Re: The Eyes of Nye - 102 - Pseudoscience 3/3

[filenewopen]

I hope you feel better after "venting". You should really put a shirt on.

[Lurk58]

Virgin?

[FunnyKidChronicles]

so I heard a funny joke

it's called ESP

[atheistsoul]

i <3 your hair =o

[sirMAXX77]

how about putting a shirt on.

[Archronis]

I don't mean to say that the show was aimed at children, as is Sesame Street, but rather that it is aimed at people with only the most circumspect interest in the topics. It's a bit of a leap from presenting a rudimentary introduction to the scientific process and the burden of proof to going into in-depth case history. I think some of his examples were right on target though. Follow-up shows covering specific supernatural claims would be great, but again they would have to be painfully concise.

[Archronis]

It's how you come-off; you're talking down to freaking Bill Nye for crying out loud. But you're right, I shouldn't have made that an issue.

However, what you're doing here is akin to critiquing Sesame Street. It's counter-productive to give expositions of experiments, to which the audience is certainly hitherto unaware, that you're just going to debunk anyway if your goal is to make them think about science and pseudoscience. The show is written around a topic, not a case or point of minutia.

[aikiboy1111111]

I would agree with you, were it not for the fact that the Eyes of Nye was supposed to be a show for young adults. It brings in Michael Shermer, who generally speaks to adults as opposed to kids. Teens and adults should be fully able to understand scientific studies. Also, covering the scientific studies and debunking where they went wrong introduces the audience to important aspects of science that they need to understand when considering science in general, such as statistics and probability.

[Archronis]

Keep in mind that the "average person," of whom you speak, doesn't know anything about the studies that you've cited so it would not be helpful to go into the very technical criticisms of all these cases.

Further, these are 30-minute episodes for a pilot season meant for casual watchers, not seasoned skeptics.

BTW, it was Korean scientists, not Chinese.

And put a shirt on. You went to the trouble of setting up a camcorder, for goodness sake.

Also nobody likes a self-important douche.

[aikiboy1111111]

Sorry. I misquoted pertaining to the scientists. Self-important douche is an ad hominem attack and is unnecessary. References at the very least to where technical details can be obtained would be a good idea. Granted, this show is not for seasoned skeptics, but casual watchers should be better informed on scientific issues. Trying to cover everything in a single episode is not doing the viewer, nor the subject, justice.