Bad Astronomy

JREF followup

Well, it’s been a couple of days, and I have to say I’m still just as excited about taking on the mantle of JREF President as I was when Randi first asked me. The JREF folks have really been making me feel like part of the family… but they’ve had years of practice. I’ve been part of that for years, but I’ve just never been legal.

And let me say how overwhelming the response has been! The emails, the IMs, the comments in the post, even a Fark thread. I am so happy and proud and humbled. This is quite a thing.

To answer some of the questions: Randi is not retiring. He’s just making me do all he grunt work so he’s freed up to do fun things. He’ll continue writing his books, writing the weekly SWIFT newsletter, working on the megabuck challenge, and many other things. He’s not really passing any torch; we’ll be working together to make sure JREF keeps fighting the woo. I don’t plan on moving from Boulder; we just bought the house here a year ago! No, I won’t learn magic: I stink at it. But we have others who are pretty good at it, world-class at it. I’m in good company.

… and I have to say, I noticed another frequent comment: people saying my beard isn’t long enough or white enough. Well, I suppose that used to be true, but maybe you just haven’t seen a recent enough picture of me:

Picture courtesy J.D. Mack of the National Capital Area Skeptics, clearly from here and here.