He's Done It Again! | Tim Minchin "Storm" [REACTION]

[@LadyDath]

There are two ways that psychics can do a read on people. The first method, called a hot read, involves doing research into the person before hand. While this works for people the person knows is going to be there, it does not work for a random audience. But there is a second technique, called a cold read, this is used when information is not available before hand. In this case the person sort of reaches out with general information and then reads the person or the room and lets them lead the performer to more specific things. If they don't get a hit, they quickly move on, if they get something wrong, they gloss over it and move along. Our psychology and confirmation bias does the rest. Take for instance a common technique used by John Edwards, he will just say things like: I am getting and M or an N, I feel they may have died by heart disease and suddenly someone tells them about their father Nate who died of a heart attack... It's all a scam and Tim is absolutely correct, it is sick.

[@Dr_KAP]

Gosh this is so well written and so correct in every way. What John Edwards does is laughable. Why the spirits are playing games of cryptic crosswords and charades with him is beyond comprehension. People in vulnerable grieving states of minds search for the smallest signs to bring themselves comfort and these psychics play on that and make a shit load of money off of it too. Makes me sick.

[@colmastro4373]

I think i love you lol. This is EXACTLY my explanation also 😂

[@rattlesnakehaven]

Hot reads actually can work reasonably well with random audiences, with some advance prep. People coming to one medium's shows were asked to fill out seat cards, with some info about themselves and who they hoped to contact. These were given to the medium before the show and he'd memorize the basics of a couple of them, so he could go to that seat number with more specific info to prime the audience.Another famous one used to run a chat room that I did some snooping in. He would lurk under different names while his "compassionate" confederates encouraged people to talk about their losses. They all claimed that neither they, nor the medium had access to the private messages but was on me aggressively within 60 seconds after I greeted a well known skeptic in a private message at one of his online events. He would use info gleaned this way to read people in his chat room,( getting more info in the process) but the real purpose was for his shows. He would encourage his fans to tell him in advance when they had tickets to one of his shows and to come up and introduce themselves before the show. They were flattered, of course, so played right into it.

[@grievesy83]

A really good example of "our psychology and confirmation bias does the rest" (great point well made, by the way - spot on) is horoscopes. I recall seeing a doco that demonstrated it exceptionally well; a room full of people, say 20 or 30 individuals, sat down at desks and where given a lengthy (full A4 page) horoscope to read. When everyone was finished reading, they were asked how accurate the horoscope was about their life and all said it was surprisingly, very accurate. The participants were instructed to hand their paper to another person so everyone had a different horoscope to read. They were all identical. The horoscopes were general enough to apply to literally anyone who reads it (i.e. "you've been touched by cancer". Yeah, ok, who doesn't have a family member or know a person who's had cancer?) and the subject fills in the detail. It's nothing to do with psychic ability and everything to do with well studied, repeatable, easily explainable human psychology. Boom. Science. =drops mike=

[@nightshade7240]

There is also a form of hot reading where you have a particular target in mind but you set it up as a cold read with multiple people involved and slowly narrow the parametres until the only person you could be talking to is the person you wanted to target from the beginning but, for whatever reason, you didn't want to alert the target to the scam and the way it plays out slides so naturally into the memories and knowledge of the deceased person they are using to target their victim that the victim convinces themselves it must be true.

[@ryanbeck7166]

The part where he is meeting Storm, and says "a pigeonhole starts to form". He is saying he is "pigeonholing" her, i.e. pre-judging her based on appearance. And when she says her name, "the hole is filled with pigeon", meaning that put it over the edge, that she is who he thought she was. Atleast that is how I understood it. Like to hear others' opinions on that. New sub. Love the vibe. Love to see Tim Minchin, Bo Burnham, Stephen Lynch, and George Carlin stuff! Just something about thought-provoking comedy that just tickles my brain. 🤣

[@MrNikolidas]

I understood is as "the hole is filled with Pidgin", as in Pidgin English.

[@grievesy83]

100% correct.

[@fold2victory]

@@MrNikolidas No, Ryan Beck got it right. When he hears her pretentious name 'Storm' (I mean it's not really a name is it) he knows what kind of silliness she's about to come out with, and he knows he wont be able to help himself from there on (so does his wife).

[@MrNikolidas]

@@fold2victory Um, I agree, but nothing you said counters my point. A pidgin, or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. In this case, Tim is speaking with logic and reason, while Storm speaks in crystals and tea leaves. Neither can understand where the other is coming from because neither can speak in terms that the other person understands. “That hole is immediately filled with Pidgin when she says her name is Storm” - she’s definitely going to be as pretentious as her name, so he knows the conversation is doomed. Also hence the line “We might as well be 10 minutes back in time for all the chance you’ll change your mind.” I think both ways of understanding the line are valid, btw. I actually worked with someone called Storm (whether that was her birth name or not I couldn’t verify, she didn’t have a driver’s licence) and she was pretty much how Tim describes his own encounter with a “Storm”.

