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	<title>The Smug Baldy Speaks &#187; James Randi</title>
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	<link>http://www.smugbaldy.com</link>
	<description>It&#39;s hard to think when you&#39;re not used to it.</description>
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		<copyright>2008 </copyright>
		<managingEditor>paulus@smugbaldy.com (The Smug Baldy)</managingEditor>
		<webMaster>paulus@smugbaldy.com (The Smug Baldy)</webMaster>
		<category>Society & Culture</category>
		<ttl>1440</ttl>
		<itunes:keywords>Science,Skepticism,Culture,Politics,Humor,Psychics</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:subtitle>The Smug Baldy Speaks</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>This is the podcast for those of you who who like their commentary to be barely entertaining, and your host to be only marginally informative.  At least he has positive self regard, and a handy robot overlord as a segment announcer.</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>The Smug Baldy</itunes:author>
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			<itunes:name>The Smug Baldy</itunes:name>
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			<title>The Smug Baldy Speaks</title>
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		<title>JREF: Million Dollar Challenge E-mail Blog</title>
		<link>http://www.smugbaldy.com/2008/02/04/jref-million-dollar-challenge-e-mail-blog/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smugbaldy.com/2008/02/04/jref-million-dollar-challenge-e-mail-blog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:11:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smug Baldy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critical Thinking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Don't Be That Guy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychic Powers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Skepticism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Randi]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Over on StupidEvilBastard recently, someone (not naming names) forgot &#8220;That guy with the million dollar challenge&#8221; for psychics. That guy, if you don&#8217;t know, is the esteemed James Randi, of the James Randi Educational Foundation (or JREF). Mr. Randi has been debunking kooks and frauds for years, and the JREF recently announced that it was [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Over on <a href="http://www.stupidevilbastard.com" target="_blank">StupidEvilBastard</a> recently, someone (not naming names) forgot &#8220;That guy with the million dollar challenge&#8221; for psychics.  That guy, if you don&#8217;t know, is the esteemed James Randi, of the <a href="http://www.randi.org/joom/" target="_blank">James Randi Educational Foundation</a> (or JREF).  Mr. Randi has been debunking kooks and frauds for years, and the JREF recently announced that it was closing the Million Dollar Challenge in 2010.  Today, the JREF opened the Challenge to &#8220;all interested parties&#8221; with a new Million <a href="http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/157/2/" target="_blank">Dollar Challenge E-mail Blog</a>.  I have seen some of the previous challengers &#8211; but I have never seen some of the raw claims that any of them have made.  Let me tell you what &#8211; there are some freaky freaky weirdos out there.  Here&#8217;s an excerpt from one such wingnut referred to as &#8220;Michael, The Universe Builder&#8221;:</p>
<blockquote><p>As a scientist my life evolution works like this:<br />
1st step- save the culture I live in<br />
2nd step- observe all of the possibilities<br />
3rd step- plan out the most effective re-arrival<br />
4th step- lead one of the 5 super-civilizations<br />
5th step- attempt to destroy the entire universe</p>
<p>You need to understand the universe was BUILT BY ME so that YOU ALL WOULD SEE HOW RETARDED YOU WERE IN TRYING TO PROCLAIM YOU&#8217;D FIGURED IT ALL OUT AS A BUNCH OF LITTLE RETARD HUMANS!</p></blockquote>
<p>Michael then goes on to explain why animals and bacteria are &#8220;WAY more intelligent than people.&#8221;</p>
<p>In reading his claims, I am reminded of the word-salad that accompanies some types of schizophrenia.  </p>
<p>Will Michael build universes and walk away with the Million dollars, or will Michael walk away with a decent prescription?  What is your tingling Spidy Sense telling you?</p>
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		<title>Phil Plait and The Amazing Randi</title>
		<link>http://www.smugbaldy.com/2007/01/25/phil-plait-and-the-amazing-randi/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smugbaldy.com/2007/01/25/phil-plait-and-the-amazing-randi/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:35:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smug Baldy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Smugness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bad Astronomy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critical Thinking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Randi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Skepticism]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s a nice little clip where Phil Plait (of BadAstronomy.com) interviews &#8220;The Amazing&#8221; James Randi on the final day of this year&#8217;s The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas. I didn&#8217;t meet either of them at TAM 5, but Phil&#8217;s presentation in which he debunked the feeble evidence from so-called &#8220;Moon Conspiracy Theorists&#8221; was priceless. He [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Here&#8217;s a nice little clip where Phil Plait (of <a href="http://www.badastronomy.com" target="_blank">BadAstronomy.com</a>) interviews &#8220;The Amazing&#8221; James Randi on the final day of this year&#8217;s The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas.</p>
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<p>I didn&#8217;t meet either of them at TAM 5, but Phil&#8217;s presentation in which he debunked the feeble evidence from so-called &#8220;Moon Conspiracy Theorists&#8221; was priceless.  He was able, in very short order, to lay waste to their best &#8220;evidence&#8221; that NASA faked the Apollo moon landings.  Starless sky over the moon?  <a href="http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html#stars" target="_blank">Nope, stars are faint, and the photos were taken using short exposures with fast film</a>.  Shadows not parallel?  <a href="http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html#parallel" target="_blank">Nope, shadows converge to a vanishing point as they do on Earth</a>.  At every point, Phil was able to clearly and easily discredit the claims made by the conspiracy proponents, which left one inescapable conclusion: We really went to the moon.</p>
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