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From: JamesRandiFoundation
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  • If I have to get old, I want to get old like Randi. :-)

  • Brian Thompson made a slight understatement. He said NCCAM has spent "millions" on these junk tests.

    A news report last year said they have wasted $2.5 BILLION over the last 10 years (and of course found nothing). "Big Pharma" could have given us 2 new real drugs for that much.

  • Total hotties. Hot drinks. Lovably grumpy old dude. Thumbs up.

  • The field coordinator who lived!

  • That's a way to make some shitty coffee.

  • I've always wanted to see a good study into what makes the best placebo - and something tells me a coffee enema is going to be more effective than smelling lavender.

    ...

    Although I wonder how you would double-blind an enema..

  • I can't really wake up until I've had my coffee enema.

  • But after having a coffee enema you'll feel more alert.

    I'll have to try that sometime.

  • If you explain a regular enema to children they'd laugh just as much if you mentioned coffee or not.

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  • Derp. They should give those 128 Million Dollars to the NASA.

  • A great man. A real shame he's a atheist!

  • @vicnickmusicvideos You are funny ;-)

  • @vicnickmusicvideos If he doesn't believe in irrational stuff, why would he be religious?

  • Anyone else reminded of This Old House by the intro music?

  • Alternative medicine is an alternative to medicine. Personally I'll stick to medicine, but that's just this rational tick I have, and it can't be helped.

  • @dookiecheez if alternative medicine worked, it would cease to be "alternative" - it would be just medicine.

  • Every time I see James Randi, I just want to hug him.

  • I love Randi, but his comments on cancer and massage are so ignorant. Helping people with cancer lower their anxiety and pain levels is a huge deal. Massage has the very real potential to help reduce the need anti-anxiety, sedative and pain management medicine. Happier patients also means happier staff, which means less burnout, sick time and turnover. How do we know it helps? Small scale studies. How much can it help? I dunno... if testing is a stupid idea, then I'm kinda stumped.

  • @Everstruggling Randi is right. Some people will delay or avoid effective treatment all together. Some of those people might have survived with prompt therapy.

  • @occhamite That is an entirely different issue. He scoffed at studies on whether massage "made people feel better". The research that has been done shows that, yes, it helps a lot. Massage treatment lowers people's pain and anxiety levels. That is a huge benefit to cancer patients, their loved ones, their caregivers or anyone with compassion. These things can lower the overall cost of healthcare. The tests I've seen are measuring its effectiveness as an adjunct therapy, not as an alternative.

  • @Everstruggling: The argument is NOT that massage is of no benefit. It IS and is part of follow up care in many programs that are offerred to people recovering from many illnesses. The argument would be "does marrage offer any benefit in the treatment to reduce the tumors?" Why are you researching what is of known benefit to patients sense of wellbeing in the course of chemotherapy where massage has NO effect? Common sense is all he argues.

  • OMG, it's Peter Parker! (spider-man?)

  • Ok, so on top of dying of cancer, you get a coffee enema, all sponsored by the taxpayer. Classy.

  • I'm waiting for someone to sell us "Time heals all wounds" on the street corner,

  • If this is Randi's idea of "crazy," I'd like to see more of it.

  • How come alternative medicine research projects can never be funded with alternative money?

  • A coffee enema? An enema to help one excrete coffee? O_o

  • The real problem with this research on "alternative medicine" is that even when they prove that it doesn't work, it will have no effect on the businesses that perpetrate the scam. The charlatans will still peddle their nonsensical schemes, and idiots will continue to fall for it. In the mean time, the government just flushed $666,000 down the toilet. The money can be justified ONLY if it leads to the govt. cracking down on the scammers.

  • Maybe you could smell nanoprobes when we can make them.

  • @CrimsonRefractions

    Also yes, the USA is like Iran v2.0 to me.

  • i agree with randi... so many of us agree, americans looks like idiots

    randi however > god

  • @Nr2reaper

    Well, Randi exists. Anyone would win that comparison.