[@daemonicstar]

Ryan Beck, you nailed it, it's exactly what it means.

[@fightingthebelljar6776]

Wikipedia is genuinely one of the purest and best things to ever happen to hummanity. Anything you want to edit is peer reviewed. You can no longer just add trash. There is no advertising or revenue created by it. It is literally just the sharing of peer reviewed knowledge with anyone who has internet access. To me Wikipedia is truly humanity at its best. Going on a wikiwander is a glorious way to spend 4 hours.

[@ariadnepyanfar1048]

I loved watching that again! If you want Tim at his most spiritual, his ballad 'Not Perfect' is so sweet as well as quietly funny. His sentimental Christmas song White Wine In the Sun is exactly how 85% of Australians experience Christmas. And 'Dark Side' (Awesome Version) has his most virtuoso piano solo, the whole song is an event.

[@carolcarol3938]

yes, yes and yes

[@Vazik05]

Not Perfect helped me climb out of a depression hole. Not a single other person had ever looked at me and said, "hey you may not be perfect, but everything you are is yours, no one can take that from you."

[@EllenWst]

​​@@Vazik05I have a chronic pain condition. I hate my body. Every day. It limits the things I can do, has stopped me doing things I used to love. I listened to not perfect and bawled my eyes out. Often think about having "it's not perfect, but it's mine" tattooed somewhere

[@ferenczliszt]

There's another beat poem he did called Mitsubishi Colt, and he also accompanies himself on piano for that one, it's great. Tim is an absolute genius, woefully underappreciated living legend.

[@jackwhitbread4583]

Tim has achieved great success and is loved by millions but yes considering his genius and high intellect I too feel he should be much bigger and loved by many more millions of people

[@deviouskris3012]

Can’t go wrong with Tim. I was so glad when he won the Dawkins award recently and I made my kids listen to his speech at his university regarding his life lessons. He is a great example of critical thinking, comedy and timing Check out ‘If I didn’t have you’.

[@simenkvamme3003]

For a second i read that as Tim winning a Darwin award and got worried

[@jackwhitbread4583]

The Dawkins award was such a great thing to watch, thoroughly enjoyed the chat Tim had with Dawkins. Tim did very well and was clearly intellectually gifted enough to hold a good conversation with one of the worlds brightest men in modern science

[@jemxs]

Love it, haven't seen this performance before but he is word for word the same as the ones I have seen...now that is amazing!!

[@theory-in-motion]

It's a jazz song; it's just spoken-word. All of the words landing on the beat, or landing across the bar is totally intentional and necessary. I guess it's impressive that it's memorizing a 7-minute song that's 100% verse, but it's very much a song.

[@jemxs]

@@theory-in-motion true

[@F1rstWorldNomaD]

"isnt it funny how every mystery ever solved has turned out to be NOT magic". 🤣🤣🤣 Such a simple yet hilariously true statement.

[@jameshogue2007]

glad your going down the rabbit hole Tim Minchin you won't be disappointed.

[@littleflick]

If you want some more of Tim Minchin’s non comedy works you should check out White Wine in the Sun and Not Perfect.

[@danielbenson6407]

Two of his best songs. More people need to react to these 2 songs

[@jameshogue2007]

Absence of You - is also a great song for non comedy

[@nightshade7240]

Not perfect might be my favourite song of his.

[@Hudpower]

When he says “that Michael Jackson didn’t have facelifts” was the more SFW version, sometimes he says “that Michael Jackson didn’t touch kids”

[@robertlowther7442]

I have often seen experts in various fields comment that the information on Wikipedia is surprisingly accurate. They seem to agree that it's not perfect but is more than close enough for most cases. So that gives me a good degree of confidence in it's content.

[@Triattt]

This. In highschool teachers taught us not to use Wikipedia because it wasn't valid as a source. Then I reached college and everyone seems to agree that Wikipedia is pretty good to introduce you to concepts. No one is going to source: Wikipedia but nothing's stopping you from referencing the same sources Wikipedia has referenced. It's really all about doing your own research (insert tin foil hat here)

[@ted552]

Wikipedia is far more reliable these days than when it first started as the pages on it are fairly highly curated for factual errors, but not only that most of their information is cited so you can use it very reliably as a base to start further research

[@What-lt3lj]

Yes, you could go on wikipedia and change stuff around. But 1: it would be corrected in a matter of minutes and 2: you wouldn't go to a park renowned for its beauty, throw a ton of trash on the ground and then say "This park isn't beautiful! There's trash everywhere!" By and large, you can trust the information found on wikipedia.

