The JREF Welcomes Dr. Philip Plait; Another Bigfoot Hoax; Spaced Out Astronaut
The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is pleased to announce that Dr. Philip Plait—renowned astronomer, author, and skeptic—will be taking on the role of President of the JREF effective immediately. The goals of the JREF are to bring critical thinking to the public, expose pseudoscientific frauds, and promote real science and rationality. Phil is a skeptic, a scientist, and a colleague, and his ideas and vigor will take the JREF very far indeed. We’re pleased and proud to have him take the reins. I will now be dedicating much of my time to completing my next two books, Wrong!, and A Magician in the Laboratory.
Dr. Plait has a long affiliation with the JREF. He has been a speaker at all of The Amaz!ng Meetings—a JREF-sponsored annual conference series and the largest gathering of critical thinkers in the world—and over the years has provided valuable advice and support for the JREF in scientific and other matters. During that time he has grown to be a strong part of the Foundation.
Before joining the JREF, Dr. Plait spent ten years performing scientific research using the Hubble Space Telescope, much of it as a contractor at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. It was at this time that he created the Bad Astronomy website, where he critically (and humorously) analyzes various astronomical myths and misconceptions. His debunking of the Moon Hoax (people who think NASA faked the Apollo Moon landings) became an Internet favorite, bringing in tens of millions of hits. His award-winning Bad Astronomy Blog is one of the largest and most popular scientific blogs in the world. In July 2008 it was acquired by Discover magazine, where his audience continues to grow. Plait is an internationally sought-after lecturer and has given numerous interviews on national TV, radio, and podcasts. He has written two popular-level science books: Bad Astronomy (Wiley and Sons, 2002), and the upcoming Death from the Skies! (Viking, 2008), which deals with cosmic catastrophes. It was his first book that brought him to the attention of JREF, when we asked him to speak at our 2003 conference.
According to Plait, “When I was young, I believed in all sorts of anti-scientific silliness like the Bermuda Triangle, astral projection, and the like. But then I saw Mr. Randi on television masterfully and literally dissecting psychic surgery [con artists who fake using psychic powers to do phony surgery on desperately ill victims], and he opened my eyes—and my brain—to the idea that reality is a better place to live in than fantasy. I owe it all to Mr. Randi, so I am very excited and deeply honored to continue his vision with the JREF.”
Upon examining the object, Kulls discovered that the proposed expensive DNA tests were not needed; you see, a rubber monkey-suit would not properly respond to such advanced techniques.
I will become the Chairman of the JREF Board of Directors. With Dr. Plait at the helm, the JREF will be expanding its efforts, particularly in educating children. As Plait explained: “I want to teach kids about the wonders of the real universe. We can do this by partnering with the educational community and developing fun, hands-on materials that schoolchildren can use in the classroom to teach them about critical thinking and the scientific method. Science is sometimes taught as being cold and dull, but nothing could be more wrong! It’s exciting, it’s fun, and it’s cool. Kids are natural scientists, and we need to encourage that, foster it, and let it grow.”
Another Bigfoot Hoax Grabs Headlines
When some folks get themselves revved up on a specific farce, they can’t stop. One such unfortunate, a former Las Vegas promoter named Tom Biscardi, is currently wondering whatever happened to his two “partners” who accepted from him a $50,000 advance on future earnings that were to come from exhibiting the frozen body of a bogus Bigfoot. Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the genuine bipeds from Georgia who claimed to have found and chilled the Bigfoot body, are now being pursued by Biscardi, with whose money they seem to have absconded once the frozen “corpse” was revealed to be a hoax. Really? Wow!
Biscardi hired an investigator, Steve Kulls, to look into the matter. Now, he won’t confirm where the “body” is, but it was apparently moved from Georgia to Indiana. Upon examining the object, Kulls discovered that the proposed expensive DNA tests were not needed; you see, a rubber monkey-suit would not properly respond to such advanced techniques. To provide a transitory impression of authenticity, the Georgia bipeds had stuffed the suit with various animal body-parts that gave off impressive olfactory evidence that might have deterred a less zealous investigator than Mr. Kulls.
When Mr. Biscardi was asked how he could have been fooled by such a hoax, he offered that it was hard to tell, because the thing was encased in a block of ice. That triggered a few memory synapses in my head, and I recalled that in October of 1969, when I was a resident of New Jersey, an exhibit at the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown had attracted my attention. It was what appeared to be a hairy human-shaped figure about six feet tall. I say “appeared to be” because the thing was frozen inside a huge cloudy block of ice, visitors viewed it from an overhead scaffolding, and it was poorly lit – perhaps for good reason. All I could have really said about it was that it looked like an old fur coat with legs …
But, back to the present incarnation of this fake. As it presently stands, fraud charges could be filed against Dyer and Whitton in what could be either a criminal or a civil case. Biscardi apparently freely gave them the money, so that will please the lawyers immensely, I’m sure. Or was he a part of the scam … ? One has to wonder, since before the hoax was exposed Dyer and Whitton’s web site—BigfootTracker.com—had categories for merchandise handling leprechauns, Loch Ness Monster, unicorns, dinosaurs, and Jimmy Hoffa or Elvis Presley sightings …
Apollo Astronaut Spaced Out
I first refer you to this, where you’ll read Phil Plait’s overly-kind but honest reference to the latest nonsense to come from former astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of only twelve persons ever to actually walk on the Moon. Mitchell is now insisting that he’s privy to firm evidence that UFO-nauts exist, and that the truth has been—you guessed it!—suppressed by those People in Charge.
Science is sometimes taught as being cold and dull, but nothing could be more wrong! It’s exciting, it’s fun, and it’s cool.
Agreed, Mitchell, like all the astronauts, is an American hero, but as I reminded Phil, he’s also been one of the major purveyors and supporters of top-level woo-woo. It was Mitchell who “discovered” spoon-bender Uri Geller when Geller was only a cabaret performer doing his run-of-the-mill “psychic” tricks for teeny-boppers in Israel, assisted by Hannah Shtrang (who later became his wife) and Shipi Shtrang, her brother, who still works as his assistant. Mitchell actually traveled to Israel and arranged for Geller to come to the USA and be studied at the Stanford Research Institute, later to be re-named SRI International. Two physicists there, apparently awed by meeting a genuine lunar astronaut, chose to believe that such a hero couldn’t be wrong, that Geller was therefore the real thing, and Geller’s career took off. It’s safe to say that without Edgar Mitchell’s naïvete, we’d have been spared the advent of the Geller Delusion.
Mitchell, to this day, still believes in Geller despite the exposés that have led most former believers to reconsider their evaluation of these preposterous affectations—from Geller’s claimed origins on the Planet Hoova to his mental prodding of Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva peace talks in 1987. See Ed Mitchell expounding on his latest fantasy. Of course, this attractive farce was featured on the media, all over the globe. Such matters are valuable and easy lacunae fillers; it’s easy to laugh at celebrities.