After twelve fruitless years, the James Randi Educational Foundation's million dollar challenge will finally be discontinued after March 6th, 2010. For those of you who don't know (and if you're reading this site, you probably should), James Randi has offered a million dollar prize to anyone who can prove he has paranormal abilities under controlled experimental conditions. Needless to say, the money has never been claimed. In his weekly newsletter, Randi explains that twelve years is long enough to wait--especially for a nonprofit organization such as the JREF that could put the money to more meaningful use. I'm sure the frauds and deluded of the world will see this as some kind of fearful backtracking, but those people have always found the most creative ways to explain why they've never claimed the prize themselves. More details here, and hopefully even more details when James Randi is a guest on The Amateur Scientist Podcast next week.
Monday, January 7, 2008
JREF Challenge No More