[@dominiquemmaurice]

He’s so good at making you think. Intelligent entertainment! Who knew? Fabulous reaction. I like all of your comments & when you stop it gives us a minute to catch up too 👏👏

[@satihadadog5903]

Australian, Sagittarius but no I’m not Storm, though I do have the tshirt. There is a short film version of this, if you haven’t watched it, check it out!

[@missrocks]

In regards to psychics, it's like mentalism, the specific skill set is called cold reading and includes an understanding of body language and psychology influencing responses derived from targeted questions disguised as "searching for a response from a higher power" At times it may include preparing a mark by way of use of a third party surreptitiously interviewing them, prying for information to be used. The key point being that a lack of understanding of how something works is not evidence of the supernatural. To bring it home... If psychics are real, how is it that they make their money from gullible people rather than accurately predicting the stock market, lotteries or horses...why is it that they need insurance...why is it there are prizes where all you need to do is provide evidence of your psychic ability to win a million dollars, prizes that have never been given.

[@F1rstWorldNomaD]

12:20 Its called "Cold Reading". Its a really incredible skill but there is nothing supernatural about it. Its just psychology, keen observation and leading your target. Its not completely dissimilar to Neuro-Liguistic Programming, only it kinda works in reverse. Instead of tricking someone into thinking your thoughts, you trick them to give away their thoughts to you. The classic example is starting with something like "this person had a special relation to water". Everyone does... They either love the ocean or hate it or love/hate something about it like fishing or swimming. The mark then reacts to this and the "psychic" read their reaction and build from there. It does take a deep understanding psychology and knowledge how the subconscious works to do and very keen observation skills but if done right, it can be ridiculously accurate.

[@F1rstWorldNomaD]

Onve they got a foot in the door, confirmation bias kicks in an does. Most of the heavy lifting. You, without realizing it, completely gloss over when they say something that doesnt really fit cuz youre so focus on who correct that other thing was. The trick is to make SOME small misstakes. Small enough for the mark to ignore but still big enough to give you more information to use.

[@theory-in-motion]

I always loved that he ended on the ending of Midsummer Night's Dream; just the perfect cap to the evening.

[@TheNeonParadox]

This is easily my favorite Tim song. I've had this same conversation with so many people, despite my best efforts to just smile and nod when people say stupid sh*t. 🙄

[@monodescarado]

(no sound issues for me) There are lot of techniques used by 'psychics', all of which can be very reasonably explained. Just because we don't know how a magic trick works, doesn't mean we should believe it's magic - that makes us no smarter than children. All it means is that we haven't taken the time to actually research how something works. Faith is akin to willful ignorance unfortunately, and I think Tim does a great job here lumping so much pseudoscience into the same bracket.

[@satihadadog5903]

James Randi did some excellent videos on debunking physics and the tricks they use

[@monodescarado]

@@satihadadog5903 I think you meant psychics, right? ;)

[@satihadadog5903]

@@monodescarado lol yes, that’s what happens when you KZbin late at night

[@homiiciidalkiitten6650]

As a 35 year old that went to school back when you carried a dictionary and had to visit an actual library for information and research, Wikipedia is the best thing ever, sure the information out there was not "checked" by a publisher but it's not like books don't contain misinformation, besides wiki has sources (or lack of) that can be checked and people that does edits to ensure the information out there is as factual as possible. The fact that the whole word has access to it as oppose to a select group of editors and publishers for me represent less opportunity for bias. Most importantly, it is used so much, so so much, people are actively looking for info now because it is se readily available instead of staying ignorant or simply believing what their friends said which creates more informed people. No way people were going out of their way to go to the library just to see who was right, they just assumed and moved on, now they asked their phone and they can find out.

[@JustJmax]

I used to hate having to find an encyclopedia just to answer a question for something. Or asking my mom the definition of a word and getting the "you have a dictionary in your room, go look it up" response. JUST TELL ME LADY!!!! But in all seriousness, I do appreciate her instilling in me the ability to do my own research. It has come in handy over the years.

[@homiiciidalkiitten6650]

@@JustJmax :) Moms are just the best

[@JustJmax]

@@homiiciidalkiitten6650 They sure are! I love my mom very much!!

[@nem447]

I never rely on one source, but Wikipedia is a great starting point, especially when it's about proven science.

[@DarkWh8]

Its also great because it keeps updated as new info is brought to like, I have a set of Encyclopedia Britannica and so much of that info is ridiculously wrong now that people have advanced our knowledge since it was printed :)

[@carolyneadams5386]

Love Tim. I think he is one of the most brilliant person/ entertIainer of our time. Even if you agree or not he really gets you thinking. I love watching different podcasters reactions to his preformances. very interesting

[@peterwolf4157]

If anyone wants to see this in animated form, Tim has it here on KZbin. It is well worth the watch.

