Very sad about Randi, though he sure held on for a long and rich life!
I've been in to "Skepticism" for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up I was excited about the prospects of a real Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, psychic powers and all the rest. I remember even convincing myself at some point that I had a dream that was prophetic, and that maybe I moved a pencil on a table with my mind (early teens). But when I encountered the Skeptic mags, e.g. The Skeptical Inquirer (CSICOP) and others, I was enthralled by the application of clear thought and careful empiricism to these claims. I still occasionally buy the magazines, including Skeptic. Naturally Randi often featured and he was a Hitchens-like figure in terms of his acerbic take-no-prisoners approach, which was cathartic
I watched that Uri Geller tonight show footage again last night - there is the long "full show" version which is even more telling than the short one above. Talk about a huckster caught out! Just imagine the flop sweat of knowing the shtick is being blown up in front of millions of people!
And yet...Geller went on to continue to fool people and a long career. Even as Peter Popoff came back. It just goes to show the fallibility of human nature, and for me, why the light of enlightenment thinking needs to be continually nurtured against the habit of superstition and magical thinking.