Randi Goes 'Round the Bem
Posted by Greg at 13:36, 03 Apr 2012James Randi has announced his 2012 Pigasus awards, and in the scientist category has given it to Daryl Bem, for his experiments exploring the case for a precognitive ability in humans. Yes that's right, Randi frowns upon people doing science. Fail:
The winner of the Pigasus Prize in the scientist category is Daryl Bem, for his shoddy research that has been discredited on many accounts by prominent critics, such as Drs Richard Wiseman, Steven Novella and Chris French. Such examination shows very strange methods used by Bem to prove his case, which ends up unproven - though the popular media, of course, have chosen to embrace it.
Do Drs Wiseman, Novella and French really believe that Daryl Bem should be the winner of an award that Randi says he bestows upon "the most deserving charlatans, swindlers, psychics, pseudo-scientists, and faith healers"? And do they believe that Bem's research employed "very strange methods" and that it has now been "discredited on many accounts" [my emphasis]?
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Comments
1 May 2004
1 year 10 weeks
According to Randi, Bem is one of the "fakers that we find to be so harmful to society." Randi and PZ Myers will go down in history as enemies of free thought and expression.
Randi is an interesting psychological case - with his long white beard, and always appearing in his website imagery as a kind of god-like Big Brother figure. Here's the good news – when he's gone, there's no one to replace him that is so pathologically bent on the persecution of unorthodoxy. Progress is marked in tombstones.
John Topp
18 September 2007
13 hours 43 min
At this point he is shooting himself in the foot more effectively than the detractors ever can. Ever since his tirade on the implications of the double slit experiment it is obvious he has no compunctions about making a fool of himself in public on scientific questions. He has a singular disinterest in getting to the bottom of anything which is why I suspect he is an agent for quashing expansion of consciousness in the general population. From such a population the State has trouble concealing itself. Figuring out ESP is tantamount to seeing through your masters as well.
1 May 2004
1 year 10 weeks
Do you have a link to said tirade?
21 January 2005
25 min 53 sec
Skepticism is supposed to be an exercise in critical thinking divested of beliefs, emotionality, or biases. Yet I continue to see (many) skeptics defending such clearly emotional (and non-critical) acts like these by Randi as a form educational "showmanship," or some such thing. You can't have it both ways. He does about as much good for the skeptical cause at this point as Newt Gingrich does for the Republican Party.
12 April 2007
11 hours 45 min
If Randi was half as honest (and brave) as he claims to be, he would have awarded Antonio Ereditato instead, for the shoddy research that had many people --including prominent figures in politics-- question the sacrosancty of Relativity; if you think about it, a far more pernicious aggravation.
But fear of change is partly what drives his crusade. And picking on PSI is their oldest tradition ;)
It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
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@red_pill_junkie
2 May 2004
1 min 54 sec
Antonio Ereditato
Yeah, I was about to suggest the CERN boffins who proved Einstein wrong with faster-than-light particles... and then reluctantly admitted a week later they didn't plug a cable in correctly.
I know who wins the PIG (Petty Ignorant Guy) award.
~ * ~
@levitatingcat
14 April 2009
7 weeks 6 days
maybe this should inspire someone to pull a colbert, create an uberskeptic persona and have their own awards, hmm the Diamond maybe (for rectal coal) and make videos
like these have done for the westboro church
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WTXPGBo-...
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All that lives is holy, life delights in life.
--William Blake
25 August 2010
15 hours 55 min
Has anyone ever read the Million Dollar Challenge contract? No lawyer would ever allow their client to sign a contract like that, no matter how incompetent they are.