[@jackwhitbread4583]

He had 3 years of piano lessons so while not classically trained he's also not entirely self taught. Not that that takes away from his prowess or talents on the piano in any way, he's better than most who study for a decade. Love to see you react to dark side (awesome version) it's a masterpiece and really showcases his piano skills

[@SiunneDragon]

I like very much your honest and analytical reaction. As a Biologist, Minchin really represents me and many scientists thinking. Our point of view and logical conclusions are proved based and many times we get wasted by people who think they just have all of the answers without ever been inside a Lab or investigating the evidence of this kind of stuff.

[@dude988]

Fun Facts: He has two Doctor of Letters degrees, composed the music and wrote the lyrics for Mathilda the musical, produced the whole Groundhog Day musical, can't read sheet music and played a nudist in Californication. Now please react to 'If you truly love me' :D

[@jackwhitbread4583]

He's also just finished filming the 2nd season of his TV show Upright, worth watching season 1. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to see season 2

[@deviouskris3012]

Plus his playing of Judas in JC superstar and his recently receiving of the Dawkins award. Oh to have been a fly on the wall when he did dinner with Dawkins and Fry.

[@dude988]

He loves cheese but it's plain to see that cheese doesn't love him.

[@danielbenson6407]

Love your perspective on Minchin, can't wait to see more Minchin reactions!

[@Dr_KAP]

So glad you did Storm. I think Tim tolerates the Storms of this world but they irritate him and he became more and more intoxicated during the course of the night so became looser with his words ! By the end he recites Shakespeare a little like a drunkard! The song Dark Side is a must-do, it’s all about how his genre of musical comedy will never make him famous as it isn’t “deep” enough but this song also displays his musical genius really well. The other one I’d recommend is Confessions.

[@JustJmax]

I'm glad I watched Storm as well! I see now the slow degradation of his filter throughout this poem and how he became more and more blunt in his retorts to Storm. I really like how I learn new details that I miss when talking with all of you in the comments!

[@lynette.]

Brilliant.

[@turboguppy3748]

I forgot how much I like this poem

[@samquest5573]

loved your lil talk at the end very chill vibes

[@JustJmax]

Thank you so much 🙂

[@nem447]

Tim is one of my favorite discoveries during lockdown.

[@Hurricayne92]

13:10 the term for that is a Barnum Statement, essentially a statement that's so broad its bound to catch something. Although I probably did a terrible job of explaining it.

[@ltraina3353]

I LOVE Tim Minchin…he is so talented and incredibly funny. I love lots of comedians who make us laugh at everyday type of stuff, but to be able to create comedy out of such complex and deep topics is just genius, as far as I’m concerned! Btw, as a lifelong agnostic, I’ve recently started to consider myself more of an atheist. 50 yo female from CA. Like your channel, thx!

[@old_grey_cat]

Love the music he wrote for the background, the way it winds with his content PS I also like the way he uses symbolic (even pretend) sips and slight slurring to indicate his increasing tipsiness through the evening

[@c1osmo]

Carry You Upright is a great tv series for us in Oz. But getting Missy Higgins to sing it. Being over 70 I have chosen this .. and the Avett Bros no hard feelings for my funeral. When I asked my husband of nearly 50 years what he wanted. He said I've chosen the heart.

[@Dr_KAP]

Holding my breath waiting for more Tim 🤣

[@JustJmax]

I have A LOT of other suggestions I'm trying to get through but I promise Tim will be back soon!! Any specific pieces you want to see next?

[@Dr_KAP]

@@JustJmax maybe If I Didn’t Have You or Rock n Roll nerd.. also no sweat lol I was just in the neighbourhood and thought I’d give you a nudge 😉

[@JustJmax]

@@Dr_KAP Thanks for stopping by! Always happy to see a familiar face

[@mattilindstrom]

The unexplained is not the unexplainable. Science is the art of disciplining our minds to what we can know experimentally and the mathematical consequences of that. Knowledge grows from science. To be fulfilled, I'll take a sip of my drink, and wish the best for all of you.

[@MrkBO8]

Tramp stamp is universal

[@nightshade7240]

In terms of wikipedia. A good starting point for getting a broad overview and often finding secondary sources that are more specific but there is a reason many universities do not allow it to be used as a source in academic papers.

[@vee_tinymoose]

I come from a place of thinking that we don’t need to explain everything but until we actually do I’m not going to believe it. To quote Minchin from the lead up to Thank You God, I believe in things there is empirical proof for.

[@coma13794]

See Derren Brown's stage shows for examples of cold reading. His shows give him the appearance of being psychic at times, but he makes it clear from the outset that he absolutely isn't.

[@malinthompson3496]

If you want to understand stuff about psychics and talking to the dead, watch Derren Brown "Seance", it's a full movie length program where he breaks down the way these things are done. He'll show you all the tricks.

