challenge simply because he cannot show anything paranormal.

Same story, over and over. Psychics can rant and rave against skeptics, but when it comes time to see what's real, for real, the psychics have folly and failure and excuses.

We skeptics, well, we tend to come off as boring. When a psychic fails a fair test, as 100% of them have before, well, we'd like to get a bunch of attention, but we can't honestly argue that yet another failure is news.


-Bryan

You got to be kidding, Randi is withdrawing his challenge the last time I heard because no one has won it. Not much of a surprise since Randi gives and grades the tests in private. No third party to check results or verify authenticity of the test. Randi is an illusionist, he fools skeptics. They give him money. If the test had been public he would have lost his money years ago.

[BannedBySkeptiko]

Originally Posted by Lekatt

You got to be kidding, Randi is withdrawing his challenge the last time I heard because no one has won it. Not much of a surprise since Randi gives and grades the tests in private. No third party to check results or verify authenticity of the test. Randi is an illusionist, he fools skeptics. They give him money. If the test had been public he would have lost his money years ago.

Lekatt, you open with, "you got to be kidding," but say nothing that even disagrees with the post you quote.

JREF has no power to keep the tests private; the claimant has at much access as JREF. YouTube search 'Randi Hydrick' for an actual challenge you can watch (though before the prize went to a million). Public enough for you? And oh look -- third-party judges. Currently the rules require that the tests be designed so the results are manifest, no judges at all.

We've already covered most of the nonsense that Lekatt now writes. See, for example JREF Challenge - Criticisms and Rebuttals. Note that under the names "Chris Noble" and "SkepticalBry", you see the word "Banned". That's how it is: we made skeptical arguments in that section, so the cowards in charge simply banned us from posting.

-Bryan

[Lekatt]

Originally Posted by BannedBySkeptiko

Lekatt, you open with, "you got to be kidding," but say nothing that even disagrees with the post you quote.

JREF has no power to keep the tests private; the claimant has at much access as JREF. YouTube search 'Randi Hydrick' for an actual challenge you can watch (though before the prize went to a million). Public enough for you? And oh look -- third-party judges. Currently the rules require that the tests be designed so the results are manifest, no judges at all.

We've already covered most of the nonsense that Lekatt now writes. See, for example JREF Challenge - Criticisms and Rebuttals. Note that under the names "Chris Noble" and "SkepticalBry", you see the word "Banned". That's how it is: we made skeptical arguments in that section, so the cowards in charge simply banned us from posting.

-Bryan

I have seen the video, not about psychics at all. Now all you have to do is to show a sample test and how the psychic scored on the test. You have said it was public so that should be no problem.

We have research on psychics and what they do, lots of it.

psychicdetectives

[BannedBySkeptiko]

Originally Posted by Lekatt

I have seen the video, not about psychics at all.

Don't know what you saw, but try YouTube and the terms I stated.

Originally Posted by Lekatt

Now all you have to do is to show a sample test and how the psychic scored on the test. You have said it was public so that should be no problem.

Lekatt, you had written, "Randi gives and grades the tests in private". You told not the truth, so I pointed you to an actual Randi test that you can watch. It was public and independently judged.

Now is a little honesty too much to ask?

Originally Posted by Lekatt

We have research on psychics and what they do, lots of it.

After seventy or so years of serious research, parapsychology has not a single repeatable demonstration that the subject they are studying even exists.

-Bryan

[Lekatt]

Originally Posted by BannedBySkeptiko

Don't know what you saw, but try YouTube and the terms I stated.



Lekatt, you had written, "Randi gives and grades the tests in private". You told not the truth, so I pointed you to an actual Randi test that you can watch. It was public and independently judged.

Now is a little honesty too much to ask?



After seventy or so years of serious research, parapsychology has not a single repeatable demonstration that the subject they are studying even exists.

-Bryan

I viewed the video and it was about a guy using static electricity to turn pages of a book. When Randi put down some styrofoam he couldn't do it because the static electricity was absorbed. Big deal.

I am talking about psychics. Psychics quit trying to convince Randi to do the tests while being videotaped and he would not do that. No one has ever seen a test in public. Randi is withdrawing the challenge because everyone knows it is fake. Randi gets his money from skeptics. Only skeptics believe in him.


