A Whinge about Crackpots
Once upon a time there was a con-man named Uri Geller who proclaimed he could bend spoons with his mind. Yes. You read that right. Bend spoons with his mind. Unfortunately, in the absence of critical thinking (or any other thinking for that matter) among general society, Mr Geller made a lot of money by pumping out books and being paraded as some sort of new age avatar on sickeningly inane TV shows.
Well, all except for one. The famous predecessor to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show and former magician, Johnny Carson, would invite charlatans like Geller on his show under the pretense that he actually swallowed their special flavour of bullshit, and then reveal them to the world as the frauds they were. Similarly, former magician and scepticism champion, James "Amazing" Randi, has challenged Geller a number of times to prove his powers, but in true loser form Geller has been unable to do so and has just cried about the unfair conditions. Typical.
Now, with his gob-smacking ability to speak absolute shit evidently not diminishing with age, Uri "Arse-clown" Geller has decided to buy the former house of Elvis. This shows just how much money you can screw out of the gullible masses. From ballroom dance instructor turned communicator with the dead, John Edward to advocates of cryptic and twisted beyond comprehension poetry by Nostradamus, there is no shortage of scam-artists out there. And they always seem to get a spot on TV. Why?
Well, all except for one. The famous predecessor to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show and former magician, Johnny Carson, would invite charlatans like Geller on his show under the pretense that he actually swallowed their special flavour of bullshit, and then reveal them to the world as the frauds they were. Similarly, former magician and scepticism champion, James "Amazing" Randi, has challenged Geller a number of times to prove his powers, but in true loser form Geller has been unable to do so and has just cried about the unfair conditions. Typical.
Now, with his gob-smacking ability to speak absolute shit evidently not diminishing with age, Uri "Arse-clown" Geller has decided to buy the former house of Elvis. This shows just how much money you can screw out of the gullible masses. From ballroom dance instructor turned communicator with the dead, John Edward to advocates of cryptic and twisted beyond comprehension poetry by Nostradamus, there is no shortage of scam-artists out there. And they always seem to get a spot on TV. Why?
posted by Engels at 3:41 pm
7 Comments:
Because otherwise, TV will lose its title as "the idiot box".
True, but...I can handle reality TV shows. That is, I can't tolerate watching them but I can live withthem being on TV. But when people turn into some severely edited show about a guy talking to dead people? Honestly. Who throws a shoe?
Btw, a somewhat more serious photo than the last one.
I know what you mean. I feel the same way about this ridiculous show called Ghost Hunters (and almost everything on MTV). It's too much mee krob for me to stomach.
I was meant to say "tune into". not "turn into". But I guess you figured that. Meh.
Ghost hunters? Shudder.
you can delete this posting of mine after you read it…
or you can join the INTELLIGENTSIA list on yahoo groups.
http://true.wxcs.com/multimedia/video/James.Randi.debunking.on.Tonight.Show.wmv
what is interesting about this, is that you can derive a certain hierarchy of intelligence from this video. Most Skeptics think they are more intelligent than people in the new age psychic quarter. But I think there is the next level; those who are more intelligent than the skeptics.
Its a smaller minority but they represent the balance point between left and right brained thinking.
(left brain = sceptics, right brain= hysterics)
In this case, I’m talking about Uri Geller (and not the Christian afterwards)
First of all you seen Randi going on about his ego (left brain).
“I won an award for this…”
(so what Randi? that simply says the safe majority are backing you)
Then he goes on to show, in a simplistic (but logical) manner (left brain),
how he thinks Uri Geller is performing his act.
Unfortunately, he is not being very clever (as much as he thinks he is)
he is just providing and point out the blatantly obvious, that any kid can figure out. its really Kindergarten stuff (and not something one should get an award for).
#1 First mistake: he shows how to bend a key, and how to provide the illusion of it.
We’ve already proven Randi is wrong.
And how was that done? easy. Instead of a key, a small Christian cross was used, placed around a girls neck, on a necklace.
So there was no way that Uri could bend it under a chair, or have any access
to bending the cross with slight of hand. Also it was too small to do that.
In front of everyone, Uri, just softly rubbed the cross, and it bent in two.
He had no opportunity to do anything else.
None of what Randi is providing as his proof applies.
#2 the spoon bending.
again, Randi shows how to bend a spoon, BUT Randi’s technique all relies
(and ultimately fails) upon ‘previous tampering’.
We’ve seen Uri in multiple circumstances, where he had no chance
whatsoever for pre-tampering. Various random cases, all kinds of spoons,
in different locations, that involved total unexpected improvisation on his part.
I.E. a kid would rush up to him in the high street, and say bend this then! etc.
Too many occasions that showed no chance of Uri bending the spoon
without anyone catching him out.
#3 mind reading.
This is where Randi really embarrasses himself.
Is he saying that Uri is using small mirrors in his hands to see what the other person is drawing? Unfortunately this is rather laughable, and is just too easy to catch anyone doing this. This experiment was not only done with Uri, but many other people, including Japanese kindergaten children. These Japanese kids were pooled from higher learning classes. And at no point did 8 kids go out and buy mirrors to put in their tiny hands! (hoho!)
Ridiculous conclusion, and utterly non scientific.
Especially since the drawings were done BEFOREHAND, by SKEPTICAL SCIENTISTS, and then the paper was folded up, making it impossible for any kid to read them. Finally what was written on the paper was Scientific Formula, that ONLY the scientists knew.
AND YET, still the kids were able to re-create, the images and formulae.
Needless to say, the scientists were taken aback.
All I can see is that many people, like Randi, are being purposely blind to this phenomena, because of complexes and non-abilities of their own.
And tarring everyone with the same brush.
I.E. if you like football, then that automatically makes you a football hooligan.
The purpose is to seek truth, and not to fall upon limited, easy and safe prejudices.
As long as we rely on listening to people who think in such simple bigoted terms, we’ll never progress, because we are too scared to move forward (minority view), and face the mockery of the crowd (majority view).
anonymous - Get. Help.
Gellar is a fraud, and anyone who believes in his crap is an idiot.
Wow. I just discovered these comments.
You forgot to mention that part where Geller couldn't bend the spoons "with his mind" when they were secretly swapped. Amazing indeed.
I'd say more, but you probably already know what I'm thinking, eh? Or are those powers only reserved for the special and the blessed like former Israeli soliders?
PS I second Aidan's comments.
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