[@OrbitalCookie]

I remember seeing a good documentary long time ago (can't remember the name), where the "magician" demonstrated how to "work the room" to find people and "talk to the dead". They usually start with very vague terms and look who in the group nods their heads. Also some deaths are way more common than others, and they won't say "it was heart failure", they would use words "I feel it was something with heart or ..." always leaving themselves the way out. There is certain skill required to do that, for sure, but it is fucked up.

[@billmorash3322]

Derren Brown?

[@emcsquared8681]

Penn and Teller did an episode on their show “bullshit” where they exposed and explained how psychics did their scams. It’s a basic magic trick and people unfortunately fall for it all the time

[@playlisttarmac]

I have not seen you react to it and it is not music but this has to be my favorite thing from Tim Minchin: "9 Life Lessons - Tim Minchin UWA Address". I live in the city where this occurred and wish I had been graduating at the time to hear it live.

[@Codex7777]

Just enjoy it ffs! The masterful writing and the brilliant performance! It's like you were leeching the fun and joy out of the whole experience... :)

[@zararobnett8284]

Little note 📝 may be obvious but maybe not. “Pissed” in England , Ireland and Australia means drunk. So Tim says he went on a bit of an a$$hole rant cause he was pretty drunk

[@gutspraygore]

I had a conversation with a friend at dinner about the nature of Wikipedia. He felt that it can often lead people to uninformed conclusions. I agreed that a website that relies on the contributions of random people, there is an inherit risk of misinformation, however, Wikipedia requires a certain level of fact checking and does it's best to maintain the integrity of the information. For better or worse, it's one of the best aggregate sources that people can freely use to collect knowledge. Because this is important to the context, I should point out that the person I was talking to was rather famous in the music and recording industry and he replied, "This is true. And it's all well and good... until someone writes a Wikipedia article about you." And that kind of ended the debate. Touche my friend.

[@RandomPickles]

The animated version is the ultimate way to experience this. He was just using Wikipedia as a word to represent a notion. Everybody including him knows not to use it for important research. It is just a jumping-off point to find sources.

[@lep3984]

If you had scheduled a reading and told them your personal info like your name, nowadays its so easy to search your name on the internet and see whats happening around you based on your posts/tags/family members and they could do their research and bullshit their way to "almost valid" but thats how they do it most of the time, if the person who is doing the reading have never heard you before then they will just say some generic crap to get you hooked.

[@JustJmax]

I hadn't considered the internet and social media as tools for psychics....makes so much sense.

[@darthshrek1]

First a word doc, next folders and sunflowers. For me, anything Tim Minchin is great. And, yes, one must put on a thinking cap when listening to him. As for something other than Tim Minchin, how about Church Of The Cosmic Skull - Evil In Your Eye. They're a group from Nottingham, England and they have a 70s prog thing with a cult theme. Pretty good for a laugh and their music is pretty good. Guaranteed laughs. And, I am subscribed now.

[@evorock]

Tim's character in "Storm" is basically me lol. I'm such a cynic and a sceptic, it drives the wife mad lol

[@robyn6174]

I used to edit Tolkien's wiki constantly to say he was BFFLs with C.S. Lewis They always fixed it almost immediately but its true

[@lowwatthalo1654]

He covers so many subjects in this & makes you think. (The YT official video is the best version, IMO.) Her name is a Tim-Trigger because it indicates either a child of 'hippie' parents or she changed her name to conform to her stereotype. Wiki is a decent first step for a newb on a given subject, IMO it tries to be factual & unbiased, gives or requests sources and in the main succeeds, but further research is always advisable - No two people will describe an event the same way. I love how he becomes less & less able to keep his thoughts in check as he gets more & more hammered - so relatable. The last line is excellent as he knows you can't teach wilful ignorance or entrenched 'faith'... but sometimes you've gotta speak your mind & take the bollocking from the wife afterwards.

[@billschild3371]

The thing about pyschics is they are exceptionally good at reading people and use a number of tricks to get people to believe.

[@mweber00]