Now I don't know where you have been living, but psychics have been demonstrating their skills for thousands of years. Some psychics have been working for the police for 40 years. Some on television, even the government hired psychics in a remote viewing project. In Russia they work in hospitals and England respects them. In this country universities are testing them in their labs with positive results. Anyone who believes there is nothing to spiritual, psychic, phenomenon is very gullible.

I know science trys to teach these things are nonsense and myths and superstition, but science is far out nuts in this area and many scientists are at this moment proving different.

Scientist Claims Proof Of Afterlife - NewsChannel5 Story - WEWS Cleveland

[BannedBySkeptiko]

Originally Posted by Lekatt

I viewed the video and it was about a guy using static electricity to turn pages of a book. When Randi put down some styrofoam he couldn't do it because the static electricity was absorbed. Big deal.

I am talking about psychics.

It was an actual test of an actual claimant to psychic powers. Note that it was it public, before third-party judges, contrary to your reporting. (Also, the trick worked by air movement, not static electricity.)

Originally Posted by Lekatt

Psychics quit trying to convince Randi to do the tests while being videotaped and he would not do that. No one has ever seen a test in public.

I just showed you a public challenge, on video. If you look, you can find video of others.

Seth Raphael's challenge was not paranormal, but remarkable: Seth Raphael claims Randi's Million Dollar Challenge

Originally Posted by Lekatt

Randi is withdrawing the challenge because everyone knows it is fake.

You tell not the truth.

Originally Posted by Lekatt

Randi gets his money from skeptics. Only skeptics believe in him.

Randi got 272,00 USD from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for his work as "educator", along with the fellowship popularly known as the "genius award".

Originally Posted by Lekatt

Now I don't know where you have been living, but psychics have been demonstrating their skills for thousands of years. Some psychics have been working for the police for 40 years. Some on television, even the government hired psychics in a remote viewing project. In Russia they work in hospitals and England respects them. In this country universities are testing them in their labs with positive results. Anyone who believes there is nothing to spiritual, psychic, phenomenon is very gullible.

I know science trys to teach these things are nonsense and myths and superstition, but science is far out nuts in this area and many scientists are at this moment proving different.

Sure all that can fool *you*. That's kind of Randi's point.

-Bryan

[Lekatt]

Originally Posted by BannedBySkeptiko

It was an actual test of an actual claimant to psychic powers. Note that it was it public, before third-party judges, contrary to your reporting. (Also, the trick worked by air movement, not static electricity.)



I just showed you a public challenge, on video. If you look, you can find video of others.

Seth Raphael's challenge was not paranormal, but remarkable: Seth Raphael claims Randi's Million Dollar Challenge



You tell not the truth.



Randi got 272,00 USD from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for his work as "educator", along with the fellowship popularly known as the "genius award".




Sure all that can fool *you*. That's kind of Randi's point.

-Bryan

Challenge Info*-*James Randi Educational Foundation

Notice that no one has got to the test stage.

[BannedBySkeptiko]

Originally Posted by Lekatt

Challenge Info*-*James Randi Educational Foundation

Notice that no one has got to the test stage.

What a mess.

Lekatt, you had claimed, "Randi gives and grades the tests in private." Now you say no one has reached the test stage. How could Randi give tests in private while no one reaches the test stage?

You tell not the truth, Lekatt.

Unlike Lekatt, Randi and JREF have kept the challenge clear and fair. Claimants must negotiate both a preliminary challenge and a formal challenge, and must pass the former before taking the latter for the million-dollar prize. (In most cases, JREF also wants a non-blind run-through, to verify that whatever psychic functioning the claimant has is not thwarted by the experimental controls.) No one has yet passed a preliminary challenge, and that is not a point in favor of psychic powers.

Randi does not bat 1000 on all he claims. He has gotten facts wrong and in one or too cases he was slower to retract than he should have been. Still that's nothing compared to the outright garbage his detractors here have put forth.

Lekatt, you tell not the truth. Is a little honesty too much to ask?

And, well, it's just funny: Randi won hundreds of thousands of dollars in a MacArthur Fellowship, the "genius award"; then Lekatt claims that only skeptics believe Randi and that's where he gets his money. Clearly, we should all just laugh in Lekatt's face. Don't take my word for it; look it up.


-Bryan