I'm leaving on the 22nd for the Hague -- with my good friend Jerry Andrus, to open his 'Il

I'm leaving on the 22nd for the Hague -- with my good friend Jerry Andrus, to open his "Illusions" show at the Museon there. I go thence to Bergen, Trondheim, and Oslo, to lecture. We've granted Curley an extra week to respond to the legal papers. Memberships are coming in at a good rate, pledges are very close to the one-million mark, and we've had some very flattering and exciting offers of support and donations. The JREF book library is starting to overflow onto the adjoining hall shelves, and our video dubbing/digitalizing project will be underway as soon as Andy Harter joins the staff on February 1st. The state-of-the-art video technology we have in place is pretty startling, and the 20-25-year-old video tapes that we feared might be beyond salvaging, are being "fluffed up" into pristine shape. There are some Geller performances there that provide rather interesting data, all of which will be the basis for a seminar designed to examine these matters. Geller is making suing noises again, here (against me) and abroad as well. We'll keep you informed as those matters proceed. We're scripting our first video presentations, and Dave Steigleman -- an ex-NBC cameraman -- is setting up to begin shooting at the beginning of February. We're very happy to have him aboard, and he's taken over the design and wiring of our video network here. This will enable us to pump video into monitors in every office and corner of the headquarters, record from as many as four separate sources simultaneously, and automatically receive and record video data. The first issue of "Swift," the JREF newsletter, is shaping up rapidly under the direction of Chip Denman. We expect it to be 16 pages, to begin, and we've assembled articles from across the spectrum of skepticism. It will grow into a full journal as soon as we've raised the additional funding needed for that purpose. Skeptic Magazine -- Michael Shermer's creation -- will run a full-page ad for JREF membership, in its next issue -- due out very soon. You should look into that publication. Excellent. Paul Kurtz of CSICOP continues to improve after his bypass surgery, and every effort is being made to keep him resting until he's fully strong enough to resume his duties. He's a hard man to keep down, and should be in full form soon. Our architect has completed plans for the auditorium and experimental lab we're building here at JREF, and city approval has been applied for. Construction should begin shortly. We're now staffed by six in-house employees, and one in Canada who maintains our confidential database (randomized targets for psi-tests, etc.). Within the next couple of months, I expect that I'll be able to announce a substantial event that will just about double the size and reach of the Foundation. It all depends upon certain decisions by other agencies. Stay tuned! James Randi ************************************************** ** PROVIDED FOR YOUR REFERENCE BY THE MODERATOR ** ************************************************** Requests to be added to or deleted from the randi-hotline mailing list, must be sent to the service address: Internet: randi-hotline-request@ssr.com PLEASE BE PATIENT. All requests are processed before each new mailing to the list and these can be widely spaced. You *will* be added if your request was sent to the correct address. ----------------- CONTACTING RANDI: ----------------- James Randi Educational Foundation phone: +1 954 467 1112 201 SE Davie Boulevard fax: +1 954 467 1660 Fort Lauderdale FL 33316-1815 http://www.randi.org U.S.A. Note: Please send e-mail that can be handled by JREF staff to randi@randi.org DO NOT SEND UNSUBSCRIBE/SUBSCRIBE REQUESTS TO THESE ADDRESSES! PERSONAL messages to randi, or messages requiring his personal attention: 76702.3507@COMPUSERVE.COM --------------------------- BACK ISSUES OF THE HOTLINE: --------------------------- On the Web: http://www.mindspring.com/~anson/randi-hotline/ Via FTP: USA: ftp.netcom.com directory: /pub/an/anson/Mailing_Lists/geller-hotline ftp.ssr.com: directory: /Randi Please try netcom.com first, since ftp.ssr.com is very busy. EUROPE: mercurio.iet.unipi.it directory: /pub/Randi Our gratitude goes to Anson Kennedy and Massimo Macucci for providing the ftp sites at netcom and unipi.it, respectively.