If you're interested in exploring skepticism, a fun jumping off point is Penn & Teller's Bullshit! The first episode deals with "Talking to the Dead" and it goes on through much of the various woo out there. I disagree with some of their political positions, but they have done a lot of research and talk to a lot of experts. Probably not good content for the channel, but it's a lot of fun. A word about opinions and treating certain opinions as equally valid. You're absolutely correct that opinions are personal and no one is more or less correct than another. It's important, though, to distinguish between opinions and truth claims. It is one thing to say, "I prefer red to all other colors;" it is a different thing to say, "Red is light oscillating at a particular range of frequencies." One of those is an internal preference, the other is a claim about something that exists in the world and is either true or false. This example is fairly trivial, but that second category includes things like, "Horoscopes provide useful data when making a decision," or "There is a part of the self that continues to exist after death and can communicate with the living or otherwise affect the world around us," or even, "God exists and has provided insight into his plans via my preferred holy book." We can be tempted to treat these sorts of statements as merely opinions about how we view the world. Each of them is actually a truth claim that has implications that can be empirically examined. There is a sense in which we can say "Anything is possible," or "We can't know for sure," but only if we view knowledge as binary certainty. I would suggest that apart from logical necessities like "a=a" and "a not a" or propositional necessities like "In Euclidean geometry there are no square circles," there is nothing that is 100% certain. That said, we can put error bars around our uncertainty and, at a particular level of justified confidence, it is fair to call our beliefs knowledge. I understand that you reject horoscopes as valid for yourself, but take the view of "to each their own." It's absolutely fair to say, "This isn't my passion and I don't want to fight this fight," but it isn't fair to cosign the idea and say, "It's a valid way for some people to look at things." Scientists and skeptics have explored claims like "The position of the planets and stars at the time of your birth influences your personality and their relative positions at any given moment in time influence your circumstances," and discovered that 1) the only physical force a planet or star could meaningfully have on you at birth (or any other moment) is gravity as the other forces are too weak, 2) the doctor delivering you has more gravitational influence on you than any of those celestial bodies, and 3) there is no empirically verified evidence that people making predictions based on horoscopes are more accurate than a person in a control group. In other words, we have pushed those error bars far toward the edges of the probability space and are justified in rejecting those claims. Sometimes we don't have access to the data necessary to make positive claims, e.g. we will likely not know in our lifetimes (or possibly ever) which specific take on abiogenesis is the correct one. That said, we can restrict the probability space and exclude some explanations while preferring others (e.g. creation from terrestrial dust is out, but panspermia from organic chemicals formed in space dust in the early solar system or chemistry arising in water near volcanic vents are both currently in.) Even in a situation like this, we are justified in rejecting claims outside the error bars. Obviously, epistemology is my passion. I think it's the most important thing for us to work through, because if we don't know how we know what we know, we cannot be justified in believing anything. In my opinion, we should be careful when people make truth claims that we don't confuse them with opinions. It is always fair to say, "I don't know enough to comment." In fact, when we don't know something it's the best thing to say. That doesn't mean that the knowledge isn't out there or that all possible explanations are equally valid. If this doesn't excite you, I'm on board with your final suggestions. Live your life how you want. Feel the grass between your toes, smoke some weed, do what you love. That is where your opinion truly is the only one that counts.

[@RoballTV]

Psychics: Cold reading, manipulating you to give the answers yourself, and also, 90% of us have our entire life on publicly accessible social media profiles...

[@TheHestya]

I see wikipedia as a list of sources on a specific topic. I use it to go to the websites linked by the people that wrote the wikipedia page so I can look at the information myself.

[@london616]

It's called hot/cold reading. Hot reading is doing your research, internet stalking, recording devices in waiting rooms ect. Cold reading is reading facial cues and following lines of inquiry guided by the individuals responses.

[@ElroyMF1]

Dude just look up cold and hot reading

[@DeliveryWithoutSmoke]

every encyclopedia is crowdsourced

[@Touchpadse]

"I can't explain it, therefore magic" should NEVER be used as an explanation

[@victoriarobyns2245]

PLEASE WATCH DERREN BROWN! He is mind blowing. So only based on psychology and science he "reads people's minds" and so much more and then after explained how he did it. There is one video where he goes in to a church in the US and asks if he can try to make them not believe in God anymore. And obviously they say yes because they have total belief in their faith and that he will never succeed... Or so they thought! Don't want to spoil it but it's genuinely AMAZING! love your channel 👌

[@rattlesnakehaven]

Read up on cold reading, and then watch those readings again, and you'll see how it works. My favorite psychic moment ever... Sylvia Browne, her voice dripping with concern, tells a guy to see a doctor because, "Honey, you have a problem with your prostate area... you know your prostate area in your chest..."🤣

[@warmhandswarmheart]

She also said to Amanda Berry's mother, on national TV, that Amanda was dead. You know, the Amanda Berry that escaped from her kidnapper after 18 years of being held hostage. Mrs. Berry became depressed and died before Amanda escaped. This wasn't the only family that she told their family member was dead when they were, in fact, still alive. This is one of the rare instances when I wish there was a hell.

[@rattlesnakehaven]

@@warmhandswarmheart The sad thing was that even after actually going to prison for fraud, she was still able to scam people, because people want so badly to believe that stuff that they would even try to justify the behavior that put her in jail -- "Psychically" advising her clients to invest in her husband's scam company. Most of the well-known "mediums" have been publicly caught lying and scamming, but the fans direct all their wrath not to the individual who got caught scamming them but to the people who exposed the scam.

