"
A wonderful brain interprets something differently from what it actually is, but it doesn't mean it's made a mistake. It took the information it had and did it's best job." Those are but two tricks from
Jerry Andrus (1918-2007), self-taught magician and illusionist, and
one of great renown amongst
other magicians. But he was more than a slight-of-hand man: he was also
a poet, philosopher, inventor, humanist, agnostic, and skeptic. There are an impressive number of videos of him online, these are but a few to get you started down the rabbit hole:
Jerry Andrus is visual poetry (Google video /
YT, 28 minutes) ::
Jerry Andrus at the Magic Castle (G.vid, 49 min),
Jerry Andrus at 83 his Optical Illusions (G.vid, 41 min) ::
Jerry Andrus and Ray Hyman on Uri Geller (YT, 26 min) ::
James Randi on Jerry Andrus (YT, 5 min) ::
James Randi - who was Jerry Andrus? ::
James Randi describes Jerry Andrus. The last two clips are from
Rex Young, a young illusionist who has recreated many of Andrus' illusions on his
YouTube channel, and
made some of his own.
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 12, 2011 -
25 comments
Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted.
I’m gay.
From some seventy years of personal experience, I can tell you that there’s not much “gay” about being homosexual. For the first twenty years of my life, I had to live in the shadows, in a culture that was — at least outwardly — totally hostile to any hint of that variation of life-style.
James Randi (
previously), at age 81, has come out. He discusses the announcement in more detail on the
JREF podcast
For Good Reason.
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Mar 21, 2010 -
144 comments
Journalist Accepts $1 Million Challenge: Do $7250 Cables Sound Better or Not? (Or they could use
these $43,000 cables instead). At least, it
sounded like acceptance, even to James Randi. But then...
maybe not.
So while you're waiting to find out if you should spend that much for cables, maybe you can buy something from
this collection of fine audiophile products.
$400 for a pair tweeters may not be too bad. You can use them with your
$350,000 amplifier, and
your awesome-looking $100,000 turntable. Make sure you set aside
$13,416 for a decent power cable, though, or you're just wasting your money.
posted by The Deej
on Oct 21, 2007 -
147 comments
Nostalgia and skepticism collide in
this short video of Uri Geller's legendary failure on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, introduced by frequent MeFi subject James Randi. More context and nostalgia in
this longer version, which features Geller with a young Barbara Walters, and on The Mike Douglas Show, along with Randi's expose of "healing evangelist" Peter Popoff.
If you want to waste even more time, just start clicking on
these YouTube search results.
posted by The Deej
on Aug 5, 2007 -
93 comments
