Busy Summer!

Let me just say I am sorry that I haven't had time to post more over the past few months this summer has been crazy busy for me. I have a few posts that I need to finish up; including 2 book reviews, a National Park Series post, and a museum visit. I hope to finish up at least one of those today and should have the rest out by early next week. While you wait here is a comic by SMBC that I missed posting while I was away and below the fold with be two videos by Potholer54, his 2nd and 3rd Golden Crocoduck nominees.

Why do people still refer to Hovind?

Seriously I wonder that all the time. Anyway another great take-down of Hovind/anti-evolution arguments by Potholer54

Golden Crocoduck Nominees 1

So Potholer54 has the first of his Golden Crocoduck videos for this year! Enjoy.

Himalayan Glacial Melt

So as I covered in my last post, and many others, climate change is happening and we know this through several different lines of evidence. One of those lines of evidence is ice loss and while most of the focus has been on sea ice, particularly in the Arctic, continental glaciers, like those on Antarctica and Greenland, have been losing ice as well. A new study was recently released that set to find out how much and showed that overall these continental glaciers are losing ice. The news media decided to pick on something else from the paper and that was the Himalayan glaciers and decided for some reason that over the last 10 years there has been no ice melting there. Potholer54 decided to actually read the paper and he decided to point out what the media decided to ignore.

Explanation of Human Ancestry Made Easy

So a few years ago Potholer54 made a video series pretty much explaining the history of the earth and life and one of those videos was Human Ancestry Made Easy. He apparently got some questions about some of the content. Now I use the term questions loosely here because it is pretty obviously creationists trying to show that evolution doesn't work, even though it does and they are wrong. I think the bigger issue is just the way Potholer54 phrased the statement and he at least tries to explain it here, although I don't think he did a perfect job with it either but he at least got closer.

Monckton the Response

So over the course of a little while ago Potholer54 did a video series discussing the claims of Lord Christopher Monckton(see here part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5 which you should probably see if you haven't already). Well someone posted a summary of those videos and Monckton responded on the Watts Up With That blog. To that Potholer54 made a 2 video response, below, refuting those claims by Monckton and how he continues to avoid the evidence.

Climategate the Second

Many of you might remember a few months ago when a bunch of emails for scientists at the East Anglia climate research group were hacked and released and that skeptics claimed proved that people had been lying about climate change. Well it didn't actual prove that (for evidence see here, here, and here) but that isn't keeping skeptics from hailing a new release of e-mails released from the same group as more evidence of the lie of global climate change. But not to worry Potholer54 is on the case and goes through all the emails and shows they don't actually show what people are claiming they show.

This Strawman is Getting Old

The last of the Golden Crocoduck videos has been posted by Potholer54 and while there isn't going to actually be voting this year, for reasons you can see here, I figured I would still post this video. I have heard this nonsense so many times and have heard it refuted but as long as creationists keep using it it will keep having to be debunked.

Next Golden Crocoduck Nominee

Potholer54 introduces us to his next Golden Crocoduck nominee in his newest video

Read the Paper!!

Potholer54 shows why it is important not to just take anyone's word on what a paper says, that includes his and mine, but to actually read it.

Fire Breathing Dinosaurs?

In Potholer54's continuing nominations for this year's Golden Crocoduck award he nominates the man who first popularized the idea about dinosaurs having too small nostrils...well just watch the video.

Dinosaur Eggs and Creationism

Potholer54 continues to feature his Golden Crockoduck award nominees, this one deals with dinosaur eggs and how they somehow show that a global flood occurred.

The Earth is NOT facing a mini-ice age!!!

So the past few weeks have been pretty hectic for me as I had to drive about 26 hours to get home, I got married, went on our honeymoon, and then had to get back here to west Texas so sorry about the lack of posts. I have a couple of posts in the works so just hold on and we will get back to some new content. For the time being I am getting caught up on some YouTube videos so there is a chance there will be a lot posted here over the next few days. This one is from Potholer54 taking to task all of the people who are using a recent study on sun inactivity to say that we are entering a mini-ice age.

Debunking Monckton 5

Potholer54 finally finished his series debunking Christopher Monckton (see parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) that he last posted a video on in March. He has done a great job with this series and I don't blame him for finishing up the series without debunking all of Monckton's claim but I am sure that there will be future videos not just by Potholer54 who will be debunking these claims.

Science and the Media

So anyone who has studied science for any length of time knows that the media will eventually not get something right about it. Often times it is just simple mistakes that you can forgive someone who hasn't spent their whole life studying science for (although since their job is science journalism should we?). I have covered the idea behind this topic in the past with journalists referring the pterosaurs as dinosaurs, hint they are not, so I was glad to see this video by Potholer54 discussing some of the reasons why the media screws up science. This is labeled part 1 so expect future posts as he posts his new videos.

Ring Species

In his newest video Potholer54 nominates one more person to this year's Golden Crocoduck. In the video he discusses ring species, I will leave the discussion as to what they are to him but I use a similar example of ring species when trying to teach about evolution and speciation.

Are There Really More Earthquakes

So as another semester draws to a close you may have noticed a fall off in the amount of blogging I have been doing. Sorry about that I expect to be able to spend more time on it here in the next few days as I finish up finals. But I wanted to post this video by Potholer54 showing that the "increase" in earthquakes we have been having is not a sign of the end times, because there is no increase in earthquakes.



Most of his sources are in the bar under the video but just in case you weren't sure on the amount of earthquakes here is the source he uses for the number:

United States Geological Survey information on earthquake frequency:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php

Golden Crocoduck Nominee #1

So Potholer54 has moved the Golden Crocoduck award from his other channel to his main one and here is the first nominee for the 2011 award. Let me say that the group that is the first nominee put together a pretty trippy movie for both children and especially for a creationist group.

Debunking Monckton 4

Part 4 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 5) of Potholer54's series taking on the lies from Monckton, this time he discusses quotes that haven't just been quote mined but have been completely changed.

Debunking Monckton 3

Part 3 (part 1, part 2, part 4, and part 5) of Potholer54's series debunking Monckton