[@rattlesnakehaven]

@@warmhandswarmheart or almost worse... told them their kid was alive and a sex slave, when the child had been murdered within hours of being abducted. The fact that she went to prison for psychic fraud ("psychically" advising clients to invest in her husband's scam) and people still bought into her psychic schtick says as much about her marks as about her.

[@myopicautisticmetal9035]

It is called Cold Reading. Look it up.

[@zararobnett8284]

If you like this please watch Tim perform “ Mitsubishi colt”

[@zorgbarbarian2523]

The volume on this one was extremely low, with the exception of the intro music (which was too loud). I had to turn all volumes to max on PC and more than double TV volume. Don't have to do this for other channels, so not likely on my end. Just FYI

[@JustJmax]

Thanks for the feedback. I got new hardwood in that room so I assumed my voice would be too loud with the echo and overcompensated by talking softer. Still working out the best setup!

[@mathewhutchins2539]

The explanation of the “psychics” who seem to be really good is just being really good at cold reading. They’re subtly priming you to give the info they need, then they give it back to you and (because you’re primed to believe it) you think they came to the info on their own. Anyone can learn to do it reasonable well. As James Randi said, if they’re actually using psychic powers, they’re doing it the hard way. Cold Reading is easy.

[@Juilene1965]

his Three Minute Song is fantastic....but if you ever check out The Pope Song....be ready for some cranky folks to get offended. LOL. I love Tim Minchin!

[@capablancauk]

Knowledge is demonstrable. You don't know it if you can't show it! Magic and miracle doesn't explain how that is testable it just makes a claim.

[@DavidHRyall]

Regarding Wikipedia - he first wrote this back when Wikipedia as actually mostly credible 😂

[@constancetorseth6648]

Just because something can't be explained doesn't mean there isn't an answer. Science has answered many millions of mysteries, but it's only a drop in the infinite well of knowledge available in the universe. Humans will most likely go extinct before we have even one quarter of the evidentially demonstrated answers to those questions, however those answers exist regardless of whether we even have the opportunity to formulate the question. Faith is abandoning the endeavor to seek answers. It's deferment of responsibility of finding understanding.

[@fedos]

For Wikipedia, the reliability depends on the level editorial attention a specific page gets and how long ago a part of that page was last edited. I've seen pages for people that were nothing more than reprints of their PR material, but for most science and non-obscure history topics Wikipedia is a reliable source, and the citation requirement gives a mechanism to see how reliable the source is.

[@danmabee]

There's an old video from QualiaSoup that clarified a great deal of the things people say about knowing and not knowing if you're interested. Not so good for Storm, but great for Tim: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bICvgX9rpZWZg8k

[@ryanbeck7166]

Wikipedia has great information. Just make sure you check the primary sources, to make sure what is said, matches, and then search more.

[@richardctaylor79]

If you want to know how they do psychic readings you need to look at Derren Brown, the way he explains and debunks it all it is amazing...

[@elthamborn5411]

Simple explanation. He's dealing with a God damn hippie.

[@nyxskids]

The thing with Wikipedia is generally great so long as you read the article more than once to make sure you didn't catch the random changes to misinformation you rightfully mentioned

[@turboguppy3748]

Wikipedia is a good starting point because it gathers sources for you to investigate

[@elbruces]

Try to make a change on Wikipedia. See how many milliseconds it takes someone to click "undo" because you didn't cite your source. That's right, Wikipedia cites its sources. People who say don't believe it, do not. But all the information that explains exactly how and why they are wrong is there.

[@StringsOfTheHarp]

