Comments on: Conspiracy Theories for Kids!

By: Nico’s favorite astronomy movies on the Internet!

Nico’s favorite astronomy movies on the Internet! — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:15:46 +0000

[...] other sites with science videos, I was worried about what he might stumble onto. As we discussed here, he was confused by a weird conspiracy theory movie that looked like a science movie. But that [...]

By: Siamang

Siamang — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:39:31 +0000

Cool! Rational Dads yooknight!

By: JBL

JBL — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:33:01 +0000

“conspiracy theory movies that (to a kid) look just like normal science”

LOL…An Inconvenient Truth comes to Mind!

By: chanson

chanson — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:40:21 +0000

Thanks for the info! I had no idea this guy was famous for anything other than being a geology/physics crank.

We had some good discussions on ideas about how this theory could work (or not), and I think it’s a reasonably good introduction to the concept of “you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.”

By: Lene Taylor

Lene Taylor — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:49:44 +0000

Ah, Neal Adams – one of the best comic comic book artists alive, and a complete loon when it comes to geology, physics, etc. You need to listen to his interview on The Skeptics Guide to the Universe to get the full story:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcastinfo.aspx?mid=1&pid=51

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:41:25 +0000

Thanks for reading, Siamang. We need to do our first Rational Dad guest piece soon, so stay tuned….

By: Siamang

Siamang — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:44:23 +0000

Um…. so the parts of the geological plates that are visible on top of the water are the only parts of those plates which exist?

Gee. I’m glad there’s no earth’s surface at the bottom of the ocean. Because that would completely blow that guy’s theory.

The continents are just a bunch of puzzle-pieces the shape of a map that float around on that blue stuff.

I’m just giving you some material to help the kid think through this stuff. The problem is computer animation can illustrate this stuff in a way that ignores reality, and impinges on people’s ability to imagine what’s actually happening.