For this blog I already have the Mail Call series for messages that I receive that I want to respond to publicly. Strangely enough I didn’t have anything similar for the comments I get on YouTube. Despite me already having reacted to those comments on this blog. There’s more than enough material in my comment sections that I can use as inspiration for blog posts.
So lets kick off this new blog post series with one comment that already starts with one of my pet peeves:
Continue reading YouTube Comments: The Scientific Consensus Rejected Heliocentrism
Certain creationists on YouTube have taken to copying something popular to try to turn it into their own idea. Color me surprised, right? I call forth every parodist and comedian on YouTube to enter this contest to see whether they can do the creationist line better than the creationists themselves. Watch this video on YouTube We all know that creationists…
Last week I left a post here giving my thoughts on the YouTube drama between potholer54 and Amenakin. Given the readily apparent rationality of both parties involved, I felt sure that the two could come to some arrangement, and indeed they have. This video was posted identically on both YouTube channels.
Continue reading UPDATE: Amenakin Has Redeemed Herself (kinda)
So there we were, myself and the SkepticTV boys, in our little corner of the skype-verse discussing some of the stuff to do with Amenakin and you tube. As we were chewing the fat over whats going on oneof the boys (I can’t remember which one) raised the issue of debunking the guy that wrote the book that Amenakin is using as her source on evolution. So who is this guy? Well it’s Harun Yahya, someone I hadn’t heard of before now but he wrote a ‘wonderful’ book called The Atlas of Creation, again something I’d not heard of. Now this is when things get a little more fortunate as such, because whilst I’m clearly on the clueless side of things with this the boys again came up trumps, unfortunately I can’t remember which one of the boys posted it but a link to the video below appeared in out chat. As you can see it’s non other than Richard Dawkins debunking this book of fail in an entertaining way. Now admittedly I’ve not watched it all to the end, it’s in 4 parts and I’m part way through part 2, but it’s good so far.
Continue reading Some Richard Dawkins with Bonus Christopher Hitchens
Until YouTube resolves its bug on recent uploads in people’s subscriptions, we will be posting some of our favorite and recent skeptical videos on YouTube. Bookmark us, add us to your RSS feeds, whatever it takes, and don’t miss another gem on YouTube while they work to fix their problem.
EDIT: Since this post was written, Amenakin has changed her position. Read about it here.
I can’t stand YouTube drama at the best of times. But, since this is a slightly unusual example, I’m going to do something rather out of character and wade in on the issue.
I feel fairly safe is saying that most of us were taken aback by potholer54’s latest nominee for the Golden Crocoduck award, Amenakin. The nominee was, unlike the vast majority of nominees, not male, not Christian and perhaps most surprisingly, not stupid. I would ask anyone who disagrees to watch some of her videos; she’s obviously a sharp and articulate young lady. I think she’s one of the brand of creationist that is simply misinformed.
Why hello there my pretties. So, this is not quite the blog post i’d intended, in fac there are two that I have mentally queued up, but this is one that is current and having an effect.
So what’s going on? Well once again we have the Streisand effect bouncing around on you tube as a young woman unhappy with her Golden Crocoduck nomination decides to DMCA Potholer54. This use of the DMCA constitutes a false DMCA as nothing in Potholers video was used without acknowledging the source (otherwise who could he have nominated her) and it was done as comment and critisism, and also in an attempt to redress the balance of the so far male dominated awards.
Continue reading The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and THE STREISAND EFFECT!
Now that most of the dust has settled over the recent YouTube drama surround HeyRuka, I thought it was time I carefully picked over the wreckage and try to give a more balanced view on things. Failing that, I’d like to stir up trouble again.
It was disappointing as someone who was very keen to have Ruka on the show to see that she’s not the skeptic that we had her down to be. It was doubly disappointing given that we’d planned to have her on our show about morality, as Ruka has found herself at the centre of a racism charge.
For those who haven’t seen her videos, Ruka has made several videos (now deleted) concerning the differences that separate the different human races. Some of this content is her attempts to defend her initial arguments, and doing nothing to make her side seem more acceptable. She has stated that the difference between races is “not skin-deep”, and I agree; any geneticist can tell you that a person’s DNA can shed light upon their ethnicity. But that’s about as good as it gets. Of course, the races aren’t as genetically distinct as to be different species. At the end of the day there’s no denying that we’re all human beings. But what I really want to address here is Ruka’s claim that the black races are genetically predisposed to be less intelligent than the other races.
A couple of days ago AngryWomble already retweeted a survey that is being passed around in the British homeopath circles, to give it a bit more exposure outside of that circle. And I have to say the survey itself starts in a very nice way:
Homeopathy as a profession is under attack from groups such as Sense about Science and groups such as the Nightingale Collaboration.
This Research will gauge public opinion as to the amount of information that the public and prospective patients wish to be able to access from professionally Qualified Practitioners only.
The ‘attack’ they mention is a campaign to hold complementary and alternative medicine to the same standards as advertisers of other products and services. Which means they won’t be able to make unsubstantiated and/or misleading claims that might endager the lives of patients.
Most of us Europeans know Robert Llewellyn from either Scrapheap Challenge or from the science fiction series Red Dwarf. But he’s also very active on YouTube with several channels where he talks for example about politics and even has a full fledged show called Fully Charged.
In it he reviews electric cars, news and developments about them and his experience in using the cars in his day to day life. All with a very high production quality and with his trademark humour and voice. Always a joy to watch.
Continue reading Carpooling With Robert Llewellyn And Ben Goldacre
For this blog I already have the Mail Call series for messages that I receive that I want to respond to publicly. Strangely enough I didn’t have anything similar for the comments I get on YouTube. Despite me already having reacted to those comments on this blog. There’s more than enough material in my comment sections that I can use as inspiration for blog posts.
Most of us Europeans know Robert Llewellyn from either Scrapheap Challenge or from the science fiction series Red Dwarf. But he’s also very active on YouTube with several channels where he talks for example about politics and even has a full fledged show called