I feel two points are important to establish, one regarding science and the other wikipedia, cheap shots first I suppose: Wikipedia is a lot better than it was in 2010 and earlier, for changes to be pushed forward they have proper editors and submissions now, as well as IP banning and tracking, security has gone up and there is a lot more professionalism in regards to most of it. Its used best as a resource to find more resources, never as the answer. For that I recommend using something like Google Scholar which looks up research papers exclusively and more scientific focused papers when you have found a topic that interests you, or some relevant more focused forum board. Second about Science, "Science adjusts its views based on what is observed" The key fact, about all science I think people have slowly forgotten, is that Science does NOT disprove anything. Science tests for how possible something is, or the future outcomes. We have the theory of gravity, because we have many studies which all agree, we can expect tomorrow gravity won't turn off. It is only ever called a theory because we don't know if gravity will get bored and invert in 3 minutes time. The same goes for all of the most popular and common theories out there, they are tested, trialed; hopefully without too much of an agenda as science has been hit by at times; to find the answer that is most likely true. Science could also be called brute forcing the laws of reality. It doesn't create, it discovers the possibilities and narrows down what is most likely. All the cures and medicine we come up with, are all a part of that, they don't spontaneously come into creation the moment a scientist picks up a test tube, they are things we discover through trials. For a long period of history the catholic church created universities and institutions to advance science. People of this modern age have forgotten a major part of how science doesn't have to be at odds with faith and religion. A baker doesn't have to kill a butcher because they both have food products. The mentality of religion not fitting in with science has honestly lead to a major gap in knowledge as far as I can see, things like the power of prayer have been shown, in scientific environments to be 'real' in the sense that a positive outlook on life and the future, from help and support groups can benefit health, including the immune system and many other factors. Prayer is just as powerful as the placebo effect, yet we have people yelling constantly that we can't just let people have support groups, that medicine is the only cure. Its only recently we have bothered looking into fields we called psuedoscience before, the concept of morphogenetic fields, of the ability for a creature to 'transmit' ideas and knowledge to others of its race in lack of contact is quite easy to prove that it was unreasonable. But the concept lead to genetic memory, that conditioning done to animals, like rats in the lab, will persist to their offspring, even if they never have contact with their parents. Humans as creatures have conflicting interests when it comes to spirituality, but the fact of the matter is this, the planet we are on is one big ecosystem, the same as a human body is made up of millions of different cells and bacteria, that 70% of your body is bacteria or something high if I'm recalling that number correctly. But just that though, why isn't the earth a creature of its own, it can be hurt and wounded, it has been aging with its changing volcanic activity over many millions of years, tectonic plates grow, break off and are remade, and we have things like dead planets, Mars which was too small to maintain an atmosphere to keep its heat in. Nothing stops a scientist from having spirituality. To the degree it could be recommended due to how mental health means a lot to many people. Society is just so strung up on 'us vs them' that so many things in the middle have been missed for hundreds of years, only now to be discovered and tested. I'm looking forward to a future where those ideas can be pushed further.

[@TtownHacker]

Make sure to watch the actual cartoon that was produced for the song. Keep up the good work.

[@TitanSummers]

The thing with Tim Minchin is he has a very high IQ and the education so he can set people straight

[@burkerow]

Wikipedia: There was a time when many teachers and professors would tell their students to not use Wikipedia due to its unreliability. I grew up with encyclopedias such as Brittanica. It had errors. No encyclopedia is perfect. Well these days many professors are fine with students using Wikipedia. When my son was in school I recommended that he use Wikipedia but read the references on a Wiki article and cite them. I have a masters degree in Biology and have done 25 years of anesthesia. Well guess what, when I find medical articles on Wikipedia I find them quite accurate in the field in which I'm an expert. In short, Wikipedia is great.

[@dahobdahob]

Not all knowledge has the same importance. I think of Wikipedia as "common knowledge", i.e. it is what "everyone" knows about a subject. It's not definitive, might not be completely accurate, but it's usually a base of knowledge about a thing and a good place to /start/ if you need more accurate or in depth info.

[@kerrylynch449]

I know enough to know that I don't kñow enough to know.

[@TitanSummers]

Yes many animals feel pain and morn there dead. There are also a lot that mate for life. They get depressed. They are not so different.

[@brianmcafee2269]

This is not a religious rant.This is about people being idiots, of which I am one of. This is a song ,I'm sorry.A nine minute beat poem ,about people being excptional idiots

[@old_grey_cat]

Wikipedia: a great source of background, links, and terminology to guide deeper searches.

[@lazerustheduck]

There are not strong opinions they're the truth

[@BasilOnatopp]

Wikipedia is great because you can scroll down and check the sources.

[@michaelshort2388]

Wikipedia is fairly accurate especially if you check its listed sources.

[@FallingGalaxy]

Like any source, I think Wikipedia can be very useful, but definitely if you're looking something up that is important to you or that you're unsure of, it's always best to check a few sources not just wiki. On it's own it has a lot of in-depth information on a vast array of topics. It's just not good to go around quoting something from it without checking the facts first, as once in a while you'll find one doesn't match up. But generally they do quickly edit out mistakes/lies/pranks.

[@homebroo71]

there is an interesting discussion between Tim & Richard Dawkins available on youtube :)

[@Grndl42]

Wanna hear how Tim takes criticism, check out Song for Phil Doust

[@tashasgran]

You are obviously a deep thinker. Check out BBC podcast ‘The Infinate Monkey Cage’ Science with comedy, Brian Cox and Robin Ince. there are over 100 episodes and Tim has been a guest on some. Good one to start is Neil de Grass Tyson on the Christmas Special. Hope you enjoy.

[@seandan7873]

When you can't explain something, the last thing you should do is give it an explanation. It's perfectly okay to not know.

[@dutchroll]

I think Wikipedia is far more good info than bad, though I have seen a couple of things where an obviously unscrupulous editor has managed to effectively control a page and edit out genuine corrections to misleading info. If I have doubts on Wikipedia I go the the footnote links to verify, and consider potential biases in those references.

[@thesuperdak7224]

Wikipedia is "a good start". Gives leads I can check, but the more controversial the topic, the more checking I know I will need to do.