Congrats to Phil Plait, the New President of JREF!!

Holy crap, the James Randi Educational Foundation announced on Monday that the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait, will be taking over as the foundation's president! Plait is an author, skeptic, and actually quite a good astronomer and it's cool to see that he will be heading up the JREF in Randi's absence. Randi is apparently going to devote his time to finishing up a couple of new books. Phil had this to say on his blog:

There is no way I can replace Randi, or fill his shoes, or even be moderately Amazing. I won’t even try. Happily, I don’t need to: he will continue to work with the JREF, guiding the Foundation as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. There is a lot of Randi in the JREF, and of the JREF in Randi, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As cool as it is to see Phil taking over the JREF, it also makes me a little sad that Randi isn't running the show anymore. Over the years, James Randi has done more to advance skepticism and critical thinking than almost anyone and his books and TV specials have helped to pull lots of True Believers™ (Your pal Skippy included) out of the muck of credulity. That being said, I can't think of anyone I'd rather see taking over for Randi than Phil. Congratulations man, and good luck.