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If you’re an undiscovered psychic, soothsayer, dowser or medium, time may be running out for you to put your supernatural powers to the test and claim a million dollar prize.

But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Ten years after stage magician and avowed skeptic James Randi first offered a seven-figure payday to anyone capable of demonstrating paranormal phenomenon under scientific scrutiny, the 79-year-old clear-eyed curmudgeon is revising the rules of his nonprofit foundation’s Million Dollar Challenge to better target high-profile charlatans, and spend less time on unknown psychics, who too often turn out to be delusional instead of deceptive.

“We can’t waste the hundreds of hours that we spend every year on the nutcases out there — people who say they can fly by flapping their arms,” says Randi. “We have three file drawers jam-packed with those collections…. There are over 300 claims that we have handled in detail.”

[..]

A Nevada man legally named “The Prophet Yahweh” planned to seize the prize for charity by summoning two spaceships to a Las Vegas park last year, but negotiations broke down when he announced he was bringing several armed guards to the demonstration in case any “negative personalities” showed up. An inventor who claimed to have built a device that could sense the psychic distress of an egg about to be dropped into a pot of boiling water recently abandoned his application when the foundation suggested the egg be threatened by a hammer instead, in case the invention was really just detecting steam.

“One a week gets as far as a protocol negotiation, and then drops off,” says Jeff Wagg, who administers the challenge.

Those are the easy ones. In some of the applications, perhaps most of them, the foundation has to deal with the thorny dilemma of where to draw the line between upholding its commitment, and potentially exploiting or feeding someone’s mental illness. The demarcation is inherently tricky, since the entire theatre of paranormal testing is located in the realm of extra-rational belief.

A San Francisco woman, for example, was determined to prove that she wasn’t human. She had trouble articulating why she believed that, but somehow the Secret Service was involved. In a more recent application, a New York state man claimed that he could summon the appearance of small objects while walking down a road. “The results are plain to see and obviously appear by themselves, in various random arrangements,” he wrote the foundation. “I will these phenomenon into being, and/or they happen because of my physical presence alone, therefore I claim to have these powers.”

What a psychiatrist might interpret as a warning sign for schizophrenia, the James Randi Educational Foundation is obliged to take seriously. After all, who’s to say that random objects teleporting into existence is any more unlikely than Uri Geller telekinetically bending a spoon? But at some point, the process becomes distasteful.

“If we get them to go to a challenge and they lose, we’re exposing someone who had serious mental illness,” says Wagg. “That doesn’t do us any good, and it doesn’t do them any good. It doesn’t prove anything.”

Culling these applications from the process is a major goal of the revamped rules, which take effect April 1st.

Starting then, the challenge will be closed to undiscovered psychic talent; to submit an application, the aspirant will have to demonstrate a “media profile” — television reports, newspaper articles or a reference in a book that chronicles his or her extraordinary abilities.

“We’re not going to deal with unknown people who have silly claims,” says Wagg. “Let’s say, somebody claims they can walk on water. We’ll say, prove it to somebody else first. Get on the local news. Then bring it to us.”

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This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert “An Inconvenient Truth.”

After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting scientists’ findings.

“Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher,” said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. “The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. … The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD.”

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Ever taped or PVRed a show so that you can watch it later, otherwise known as time shifting?

Or ripped a CD so you could listen to it on your MP3 player, called format shifting?

With changes to Canada’s copyright laws expected as early as next month, these mundane 21st century activities could theoretically be open to prosecution — unless the Conservative government steps in with expanded “fair use” or “fair dealing” protections for consumers.

Close observers of the file say all signs point to a new regime that will improve safeguards for major music, film and media companies and artists for unpaid use of their material, but neglect to make exemptions for personal use of copyrighted content.

Consumer advocates like Ottawa-based lawyer Howard Knopf are urging the federal government to protect Canadians with wide exemptions in the Copyright Act for “fair use.”

“They want absolute control. They want to be able to tell you what you do with your music, what you do with your hardware and what you do with your software,” Knopf said of big media companies.

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I’ve had it up to here with the thought of the federal government using my tax dollars to construct bridges. Look, if private interests want to do it, that’s one thing. But I find bridges and other infrastructure to be morally repugnant. The devil’s work.

I know that “scientists” and “engineers” out there are always promising benefits to be had by building these nefarious structures. But they’re just raising false hopes that by some miracle, we’ll be able to cross rivers and streams without getting wet. It just isn’t fair to those that have to get across, to get their hopes up like that. Way more research is needed.

Look, humanity has crossed rivers and streams since the dawn of time the old-fashioned way, by bucking up, holding your breath, and hoping for the best. It’s clearly what God intended.

I know I speak for a lot of people in saying that I object to my tax dollars being spent on something I find morally reprehensible. The Book of Falluvius outlines it clearly enough. It says that the Creator will not tolerate the crossing of bodies of water other than by foot. That can include horses, I’ll grant you that, but it should be obvious that bridges will condemn us all to eternal damnation. All these bridges (and rafts and boogie boards and jet-skis) are sure signs that Western civilization is in sharp decline. Hitler used boats and bridges, didn’t he? We can’t sit idly by while our government allows us to go down that slippery slope.

Now, I’m not going to object to bridges that have already been built, because you can’t undo what’s done, can you? And if I find myself in need of crossing a river without getting wet, I suppose I would not object to the experimental use of a bridge constructed with no federal funding. As long as somebody else paid for it, I can derive the benefit without invoking the wrath of the Creator. As long as He understands that I made my stand, He will see me as the humble servant I am, and He will still allow me into the Kingdom.

But don’t make me take the mark of the beast by using my tax dollars, and those of other Believers, to contradict His will.

How society cannot see the goodness and righteousness of my argument is beyond me. They’ll see the light one day, though.

Forget all your “science” and “logic”. This nation should be governed on the basis of eternal truths like the ones I purvey. I don’t want to hear your polling data. This is about courage and resolve, and standing up for The True Way. Don’t prohibit the free exercise of religion by forcing me to be guided by your empirical observations. I know all about your liberal “public good” arguments and your deceptively pragmatic “cost-benefit” analyses. But this is about Truth. My Truth. And it’s about time government was based on what makes me feel good.

No bridges. Can I be more clear about that? Have some courage, people. Who is with me?

Jumah al-Dossari is a 33-year-old citizen of Bahrain. This article was excerpted from letters he wrote to his attorneys. Its contents have been deemed unclassified by the Department of Defense.

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Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba — I AM WRITING from the darkness of the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo in the hope that I can make our voices heard by the world. My hand quivers as I hold the pen.

In January 2002, I was picked up in Pakistan, blindfolded, shackled, drugged and loaded onto a plane flown to Cuba. When we got off the plane in Guantanamo, we did not know where we were. They took us to Camp X-Ray and locked us in cages with two buckets — one empty and one filled with water. We were to urinate in one and wash in the other.

At Guantanamo, soldiers have assaulted me, placed me in solitary confinement, threatened to kill me, threatened to kill my daughter and told me I will stay in Cuba for the rest of my life. They have deprived me of sleep, forced me to listen to extremely loud music and shined intense lights in my face. They have placed me in cold rooms for hours without food, drink or the ability to go to the bathroom or wash for prayers. They have wrapped me in the Israeli flag and told me there is a holy war between the Cross and the Star of David on one hand and the Crescent on the other. They have beaten me unconscious.

What I write here is not what my imagination fancies or my insanity dictates. These are verifiable facts witnessed by other detainees, representatives of the Red Cross, interrogators and translators.

During the first few years at Guantanamo, I was interrogated many times. My interrogators told me that they wanted me to admit that I am from Al Qaeda and that I was involved in the terrorist attacks on the United States. I told them that I have no connection to what they described. I am not a member of Al Qaeda. I did not encourage anyone to go fight for Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden have done nothing but kill and denigrate a religion. I never fought, and I never carried a weapon. I like the United States, and I am not an enemy. I have lived in the United States, and I wanted to become a citizen.

I know that the soldiers who did bad things to me represent themselves, not the United States. And I have to say that not all American soldiers stationed in Cuba tortured us or mistreated us. There were soldiers who treated us very humanely. Some even cried when they witnessed our dire conditions. Once, in Camp Delta, a soldier apologized to me and offered me hot chocolate and cookies. When I thanked him, he said, “I do not need you to thank me.” I include this because I do not want readers to think that I fault all Americans.

But, why, after five years, is there no conclusion to the situation at Guantanamo? For how long will fathers, mothers, wives, siblings and children cry for their imprisoned loved ones? For how long will my daughter have to ask about my return? The answers can only be found with the fair-minded people of America.

I would rather die than stay here forever, and I have tried to commit suicide many times. The purpose of Guantanamo is to destroy people, and I have been destroyed. I am hopeless because our voices are not heard from the depths of the detention center.

If I die, please remember that there was a human being named Jumah at Guantanamo whose beliefs, dignity and humanity were abused. Please remember that there are hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo suffering the same misfortune. They have not been charged with any crimes. They have not been accused of taking any action against the United States.

Show the world the letters I gave you. Let the world read them. Let the world know the agony of the detainees in Cuba.

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This story is getting more and more mainstream coverage…

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Background:

A self described “fifth-tier” anonymous blogger, Spocko, was moved to record the incendiary and hateful rhetoric* he heard broadcast by KSFO.  In an effort to make advertisers aware of the damage that was being done to their brands, he wrote emails to the companies and included links to his blog where the company executives could hear the KSFO hosts in all of their glory.  Several advertisers pulled their sponsorship of the station.  KSFO retaliated by posting a picture of Spocko on their website and by threatening to bring a lawsuit against him.  Undeterred, Spocko pressed on.  Eventually, ABC, subsidiary of Disney and parent to KSFO, directed their lawyers to convey a cease and Desist order to Spocko’s ISP that made a frivolous claim of copyright infringement.  The ISP, rather than battle Disney in court, pulled the plug on Spocko.  Spocko emailed Mike Stark, an internet activist, who took up his cause.  Within days Spocko’s audio clips were hosted by hundreds of blogs, a YouTube clip was posted that received over 30,000 views, and over a thousand bloggers “blogswarmed” the topic.  Within the past two days, CBS 5 News did a feature segment that highlighted Spocko’s ordeal and the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a lengthy page 2 story.  On Monday, the story will further explode into the national media.

• Hate speech available here:  http://blogintegrityblogspotcom.blog…

KSFO posted the following statement to their website this afternoon:

KSFO TALK SHOW HOSTS TALK BACK TO THEIR CRITICS IN A NO-HOLDS-BARRED BROADCAST THIS FRIDAY

Lee Rodgers, Melanie Morgan, Officer Vic and Brian Sussman will address issues and concerns prompted by misleading information about the station on the Internet and in the mainstream media. The broadcast will air on KSFO Radio starting at 12 noon on Friday, January 12, 2007 and will continue as long as anyone has relevant questions of our hosts.

Both friends and critics of the station are invited to participate. Members of the news media and the blogging community will be encouraged to participate, as well.

Given the nature of the talk radio medium, I decided to call the station in an effort to ascertain the format and ground rules of the planned broadcast.  I talked with Ken Barry, KSFO’s program director.

Barry told me that the show would be call-in only.  I expressed my trepidation with regards to that format.  After all, having made a name for myself by wallowing in the fetid cesspool that is right wing talk radio, I’m fully aware of disgusting and unfair techniques hosts use to maintain control of the dialogue and marginalize the opposition.  Hosts regularly mute microphones, shout over callers, disconnect calls and rant afterwards about the caller that can no longer defend himself or his point of view.

I offered Barry the following proposal.  If KSFO is interested in a genuine and reasonable discussion of the important First Amendment issues at play, I would be happy to be a guest on their show for 20 or 30 minutes – or however long they desired.  I made clear that I have no interest in a radio cage match; I’m not looking for a shout-fest or name-calling.  Put simply, I agree that a free and open exchange of ideas would benefit the San Francisco community and I am willing to advocate for my side with the dignity and decorum decent human beings have come to expect from one another.

Barry sharply dismissed my proposal and told me, like anyone else, I could call in if I wanted to.

I was surprised by what came next.  Was it true, Barry wanted to know, that I was an Air America reporter.  Taken off guard, I confirmed as much, but was genuinely interested with regards to why he would ask such a non sequitur of a question.  His purpose immediately resolved when he suggested that since I was working for a competitor of his radio station, it might behoove me to disclose my connection to Air America.  I explained that I am not an employee of Air America – instead I have served as a free-lance reporter for them.  If I have a story I want to do and I think it fits with The Young Turks radio program, I run it by the show’s host, Cenk Uygur, to see if they have an interest in buying the rights to it.  Until tonight, when I related the conversation to Cenk because I’m fully aware the ABC/Disney’s litigious reputation, I had not had a single communication (by phone, email, in person or otherwise) regarding Spocko or KSFO with anyone remotely connected to Air America.  

I am disappointed by KSFO’s continued distortions and recalcitrance.  They have claimed that there are people (presumably including Spocko and me), “trying to get us fired here at KSFO radio and who are trying to deprive us of a livelihood and who are trying to deprive us of our free speech rights.”

None of this is true.  As far as I know, the only thing any of us have done is amplify the voices heard on KSFO.  We believe in the free market and the free flow of information.  It is important that advertisers know what their brands are being associated with.  By spreading the audio clips to an audience that was otherwise unaware of the rhetoric employed by KSFO hosts, Spocko increased the reach of the KSFO voices.  

I can only think of two reasons the KSFO hosts would feel less than comfortable that their musings reached a wider audience.  They are either ashamed of what they said or they regret the loss of revenue their provocative comments cost them.

After listening to this morning’s show, in which Melanie Morgan called me a “stalker” and ridiculed Spocko as a chicken (with clucks and all), I’m led to believe this is simply a money issue for KSFO.  There is no shame or sorrow for the reprehensible things they have said.

Finally, I should note that KSFO has a long history of airing disgusting and violent rhetoric.  They know what their brand of “Snuff Radio” is capable of.  In 1994 a KSFO host called for “lynching a few liberals” and for listeners to “shoot illegal immigrants who come across the border.”  (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 2/24/95)  KSFO fired hate spewing host, J. Paul Emerson in 1995.  In 1996, a drunken caller left messages on a state Senator’s answering machine that threatened to kill him and his family.  He said he was angered after listening to a KSFO program.  (SF Chronicle, 8/16/96).

Hate sells.  It is a fact.  The only question is what kind of person is comfortable making a living by peddling toxic hate pornography?  Doesn’t it take a sociopath to go home and kiss your kids after spouting bilious invective all day long?  Aren’t sociopaths usually confined in hospitals?  Wouldn’t society be better off if they were?

[30 oktober 2006 in de Volkskrant]

PvdA-leider Bos blijft fractievoorzitter in de Tweede Kamer indien zijn partij na 22 november gaat regeren in een kabinet onder leiding van CDA-premier Balkenende. Tijdens het zondag gehouden eerste grote lijsttrekkersdebat, voor NOS Radio 1, zei Bos dat hij niet zal toetreden tot een vierde kabinet-Balkenende.

[Vandaag:]

PvdA-leider Wouter Bos wordt mogelijk minister van Financiën en vicepremier in het nieuwe kabinet.

Een politicus die zich aan z’n afspraken houdt, zou het nog bestaan?

Craplet: Microsoft Certified Module for the Windows Vista Operating System.

But I must admit that “OEM and the Craplets” is a great band name…

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Earlier today MINI USA sent emails to select owners asking them to join the “pilot�? version of a new program called Motorby. The program features the same interactive digital billboards we pointed out a few weeks back and are currently located around Chicago, New York, Miami and San Francisco. Unfortunately at that time we couldn’t go into details as to why they were going to be cool. Now we can.

The idea is simple, first give MINI USA some irreverent information about yourself (nothing too personal). Then MINI USA then sends out a special keyfob (4-6 weeks after sign-up) that identifies you to each of the Motorboards you pass. When the boards detect that you are about the drive by, they deliver a personal message based on the information you originally gave.

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The iPhone is this amazing connectivity quad-mode device that can probably make use of as much bandwidth as it can get, so making it suck through the little straw that is EDGE makes no sense from a user perspective. But remember that the parties involved here are Apple and Cingular, neither of which is 100 percent allied with user interests. Cingular has a 3G network called BroadbandConnect or “MediaNet” if you buy Cingular’s associated Cingular Video service.

And there’s the problem — Cingular Video, which is based on RealVideo, NOT QuickTime or H.264.

Apple wants the iPhone to get its content primarily through iTunes, ideally by syncing with a Mac or Windows PC. Apple doesn’t like Cingular Video and doesn’t want its customers to know it exists, much less use it. But it would be very hard to introduce a true 3G iPhone, have Cingular promote it strongly, only to say that it can’t be used to view the mobile carrier’s own video content. So instead Apple falls back to the slower EDGE network, which can support email and widgets and surfing, but which also forces iPhone users to get most of their higher-resolution video through iTunes, where Apple makes money and Cingular doesn’t.

It comes down to an accommodation. Cingular wants an iPhone exclusive and is probably paying Apple money for that privilege. Apple doesn’t want Cingular Video. So the only elegant way around that problem is to make the iPhone incapable of operating on the 3G network. If you watch his Macworld keynote you’ll notice Jobs says that Apple may eventually make 3G iPhone models. Yeah, right: I’m 100 percent convinced that all it would take to turn an EDGE iPhone into a 3G iPhone is a firmware upgrade, if that.

Mobile phone carriers are eager for video to succeed on their 3G and 4G platforms because it represents a major new source of revenue. Apple’s iPhone is the best handset yet for displaying that video. But Apple isn’t going to allow this to happen without Cupertino gaining a substantial piece of the action. I’m sure discussions are taking place right now with Cingular where Apple is arguing that the carrier should make its video service iTunes-compatible.