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A couple of years ago I wrote an article titled “The Myth of James Randi’s Million Dollar Challenge”. It’s one of the most read pages of all time here on the Grail, so it’s obviously a topic that many people are interested in.
Apart from the flaws in the MDC that I pointed out in my article, another element of this (and other) ‘paranormal prizes’ which disturbs me somewhat is the use of ‘cannon fodder’, in order to maintain the (somewhat dubious) validity of these challenges. And by ‘cannon fodder’, I mean those people that apply for these challenges, who truly believe they can win the money.
To my mind, some may not understand the odds properly, some are misleading themselves about their ‘talents’, and some are just plain unbalanced. That’s a worrying thing when combined with a high-profile test which is undertaken with the intention of publicity based on the challenger being unable to succeed.
A perfect illustration of this occurred last month, when the IIG (the ‘Independent Investigations Group’, a volunteer-run organization based with the Center for Inquiry) tested Regan Traynor, an individual trying to win the CFI’s $50,000 paranormal challenge with his alleged telepathic powers.
Read the whole article:
Daily Grail: Challenging Skepticism
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We’ve come a long way since the days of believing that lightning bolts were the work of angry gods, but some natural events continue to mystify us — including black holes, supernovas, the Marfa lights, the Bermuda Triangle and the Taos Hum. Despite scientists’ best efforts, there are many myths and legends surrounding unexplained natural events. Here are five events that continue to elude explanation. (Text: Jessica Knoblauch)
See the slideshow:
Mother Earth Network: 5 natural events that science can’t explain
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Is it the power of the pen, the power of suggestion or the promise of anonymity that produced the latest rash of reports of Bigfoot sightings in Fayette County?
An article about a Bigfoot sighting north of Uniontown by a woman who wished to remain anonymous was published in August. Her account was investigated by members of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society and researcher Stan Gordon of Greensburg, perhaps best known for his investigation into an alleged 1965 UFO crash in Kecksburg in Westmoreland County.
Following the publication of the article, Eric Altman, director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, reports that he has received phone calls about eight additional Bigfoot sightings in Fayette County, four of which were clustered around Dunbar.
“We also had a fifth second-hand report of a teen boy who is alleged to have seen a creature following him through the woods in the Dunbar area while he rode his quad,” said Altman, 39, of Jeannette. “The boy is said to be so shook up by the incident that he doesn’t want to be interviewed and was so frightened he won’t go back to the area.”
Altman claims that Fayette County seems to be quite an active area for Bigfoot sightings, based on the inordinate number of calls he has received over the past six months. Besides the Dunbar sightings, two have been reported in the Jumonville area, one in Confluence and one in Connellsville.
“Since the name of the witness in the newspaper account was kept confidential, I feel that people experiencing the same phenomena are now more comfortable and are coming forth to tell their stories,” he said
When conducting his research, Altman first interviews the witness on the phone, claiming that, over the years, he has become quite adept at determining if they’re telling the truth. After trying to get as much information as he can, he then sets up a face-to-face meeting, preferably at the location of the sighting.
Read more:
Herald-Standard: New rash of Bigfoot sightings reported across Fayette County
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Could this discovery prove that advanced life could be found in hostile alien environments?
The latest video sensation isn’t a teen pop star, but a spunky shrimplike creature found deep below the Antarctic ice. Scientists had assumed such dark, subfreezing water would only be able to support a few simple microbes. But the orange amphipod has completely changed where scientists thought advanced life was possible.
Read more:
Washington Post: NASA finds shrimp under Antarctic ice
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