The Shadow Knows, Decisions, Decisions, A Believer Rails, Ancient Flying Tables, Getting Closer to Business, Talk to Your Cat, Will They Never Learn?, Compulsory Feng Shui, Paying for Quacks, Those Crazy Finns!, Magic Charms for Pets, and Off to Germany…
James Randi holds court on all this and more in the new edition of Swift!

Scientists have created a new form of matter that may help lead to more efficient electricity generation, better motors, and cool stuff like levitating trains.
Physicist Deborah Jin and her team created a fermionic condensate in their National Institute of Standards and Technology/University of Colorado lab. The new substance is one of the most basic forms [...]

A new study indicates that Neanderthal craniums differ so greatly from those of modern humans that they constitute their own species, and are probably not our ancestors.
Neanderthals lived in parts of Europe and Asia as long as 200,000 years ago. They were more heavily built then we are – imagine the “cave men” you [...]

Now that the Chinese New Year has passed and we are officially in the year of the Monkey, here’s a couple of pics to usher it in. First, at right, a picture that is either funny or cruel, I can’t decide… it’s probably both. Zookeepers at the Forest Safari
Park in the city of Shenyang decided [...]

Geller Zaps Jackson, Witches Flourish in Norway, Changing Your Mind, and The Amaz!ng Meeting 2 is History!
Just back from an amazingly successful annual conference, James Randi has posted a short but sweet new edition of Swift at his site.
Our conference diary will be up sometime in the next week.

As we celebrate the eve of the Chinese New Year, and the coming of the year of the Monkey, let’s wish happy birthday to this baby Titi monkey, born Wednesday at the Edinburgh Zoo. He’s the first of his species to be bred in captivity in Scotland.
In non-monkey news, I’m wrapping up my thoughts on [...]

Pop quiz: The fuzzy photo above is a) what everything looks like the morning after a typical night in Las Vegas; b) the result of a concerted search to find the most inexpensive digital camera in all of New York City; c) James Randi, Teller, and Penn Jillette; or d) all of the above.
The answer, [...]

Only a quick update tonight from beautiful Las Vegas, site of the second annual Amaz!ng Meeting, because it’s 1 AM New York time, and I want to hit the strip before my energy completely runs out.
TAM 2 has started with a bang. Our master of ceremonies, Hal Bidlack, is performing his duties with customary wit [...]

No major updates today, as I’m in transit to Vegas to attend The Amaz!ng Meeting 2, the annual conference of the James Randi Educational Foundation. I’ll be presenting a paper, learning lots, and enjoying sin city.
I plan on posting regular updates on what’s happening at the conference, so be sure to check back.

The Mars Rover Spirit cut its final tether to the lander last night and began to move on its own, backing up about 10 inches and turning 45 degrees. Sometime Wednesday night/ Thursday morning, the rover will roll off the lander and onto Martian soil. The initial NASA plan was to move Spirit several days [...]