Harry Houdini Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (; born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-born American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it. In 1904,
Gary Weiss campaigns against naked short selling, and takes a dim view of much financial journalism. Weiss singled out Bear Stearns in his criticism, and his comments on anti-naked-shorting activists provoked threats. "Ayn Rand Nation" (2012) is an analysis of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and its influence on the political and economic environment in the United States. George Monbiot, writing in The Guardian, argues that Weiss shows in the book that Rand 'has become to the new right what Karl Marx once was to the left: a demigod at the head of a chiliastic cult.' Gary Weiss Gary Weiss is an