So a few months ago I stumbled on a series of critical thinking videos by superhero of skepticism Captain Disillusion. They’re funny, and extremely well done (the guy has video skillz), and I’ve been meaning to pimp them for a long time.
Then Skepchick Rebecca Watson drops the dime, saying he was at TAM 6! Arg! I missed him there!
He made a vid about it, and pokes fun at lots of people, including moi.
His other videos are more about the debunk-a-bunk, so go watch them and enjoy. They’re really cool.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I love Captain D, been subscribed to him on YouTube for a while now. Loved his newest video, I lol’d at the end.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:19 am
CD’s videos are always the best. This one I’m having a real hard time downloading. I put a lot of critical thinking vids on my Ipod so i can show people “on the spot” why they haven’t thought the idea of a yeti landing in a saucer and faking a moon landing have not been thought out completely. Also, the BA’s vids come in quite handy for showing things astronomical. Just yesterday, I used an Ipod vid to show someone why the moon does not go around the earth , once a day.
Video makers, you keep up your work and I’ll keep up my educational part.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Poking fun at you? Poking fun at you? Are you having a laugh? He just called you a pasty bespectacled bald guy, what kind of fun is that?
He is great though….
October 10th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I love the makeup…
Gotta link to this guy!
October 10th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Awesome, I watched him a while back, I’ll have to subscribe to him.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Think I found him through one of the skeptical carnivals you’ve linked to. Unfortunately I could never comment on anything and thank him for his good work.
Looks like I couldn’t subscribe to him either, since this is the first I hear of a new video.
He (and his team, presumably) are shibby indeed!
October 10th, 2008 at 11:59 am
[...] Disillusion introduces his friend Mr. Flare who’s been at all the space launches. Seen in BA Blog Captain Disillusion: there’s a new Captain Disillusion video (YouTube video, about 7 minutes), about his TAM 6 visit, [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Holy crap he got Penn and Teller! That’s awesome.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I’ve watched him for a long time now and am very disappointed that he posts videos so infrequently. I desperately want him to debunk the fools over at TAPS.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Ha. Ha. Talking about “Galileo”: I often watch this (yes, i’m german) but missed that episode. Those guys are trying … yes, but sadly not more. The translations of “their” reports are often shiatty, as a guy with some scientific background they sometimes move me to tears with their broadcasts. Translating isn’t their thing, no really …
Last week they said something about Silicon, you know, the element Si. In german it’s “Silizium”. But they translated it as “Silikon” (silicone), famous only for enhance some … huh … boobs.
Sometime i hate those “popular science” telecasts …
October 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Lol… Looks like something I would’ve made in high school.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Note to self: Check your postings, especially those about bad translations, when you’re not a native english speaker …
October 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Pastey check
glasses check
bald more torwards Penn, phew at least there is some either skeptical person with hair.
(ducks and covers)
October 10th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Fritriac:
Your English is infinitely better than my German, and almost flawless.
Captain Disillusion does have some serious video skills. This is the reason he doesn’t post new ones often. It takes -MONTHS- of hard work to do this stuff, so we must be patient. The guy has to earn a living in the meantime, so let’s cut him some slack. Now if he was to be sponsored by the JREF he might be able to afford to spend the time it takes to do this level of work. Good things come to those who wait, I think, maybe… Hopefully…
Rich in Charlottesville
October 10th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
This is the first I’ve heard of these videos, but they’re great. I’m going to try and download the high quality versions when I get home. Always happy to have a collection of videos about critical thinking. Speaking of which, I have some more DVDs to purchase from Dawkins’ site.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Awesome! Penn’n'Teller are lovesome, innit!
October 10th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Well done. Would make a great between-the-shows series on PBS. (Like Jack Horkheimer’s Star Gazer vignettes, only about critical thinking,) or a longer classroom series.
October 10th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Doesn’t PZ Myers have a full head of wavy locks and a beard fit to hide a bandit in? I’m just saying…
October 10th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Thanks Phil! this is neat!
October 10th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Captain Disillusion needs sponsorship and no day job if people expect him to generate videos with any appreciable frequency at the same quality. I’m all for giving it to him, except I don’t have any money.
October 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I’m pretty sure that’s only Penn at the end. The “Teller” part is played by Captain D himself. As evidence that my eyes are correct, he only thanks Penn and Skepchick for being in the video. I doubt he’d forget to thank Teller.
October 10th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Hey, how come he plugged Randi and P&T at the end, but not Bad Astronomy? We want fair and balanced debunking!
October 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
That was one very cool video! I’m going to go watch more of his stuff right now — Thanks Phil!
October 10th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I think he did both parts, or at least he got someone else to play Penn, as it doesn’t look like Penn at all to me.
I suspect he asked Penn to record a short “shout out” for him, and it’s just now that he’s using it.
October 10th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Galileo and its spin-off Galileo Mystery endorses woo-woo.Why? Because it is hosted by the german channel Pro7 which also broadcasted “The Next Uri Geller” and the new show by Uri Geller called “Uri Geller live – Ufos & Aliens” with Erich von Däniken.
October 10th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Quotes from my kids after watching the movie;
The boy (5)- “That was cool let’s watch it again.” And he recognized BA.
The girl (3)- “Wow I love that video.”
October 10th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Erich von Däniken? I didn’t realize he was still alive…I thought he would’ve died of embarrassment a long time ago!
October 10th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Acording to Wikipedia, E. von D. is still alive. He’s 73. Velikovsky, the other Big Name in the dark art of making up a fake history of weird $#!+ in the sky and convincing the gullible that it’s true, croaked 30 years ago.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I used to watch “galileo” and “welt der wunder” when I lived in Germany, and thought back then that they were kind of cool. but that was 5-6 years ago, so the quality has clearly suffered since then.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Skip Youtube and check out Captain D’s videos at openfilm.com, they are much higher quality.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Hm. It does look like he’s playing both Penn and Teller.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Everyone write to Galileo:
http://prosieben.de/service/kontakt/tv/kontakt_tv168.php?param1=¶m2=Galileo
October 16th, 2008 at 5:16 am
Great series. I truly love his humorous approach to all the fakes. His Penn and Teller are hilarious!
October 17th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Ahn… how can a “skeptic” say “In the end, reason always wins”? Isn’t that a belief, by nature?
February 4th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
There’s a place for people like yourself and Capt. D on TV. The pitch would certainly be a show outside the Mythbusters brief, and a group of skeptics would mean much more variety, and an easier workload. I think you all do great work, and are much needed voices of reason in a world full of invented answers.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
If you want to see the place where he publishes his videos then here is where to find them at.
http://www.openfilm.com/
pretty cool place. lots of up and coming video producers there.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:22 am
Frank wrote:
And those two scare-quoted phrases are incompatible because…?