"Here Be Dragons" - 40 minute free critical thinking video

[briandunning]

Here Be Dragons is a free 40 minute video introduction to critical thinking. It is suitable for general audiences and is licensed for free distribution and public display.

Most people fully accept paranormal and pseudoscientific claims without critique as they are promoted by the mass media. Here Be Dragons offers a toolbox for recognizing and understanding the dangers of pseudoscience, and appreciation for the reality-based benefits offered by real science.

Here Be Dragons is written and presented by Brian Dunning, host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast and author of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena, and Executive Producer of The Skeptologists.

http://herebedragonsmovie.com/

Obviously intended for general audiences with less exposure to skepticism than most on this forum. :-)

[Rika]

I should warn you your site and the herebedragons site are both not up and what's more, not seeding the movie. It's got the portable versions stuck at 95.5%.

[briandunning]

No worries, that was temporary, there was a fire at the ISP where my server cluster is located, but it's all back up now.

Don't worry if you don't see one of the torrent files being seeded by more than one or two people, that's only one of several ways the movie is available. The movie and DVD image are also available via direct download, and we certainly expect more people to seed the torrents. (It's been available for a few days!) And of course it's on YouTube, Google Video, and the HD version is on DailyMotion.

[Rika]

Ah. Glad to hear you recovered from the fire.

Right now, your HD version (.m4v) is being seeded by 54 people. The small versions by 21, minus your tracker. (I'm one of them as it finished earlier)

So.. they're actually pretty well seeded now.

[Olowkow]

Hey Brian, I heard your podcast, among our most favorites, and went here:
http://www.herebedragons-movie.com/

Very odd, but I figured, well that's Brian.:) I actually liked this. I am going to watch yours now.

ETA: Just watched the movie. Super job, just excellent. Thanks.

[Wowbagger]

Very nice video!

If you will accept a small critique: I think the part in the introduction, where you look at "modern day dragons" goes on a bit long. I suspect some audience members will just stop watching, before the explanation of why all those are on the list, is given.

[Trevor]

I wasn't believing anything brian said, but then I saw this:

lackeyccg.com/images/doctorbrian.jpg

Who's going to dispute Dr. Dunning?

EDIT: Dumb forum won't let me post URLs.

[briandunning]

Now you know to always believe anything said by someone wearing a white labcoat.

[ImaginalDisc]

Brian, it's great. The Dragon theme is solid thread right through the whole film, it's a wonderful prootion of critical thinking as a tool rather than debunking specific subjects, which makes it refreshing to both skeptics and the general audience, I'm sure.


My only criticism, you knew those would start eventually, is that the montage of interviews at the begining goes on slightly too long. Hysterical in places, though. To be fair, maybe I'm too used to the Mtv approach.