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Having just checked the ebay listing again it seems the letter that magician James Randi claimed had been stolen from him has been withdrawn from sale. There is a very interesting bit of information there as well about the identity of the seller.

Questions from other buyers for this listing

Q: You may have already received this, but on the off chance you haven’t I’m reproducing it here. This is a note from James Randi concerning this item> “Item #6535581498 now being offered for sale on eBay is a letter written and sent to me by Doug Henning in 1983. At that time, I lived in Rumson, New Jersey. Until I saw it on eBay a few days ago, I thought it was still in my Henning file, but it apparently was stolen from me sometime after 1995, when I last referred to it. If any of you have heard scuttlebutt about this item, I’d like to hear from you. I cannot discover who offered it for sale, but I assure you I treasured it highly. James Randi. ” Thought you should know about this. ASll the best, Doc Doc-Jaksons-Place

A: Yes, thank you, Mr. Randi’s public posting about the letter has made its way to many hundreds (or thousands) of his followers. As we stated to Mr. Randi early on, we would not bow to extortion or pressures or threats as we are not even the owner of this letter, we are a bonded, licensed Trading Assistant selling it under written contract for the ex-wife of Mr. Randi’s foster son and former assistant. Our understanding is that the letter came to be in this person’s possession much longer ago than Mr. Randi states, the client says she believes it came to her ex-husband in the 1980s. Regardless, Mr. Randi’s claim that the letter was stolen is contradicted by our client’s written statement and contract. His attempts to extort the item from us using public embarassment were completely inappropriate and not appreciated. Mr. Randi was informed that a proper police report would start the ball rolling towards resolution but that report just arrived yesterday May 31st.

Tags: eBay

Meanwhile I’ve noticed a lot of speculation about the last few episodes and The Big Bad Wolf. I like Tom Coates theory which I’ve reprinted here.

Needless to say possibly spoilerific.

Tags: Doctor Who

A reader of BoingBoing is on the James Randi mailing list and received the following message from the magician.

Item #6535581498 now being offered for sale on eBay is a letter written and sent to me by Doug Henning in 1983. At that time, I lived in Rumson, New Jersey. Until I saw it on eBay a few days ago, I thought it was still in my Henning file, but it apparently was stolen from me sometime after 1995, when I last referred to it.

If any of you have heard scuttlebutt about this item, I’d like to hear from you. I cannot discover who offered it for sale, but I assure you I treasured it highly.

James Randi.

I find his statement that he cannot discover who offered it for sale puzzling. The letter is being offered for sale by a company that specializes in listing items on eBay for their clients. It seems like a reputable business from what I can gather from the information listed at eBay and their contact details are clearly listed. Has Mr. Randi tried to contact them? Would they not be concerned that they could be handling stolen goods.

Tags: eBay

Your objective is simple: World Domination.

Your motive is a little bit more complex: Love (Yes, it works)

Stage One

To begin your plan, you must first traumatize a news reporter. This will cause the world to swallow nervously, confused by your arrival. Who is this evil genius? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good wearing the skin of another human?

Stage Two

Next, you must steal the Town’s Water Supply. This will all be done from a obsidian citadel, a mysterious place of unrivaled dark glory. Upon seeing this, the world will weep uncontrollably, as countless hordes of evil clowns hasten to do your every bidding.

Stage Three

Finally, you must reveal to the world your armies of destruction, bringing about an end to sanity. Your name shall become synonymous with dear god no, and no man will ever again dare steal your woman. Everyone will bow before your cunning intelligence, and the world will have no choice but to give you control of the planet.

Interested in an evil plan of your own? Get yours here.

Tags: humour

The beep has been found at last.

It was quite anticlimatic having read through the 1645 previous posts, I was hoping it was something hidden within the walls. At least reading through them all was a better way to spend a few hours than watching the new series of Big Brother.

I really don’t know how bigcb37 could put up with this for almost a year.

Tags: beep

This discussion on a Tivo Community Forum is making the rounds on the internet but I thought I might as well jump on the bandwagon also.

This poor guy has been suffering with a mytserious intermittent beep that emanates from somewhere in his house for over a year now. He writes that it is definitely not any of the smoke alarms as he has disconnected and tested them all and that the beep remained even when his neighbourhood suffered a power cut.

As mysterious as the beep is the number of people replying who must have missed those crucial pieces of information in his description of his problem as quite a number are suggesting it must be one of his smoke alarms or suggest that he trip the circuit breakers one by one to track down the source of the beep.

Some people have even offered to go to his house in order to help him track down the beep and eliminate it.

Tags: beep

Mindjack, the digital culture webzine, examines the impact of BitTorrent on TV shows and asks whether this distribution model should be embraced by the television companies.

Part one: Hyperdistribution

Part two: The new laws of Television

Post-Script: The Swarm Manifesto

Tags: bittorrent, copyright, TV

Philippine group protests country’s electronic surveillance plans

EFF Obtains Draft PATRIOT Bill

Alan Moore slams V for Vendetta movie, pulls LoEG from DC Comics

Speccy nostalgia 48k FTW.

Tags: comics, computing, surveillance

Halo 2 and the Criminal Mind
The story of how a nice family man was corrupted by the video game Halo 2 and turned into a sociopathic clan leader within a single day.

“Watch the language around the boys, dear.” She’s gesturing to John’s two toddlers, now playing on the living room floor. The oldest is opening a recent birthday gift, a plastic playset in a box marked with a cartoon man with a ponytail and a goatee. The words Brett The Communal Farmer are marked in pink above his head, below it says And His Life Partner, Tim! There is not a toy gun or G.I. Joe to be found in the house.

“I’m not gonna censor myself. Dave’s doin’ an article on the mind of the average gamer and I can’t filter my thoughts. And my first unfiltered thought is that Halo 2 be da filthy.”

This early exchange with the wife didn’t bode well for the future, as we can see in this later episode.

She examines the TV, watching John stride up behind an unsuspecting opponent and blow holes in his back.

“Wait a second,” she said. “Why did you kill that guy? Isn’t he another human?”

John shook his head in frustration. “He’s wearing blue armor.”

“So… the guys in blue armor were also born evil?”

“Honey, if you would take a moment to think before you talk, you’d see that the uniform means he’s on the other side. It’s a game. Like football.”

“But… you’re blowing their guts out. So, like, in the Halo universe are you saying that it’s a normal human pasttime to-“

“-I’m trying to play here! Don’t make me get Ghraib on your ass!”

“If you talk to me like that again, I’ll never let you touch my…” she trails off into stricken silence. “John, what the hell are you doing?”

What John’s wife had just observed was the Halo custom known as “tea bagging.” This is a sort of celebration where the victor squats over the vanquished’s face to simulate dipping his testicles into the cold, dead, open mouth of the corpse much in the same way one would dip a teabag into a cup of hot water.

The article was written by David Wong and John Cheese.

John Cheese? Wasn’t that the former name of John Cleese before he changed his surname?

Tags: games