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Benjamin Radford

 

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Benjamin Radford



 
 
Benjamin Radford is managing editor
Managing editor

A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team. The title also applies to the evening televised News broadcasting on ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC and the FOX News Channel....
 of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer
Skeptical Inquirer

The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly, United States magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
 and editor-in-chief of the Spanish-language magazine Pensar, published in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
, Argentina
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
. He has written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including urban legends, the paranormal, critical thinking, film, and media literacy. He is author of three books: Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking (with sociologist Robert E.






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Benjamin Radford is managing editor
Managing editor

A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team. The title also applies to the evening televised News broadcasting on ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC and the FOX News Channel....
 of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer
Skeptical Inquirer

The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly, United States magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
 and editor-in-chief of the Spanish-language magazine Pensar, published in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
, Argentina
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
. He has written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including urban legends, the paranormal, critical thinking, film, and media literacy. He is author of three books: Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking (with sociologist Robert E. Bartholomew); Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us, examining the ways in which deception is used in various media to influence decision making and public policy; and Lake Monster
Lake monster

Lake monster or loch monster is the name given to large unknown animals which have reportedly been sighted in, and/or are believed to dwell in fresh waters, although their existence has never been confirmed scientifically....
 Mysteries: Investigating the World's Most Elusive Creatures
(with Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell

Joe Nickell was born December 1, 1944. He is a former stage magician and is a prominent Skepticism investigator of the paranormal. He also works as an historical document consultant and has examined such famous forgeries as the purported Jack the Ripper Diary....
), a scientific examination of lake monsters around the world. Radford is also a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine and the Skeptical Briefs newsletter, as well as online at LiveScience.com and MediaMythmakers.com.

In his work with the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry , formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal is a United States nonprofit organization whose stated purpose is to "encourage the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminat...
, Radford is one of the world's few science-based paranormal investigators, and has done first-hand research into psychics, ghosts and haunted houses (see, for example, ); exorcism
Exorcism

Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual being from a person or place which they are believed to have Spiritual possession....
s, miracle
Miracle

File:Folio 171r - The Raising of Lazarus.jpgA miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker....
s, Bigfoot
Bigfoot

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is an alleged ape-like creature purportedly inhabiting forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America....
, stigmata
Stigmata

Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. The term originates from the line at the end of Paul of Tarsus's Letter to the Galatians where he says, "I bear on my body the st?gmata of Jesus" - stigmata is the plural of the Greek_language word st???a, st?gma,...
, lake monster
Lake monster

Lake monster or loch monster is the name given to large unknown animals which have reportedly been sighted in, and/or are believed to dwell in fresh waters, although their existence has never been confirmed scientifically....
s, UFO sightings, reincarnation
Reincarnation

Reincarnation, literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or Metaphysics belief that some essential part of a living being survives death to be reborn in a new body....
, crop circles
Crop Circles

Crop Circles was a collaboration between the psychedelic trance band Etnica and a Milanese group called Lotus Omega . An album, entitled "Tetrahedron", should have been released around 1998, but the project was abandoned because the British label Auracle Recordings went bankrupt....
, and other topics. Radford also writes on many other topics, including world travel, science literacy, jungle hiking, sex offender panics, and popular fallacies. Radford has appeared on CNN
CNN

Cable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is a major US Cable News Network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first station to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States....
, The History Channel
The History Channel

History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an International Satellite channel and Cable channel TV channel, with shows on historical events and persons—often with observations and explanations by noted historians as well as historical reenactment and interviews with witnesses....
, the National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society....
, the Learning Channel, CBC, BBC, and others. He also served as a consultant for the MTV
MTV

MTV is an United States cable television network based in Media of New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJ ....
 series "The Big Urban Myth
Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, or urban tale is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them....
 Show."

In 2001, Radford investigated the mysterious 1997 incident in which thousands of Japanese children seemingly suffered seizures while watching an episode of the Pokémon
Pokémon

is a media franchise owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri around 1995. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy line Console role-playing game video games, Pok?mon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own...
 cartoon. Though many doctors advanced theories including photosensitive epilepsy
Photosensitive epilepsy

Photosensitive epilepsy is a form of epilepsy in which seizures are triggered by visual stimuli that form patterns in time or space, such as flashing lights, bold, regular patterns, or regular moving patterns....
, Radford demonstrated that the incident was rooted in mass hysteria. The resulting article, co-authored by Robert Bartholomew, was published in the February 2001 Southern Medical Journal and remains the definitive explanation for the bizarre case.

Radford has been a part-time film critic since 1994, publishing reviews and film festival reports in the Corrales Comment newspaper (Corrales
Corrales

Corrales can refer to:...
, New Mexico
New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
) and online Radford is also the writer and director of the animated short film Clicker Clatter, a satire of television news. Completed in 2007, the film is currently screening at film festivals.

Over the last few years, Radford has developed a board game, "Playing Gods", allowing up to five players the chance to take over the world as a god. The game comes with five figures, Jesus, Bhudda, Moses, Kali and a certain prophet who seems to be throwing a bomb. The game will be released in September 2008 by "Balls Out" Games.

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