The James Randi Educational Foundation will have an Open House for
friends and associates on April 1 (the anniversary of our
incorporation) between 6 and 8 in the evening.  We are presently
getting together the plans for a conference -- probably in December --
and we invite inquiries.  Both the Miami Space Planetarium and the
Fort Lauderdale Museum of Science & Discovery are affiliating with the
JREF, and we look forward to many close and productive associations
between these agencies and the Foundation.

So far, not one of the tens of thousands of nursing professionals who
administer -- and charge handsomely for -- Therapeutic Touch, has
agreed to try for the US$1,100,000 prize the JREF offers.  No one.  I
think we're rocking a boat full of otherwise very comfortable quacks.

This April 1st celebration will also mark the event you've all waited
for with such anxiety: the announcement of the annual Pigasus awards.
These highly coveted trophies will be distributed by the usual means,
and the winners will be announced here the evening of April 1st.
Suggestions have been pouring in, and any last-minute nominations you
may care to submit will be accepted up until Sunday night.  As usual,
the competition has been fierce.  The year 1996 was one full of
pseudoscience, claptrap, silly claims, and quackery.

A final note: I see that a medical provider named "Oxford Health
Plans" has decided to offer acupuncture as a covered treatment.  This
means that subscribers will pay for yet another variety of quackery.
It's rumored that Oxford will also offer eye of newt and toe of frog,
bat-wing poultices, and unicorn sweat ointment.  Now all we need is a
hospital named Yale to accept Therapeutic Touch as a legitimate
therapy.  Why not?  Hospitals in Florida do.  Shudder.....  And can
you imagine that we might even see a tenured Harvard professor
endorsing alien abductions?

Nah.  That's too preposterous.

					James Randi.