  • @CrimsonRefractions if god was real randi would still win

  • James Randi speaks volumes both with his words and his eyebrows! Seeing him in interviews and podcasts is always a treat.

  • God he got old.

  • Tyhat other guy is gay as fuck.

  • @Droedelzak

    The guy on the left is not too manly either.

  • @MexxPowers

    Fucking win, thumbs up

  • @Droedelzak So is James Randi, who fucking cares?

  • @Droedelzak So what, you wanna stone him?

  • Randi is making the same fundamental mistake that all pseudoscientsist make which is confusing his sense of the plausible with the way the world must work. NCAMM has some serious problems but they are not addressed by curmudgeonly dismissals of any idea that someone finds implausible. Further the mere fact that there are people using these treatments means that we need to fairly investigate them so we can honestly tell people when they are frauds. Randi's specialty is not science but frauds.

  • @michalchik

    “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.”

    Christopher Hitchens.

    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"

    Carl Sagan.

    "The burden of proof, lies with the person making the positive claim"

    Me.

  • @unixhead101 So I can dismiss these extraordinary postive claims that Randi makes that he can evaluate the scientific merits of the study without reading the grant proposals and without any scientific training over the evaluations of the grant committees. He is being as bad as fricking Sarah Palin railing about taxpayer money being wasted on studying fruit-flies when she didn't know what important model systems fruit-flies are. These people write grants, Randi offer no evidence.

  • @michalchik I have a rock that repels tigers, I am holding it now and there are no tigers here, therefore it works. I'm going to sell this to people and make lots of money. Oh wait I should spend millions of TAX DOLLARS (PUBLIC MONEY) checking whether or not it works first because without doing serious study it is impossible to know. The fact people believe something does not mean that there is something to believe. If they want to prove something works/exists they should pay for it

  • @TotalComposure Are tens of thousands of people buying tiger repellent rocks? I am not claiming any of these claims are true but that you can not use causal galnces and common sense to evaluate their truth. NCCAM goes through a competitive granting system and the scientists involved judge the merits of the studies and decide which ones are best, How about we the scientists who study the proposals ion detail decide their merits instead of doing science by witch hunt and scorn.

  • James Randi greatest magic trick will be making his body shrink to nothing leaving nothing but beard.

  • Smells like a Pork Barrel to me...

  • What if it works + let's try anything + tax money.

    Something of that could work, but why is it called alternative medicine anyway?

    Talking about the scents, I guess the idea behind aromatherapy might be to stimulate brain to increase production of endophines that heals wounds, IF it works it would be nice, if not... common it's tax money! 8D You know how it is, like working glows that cost 12$ in regular shop, but delivered to state agency for 50$ etc.

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  • james was here ? why was i not told?

  • to paraphrase someone wiser than I, when an 'alternative' medicine or treatment works, it is called medicine. When it doesn't, it is called an alternative to real medicine because it isn't medicine, it is a belief system that you can waste your health and a lot of money on

  • caffeine might change the way cells grow. who is to say it does not work..lets test it to find out for sure...i feel james is getting a bit jaded after seeing way too much crazy shit people do.

  • Those selected cases sound pretty loopy, but I just don't get the attitude of denouncing alternative medicine for lacking research and denouncing researching alternative medicine.

  • @iamgoddard

    The problem is that the research needs to be grounded on something. You need to have a hypothesis of how something is going to work, one that makes sense according to our current knowledge, then spend a big budget on researching it.

    The other problem is that alternative medicine is researched in ways that are hardly scientific and even if they are, the conclusion drawn from said studies are often laughable. Publish in paid third-rate journal, receive science-stamp!

  • @Krpi So, isn't NCAMM then an attempt to research current alternative medicine in a more scientific way?

    I don't know much about NCAMM but this doesn't seem so far fetched to properly study the effects of aromas and plants dissolved in water on our bodies.

    Much of new science comes from the EUREKA effect, where you discover something you weren't expecting.

    Proper research isn't cheap.

    For Randi to say he could do it for $25 shows his ignorance in the matter.

  • @GorgeGeorg

    It depends on what you're trying to get out of those aromas and plants. What your goal is, how plausible the hypothesis behind your research is and just how much money you're planning on using on the research. In this case Randy, for one, seems to think it's clearly wasted money and given an overview of the situation I'm inclined to agree.

    A possible eureka moment isn't a justification for big spending if it's government money you're talking about.

  • @Krpi, though those are broad charges that I'd have to take on faith that they apply to each and every topic studied by the NIH alternative-medicine program along with the belief that the NIH is run by incompetent nitwits who don't understand basic science. That's a lot to swallow!

    What's more useful than a few examples (that for ought I know do have some reason to believe might work), would be a complete audit of NCCAM. Has it made many or even a single important discovery? I don't know.

  • "The Randi Show" struck up images of a children's show be the mix of Mr.Rogers and Bill Nye.

  • q: What do you call alternative medicine which has been investigated scientifically and proven to work?

    a: Medicine

    -Tim Minchin

  • How do they obtain funding for something that doesn't make sense?

  • @truvelocity It may not make sense but it makes a lot of cents, AHAHAHHAHAHA *cough cough*

  • @truvelocity

    by having elected/public officials that don't understand basic science and an ignorant population that keeps them in office. yea, how do we spend millions on this shit? well when we shovel out the shit-for-brains it might get better. it's gonna take some back braking effort.

  • @truvelocity Because beurocracy doesn´t have to make sense.

  • Alternative medicine,it actually says exactly what it is in the name,it's an alternative to doing something that actually works. which is when i lay around on the couch,I call it,alternative working

  • The answer is the Federal Government should not be doing any sort of research. Let the private sector do what it does best.

  • @pookatim So if we let the private industry do what it does best, should we have the gov do what privte business doesnt do best?

    Because private industry isnt too great with doing medical research.

    So much more than you probably imagine is funded by the gov or done by it.

    Or by non-profit groups.

    Its really not dominated by private industry taking care of itself, and even then, because many researches are such long term positions business hates that kind of return on investment.

  • @pookatim As for this particular story, its silly research sure, but its more that we need to keep educating people to end these beliefs.

    Private industry does far more of this junk, funding and using, than public, but I would rather risk some stupid public research to get the good stuff, than leave it to private industry to maybe give us something someday on its own thats worth anything and then even make it affordable to most people that need it.

  • The fact that the money was spent in such a blatantly absurd and frivolous manner is absolutely disgusting. And to think that many people think that NASA's funding needs to be cut...

  • I am a skeptic and question everything. however Randi is a magician not a healer of any sort. So I think research on any topic is important either to say yes there is something to it or to debunk it utterly

  • @colbour I agree, but the problem is half the people on the panel for that institute are quacks, trying to keep things like homeopathy alive.

  • @flaviusclaudius7510 i agree homeopathy is paramount to witchcraft. But I also think when it comes to health no stone should be left uncovered.

  • @colbour I do agree with you. There is an issue, though, when the people whose job it is to judge whether this works or not both disagree with the scientific method and have a vested interest in one result.

  • @flaviusclaudius7510 the problem i have with western medicine despite the accomplishments it has made over the years, is that it attacks the disease regardless of the outcome of the body. ie chemotherapy.

  • @colbour That's a shame, and if there's something better it should be clinically tested to determine it's better through proper scientific investigation. But that's hardly representative of 'Western medicine' — it's an attempt to destroy an exceptionally virulent disease. What about such things as antibiotics etc.? Some times the best we have isn't good enough, but what separates it from traditional medicine is that we're constantly improving by testing new alternatives and accepting the results

  • @colbour yes, but in case of homeopathy there is no stone to be uncovered unless you think it would help you with your disease to drink water from your tap...

  • @colbour So you think we should be researching to see if standing on your left foot all day cures AIDS, if drinking sulfuric acid cures headaches, if doing back flips during full moons cures leprosy, and all the other billion million trillion to the trillionth power of ABSURD ideas that anyone can come up with? Seriously? Use your damn head.

  • @tml4873 I think probably you should reel in your examples there, cowboy. I never said anything of the sort. All I am saying is that randi is not a medical doctor. He has made a living out of the debunking industry Not give any thought to ideas, no matter if they may seem outlandish, seems narrow minded. There is a lot of quackery out there but without research we stand to probably miss out on something.Name calling aside,im not suggesting drinking sulfuric acid just some imagination

  • I do not get the joke. :O/

    Katalyzt

  • @Katalyzt he's getting a coffee enema. the nurse is putting the coffee in hes butt.

  • @darkslap

    Aaahh

  • on the point of massage therapy: i read an article about a test they did with rats.

    they noticed that a mother would lick her young periodically weather they were dirty or not.

    they separated a litter from its mother and stroked one half daily with a brush, and the other half not.

    turns out the ones that were stroked grew up to be bigger and stronger.

    what is that like $50 worth or research right there?

    makes u wonder whats really going on with that money...

  • I would love Randi to do a show on SOPA

  • Meh, those NCCAM shenanigans remind me of that committee in the European Union which, for years and with millions of taxpayer money, pondered the question whether water is a remedy for dehydration. True story.

  • There should be some serious accountability here. The incompetent feeble-minded idiots who come up with spurious 'research' should be sacked at the very least or face custodial sentences for wasting public money during a recession at best.

  • NSCAM?

  • Now - how much would cost to research the perfect sweetness of coffee administered anally ?

  • Ug Ugaboo Ugaboo Ug Ugug! :D

  • The Anti Claus! :)

  • I've heard a lot about aromatherapy and I've never heard anything from it about it healing physical wounds.

  • I really like Brian Thomson as well as James Randi - these podcasts are presenting on such a well-done "conversation" basis, they're very enjoyable to watch. - Brian doesn't talk too much or too little, all of the fun and information is very equal. - Wonderful :)

  • James Randi should be cast for Santa Claus. Climb into people's chimneys and tell the kids that he doesn't really exist. 

  • @Shmuklidooha cool comment

  • @Shmuklidooha Brilliant!

  • @Shmuklidooha lol OMG that's the funniest shit ever!

  • @Shmuklidooha That would be the funniest thing ever.

  • It must have been a Tim Horton's coffee. Not vary hot and tastes like ass...

  • lol I love Randi's sense of humor. Keep up the good work, guys, I like this show a lot!

  • Mr. Randi keeps fading out the longer the video goes on ;(

  • @linksysrouted Probably the result of one of his wizard skills.

  • Tar is sadly too expensive these days...

  • It is my dream to meet this man!!

  • @fadyadelnageeb

    Then just visit him at the JREF :) He is very famous, but also very easy to meet, when he is at the JREF he says hello to people that visit.

  • @kurtilein3 yeah ummm... I live in Egypt. haha

  • Peter parker

  • @espn1337 same here lol

  • power hologram energy bracelets- those are sold everywhere in my country. a real scam.

  • I wish there were more people like James Randi in this world!

  • Stay well and healthy, James. I think you do important work.

  • James Randi looks good for a man of 39. Just kidding, he's old and looks great and has more faculties than an average man half his age.

  • I like hearing stories like this, It makes me feel just a tad less ignorant than the rest of the world... or at least my country.

  • 8:20 Where are the politicians? Ron Paul 2012! 

  • @surgeyX

    Using a non-political video to spread your political bias

    Real classy

  • @Gezab

    What?  At the end of the video Randi mentions senators and congressmen specifically. How's that non-political?

  • @surgeyX

    He's not using it as his soap-box to spread his point of view. He's just saying they need to do something.

    You Ron Paul drones really get on my nerves. Never has any politician had such an annoying fanbase. It's quite sad, too, because Paul has a lot of good ideas.

  • @Gezab

    Whatever. The NCCAM is part of our government, and hence automatically a political topic. You saying that it isn't makes no sense.

  • takes ur vitamis james

  • Big government wasting taxpayer money on nonsense!? You don't say!

  • (:

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