“They didn’t let slip ––on how they joined together two wooden boards,” the professor remarked. “One of the earliest reported victims died of asphyxiation and had water and blood flow out of his lung when his side was pierced.”

A new boss looked out of a window over Washington D.C. An advice-giver selected a list of files and speculated: “Freeze the Sandstone Foundation’s assets? Probably more witnesses might be made known with new disclosures of entrenched elements.”

At length, the rundown Abu Ghraib prison would finally serve as a museum. Near the secluded entry of a dim corridor flickered a single candle on a small plaque that said: “Memorial of Margie Schoedinger.”

But she would not think of battle that reduces men to animals,
So easy to begin and yet impossible to end.
For she the mother of our men had counseled me so wisely that
I feared to walk alone again and asked if she would stay.
(Uriah Heep, "Lady in Black," 1971)

James Randi recently posted an article on his “Swift Blog” with the title, “A Champion Grubby Speaks Out” (April 22, 2009). In that article, Mr. Randi automatically criticized me for a story I had published on the Internet about “Uri Geller and the YouTube Video Smear.”

I must admit that Randi did pay me a Freudian accolade by calling me a champion of sorts. The slang word “grubby” is regularly used to describe dirty work clothes. Perhaps James Randi instinctively compared me to a blue-collar protagonist (unless he meant Myxocephalus aenaeus, a fish that looks like a red bass).

As soon as you're born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be.
(John Lennon, "Working Class Hero," 1970)

For readers who don’t know who James Randi is, the Amazing Randi (an 80-year-old native Canadian who merrily sports a Charles Darwin style beard) is a stage magician and professional skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims. One of his much-loved objects to complain about is Uri Geller, an Israeli-British performer who claims to be able to bend spoons with the psychic power of his mind.

James Randi began his blitz of opposition with: "I hardly know where to start..." And that’s a good sign for working class enthusiasts. From the onset, the challenger is confused, bewildered and disoriented. He hardly knows. Randi claimed that “a neodymium magnet contained in a plugged-on thumb tip” can move the needle of a compass at an outlying distance. Randi even said he would demonstrate how it’s done. Indeed, if I had further evidence of such a gadget, I would certainly have mentioned it in my original article. I have nothing to lose by exposing swindlers. I only said that the video Randi refers to is not sufficient evidence to prove that Uri Geller cheated. The swollen thumb visual impression in the YouTube video that many observers have commented on was due to blurred motion-capture and appeared on both of Uri’s thumbs (something Randi didn’t seem to get but nonetheless badgered me for).

In one part of the video clip, Uri Geller rubbed his left thumb. Randi and his followers claim that’s where Geller plugged in a magnetic thumb tip. But if you watch the video again you will notice that Geller actually made three attempts to move the compass needle. It slightly moved during the first two tries, but moved more after he rubbed his thumb and asked everyone in the audience to join hands. So, how did the compass needle shift in the first shots if Uri was not allegedly wearing a thumb tip yet? Of course we can speculate all we want. Perhaps Uri Geller rubbed his thumb for a perfectly innocuous reason –– because it just so happened to itch. Or, as Uri’s fans might claim, because students of acupressure regularly massage their finger tips to remove blockages from their meridians and to increase the circulation of Qi (bioforce) through their hands. Of course, with the first mention of “Qi” James Randi and his loyal cohorts will cry, “woo” aloud, and call it a “scientific howler” because in their opinion, bioforce simply doesn’t exist. It’s too bad for them, however, that the Japanese Ministry of Health regulates a thumb technique developed by Tokujiro Namikoshi as a licensed bioforce medical therapy. For centuries now, watchmakers have reported cases where common people halted timepieces only by touching them.

Click on the 'NEXT' arrow for page 3

Share this article with: