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Changes To The Challenge

IXP said:
Alright!

I am now forming a posse to kidnap Sylvia and bring her for JREF where she will be forced to take the test.

IXP
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How about this instead?

Suppose I offered finders fee if you were the first person to convince psychic Sylvia Browne to take the JREF challenge, and she signed a paper saying you were the one who convinced her to take the challenge, and of course, she successfully completes the challenge according to the agreed upon conditions:

Would you do it for $100 dollars? :D
 
Someone (I looked through the thread three times and STILL didn't see it to quote, sorry I'm tired) mentioned the fact that outside of a few circles the challange really isn't known. I can attest to that being as I'd never heard of it before I stumbled across it on here.

I don't know if part of the problem has been lack of media attention? But it seems to me the media would rather sensationalize so called paranormal events/abilities than to discredit them. Maybe with the right spin and pressure showing them as frauds would make a better story. I'm curious to see the changes.
 
Not quite. Notice the word "guys" is plural. In her case, it's very plural. That's why she's an "X".
 
hcmom said:
Paradigms ---------- Trouble

With a capital P and that rhymes with T and that stands for TROUBLE...
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Why it's the Model T Ford made the people wanna git wanna git wanna git up and go 7 8 9 10 12 14 22 23 miles to the county seat! Yes sir! Yes sir!

(Early Rap. Very cool!)
 
Slightly more on topic:

In the latest Swift, Randi says: "Next week, we’ll clear up the confusion that is causing fluttering hearts among potential JREF million-dollar prize applicants."
 
Right. 29 September to 20 October is one week. Learn something every day.

At least we have a date we can depend on being right now. If James says it we can hold him to it.
 
From September 29th to October 20th seems like it's only been one week! What's worse, it seems like December 20th is only 2 weeks from now...
 
teck49 said:
"B"elieve whatever you like. I just don't "C"are.

A DOUBLE LETTER SCORE!!!
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Dang it, now Everybody'll try Fiendish tricks with Grammar to achieve Higher scores In this Jocular Knavery.
 
Let me nab onto pen/quill, rushing, stammering through ungainly verse without xenophobic yelling zest!

Can we talk about something else now?
 
rats said:
Let me nab onto pen/quill, rushing, stammering through ungainly verse without xenophobic yelling zest!

Can we talk about something else now?
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This was an A and C conversation so B quiet. jk

I'd personally love to talk about something else. Preferably the ramifications of Jeff's "press release" about the changes to the challenge..... Oh, sorry, that still han't happened yet!
 
How it stands now:

We have a laywer looking over the text. Once that's complete, we'll officially announce the changes.

However, what Randi said in the Skepticality Podcast is essentially what's changing.

So, that is..

We will stop taking unsolicited applications in several months. We will be procative and actively challenging high profile psychics, faith healers, etc. at our discretion.

Why are we doing this? One is that we get dozens of applications every week. It takes a LOT of time to go through them all. The vast majority of these are from people suffering from mental illness. If we end up testing them and they fail, we look bad because we're taking advantage of them. We've been doing this for 10 years, and NO one has passed the first phase of the challenge. We can declare victory that the challenge has served its purpose in this regard.

However, the high-profile people have been avoiding us for years. They're the ones with all the power and impact. Our objective now is to be a thorn in their sides, and we'll be able to focus much more time on them once the sea of scrawled challenge applications is out of the way.

So the big question is.. what of those who will say "See that! Randi won't test me because he KNOWS I'm the real thing." Well, give us a reason to invite you to the challenge. Win one of the many other prizes offered by groups around the world. Garner media attention.. whatever. We have limited resources, and we have to spend them where we can have the most impact. Testing a deluded man who thinks he can eat talk to rabbits has no positive effect on our mission.

So there it is. I know this decision will be unpopular with some, and I'm sorry about that, but this move will empower the JREF to do more with the challenge than ever before.
 
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