Please fold here

Daily vid: Bees as sensors, May 27th 2023

Bees detect chemicals with surprising accuracy.

You can tell when a bee detects something by whether it sticks out its tongue.

Daily vid: Bees as sensors, May 27th 2023

Bees detect chemicals with surprising accuracy.

You can tell when a bee detects something by whether it sticks out its tongue.

Daily vid: How not to waste server heat, May 27th 2023

Linus tries to heat his pool with his computer

Seems like a pretty good idea, just need to get a pool first.

Daily vid: Serengeti economics, May 27th 2023

Maybe the future of the nature economy.

This video highlights the core ethical dillema of protecting the natural ecosystem in an area of extreme poverty and political tension.

Daily vid: Klein bottle, May 27th 2023

Weird shaped bottle is impossible to fill.

Or is it?

Daily vid: if electrons were mechanical, May 27th 2023

An interesting way of visualising electrical circuits

This kit uses chains and cogs to visualise what different elements of an electrical circuit do to each other.

Announcement: Resume service, May 29th 2023

It's been a while

Sorry for the lack of vids the last few months. Was trying to update the way this site works but my attempts failed. Here are some extra vids to pass the time.

Daily vid: The FUTURE, Dec 5th 2022

Just discovered this series and it's comedy gold.

A funny-vid about the future where two guys just ramble about the distant past

Daily vid: Savannah the moody, Dec 3rd 2022

You may have heard the musings before, but never with this level of ambiance.

Daily vid: madness in compressed air, Dec 2nd 2022

You wanna know about ejector seats?

Daily vid: A crazy story about Samsung, Dec 1st 2022

A history I knew nothing about

Daily vid: Philomena cunk being her great self, Nov 30th 2022

She is on another planet

If I think therefore I am, then do you think therefore you am?

Daily vid: Some old footage of London, Nov 29th 2022

something to calm the mind and soul

Some slow tv for the soul.

Daily vid: insights from the designers to the machinists, Nov 28th 2022

have never come across anything in this vid, and yet somehow I feel I have.

It's all in the vid.

Daily vid: therapy lego, Oct 26th 2022

just a nice lego creation

I just love to see some creative brick-bending

Daily vid: A view on Thatcher, Oct 25th 2022

lightly political, an exploration of how Thatcher changed the political lexicon

There are some interesting points in here about the illusion of small government and deregulation. Need to know where to look beyond the rhetoric to the actions governments take and the true motives behind those actions.

Daily vid: blimping around history, Oct 24th 2022

it flies up and across, but not very accurately

wanna know about floaty boys, here's a recount of zippy zeppy's greatest hits!

Sunday update: a look up, Oct 23rd 2022

meandering home

I was on my way home the other day and something shook me. I saw an elderly lady walking, steadied by a stroller, on the pavement, perhaps 200 metres from the nursing home. I imagined this ritual exercise for her, a short daily excursion into a loud, uncertain, and increasingly unfamiliar world. I imagined eons of sedimented truth built up over a lifetime on planet Earth gradually eroding away, layer by layer, into obscurity. Her whole life spent trying to understand a world that was perpetually new and ever changing. Battling against the tides of society's changes. From post-war solidarity, to the rise of the individual and myth of self determined success. To the entrenchment of global systems that brought the unimaginable reach of rhe world to her doorstep. She rolled with the punches. New people, new views, new buildings, new cars, new food, new drinks, everything different from shopping bags to wallpaper to money to sport to clothes. Until something finally tripped her. Perhaps it was the Internet, email, social media, or electric scooters. At some point time outran her. She began not to recognise the people of her home town. How they behaved. The threats to her world no single person or nation, but a clouded mix of a million things nobody had yet been able to explain to her properly. Her world gradually narrowed to 200 metres of pavement. But then she looked up. She smiled at me proudly. It was a look I remembered from long ago. I had it the first time I ran to the top of that hill in Bath. And I couldn't help but smile back.

Daily vid: the vtol jet that looks like it's from the future, Oct 22nd 2022

it flies up and across

with all the hype of quadrotor flight modes, lilium takes a different tack. An electric jet which promises faster short range transport by air. Pretty cool to see it fly.

Daily vid: Checking my daily logic, October 21st 2022

Is your reasoning as bad as theirs, actually, I think mine comes close

not a fan of either Joe Rogan or (especially) Shapiro, but they are great case studies in how framing conversations can conceal mistruths that can be missed at the surface level. Revealing both for yourself and for dealing with others.

Daily vid: Swedish man loses his marbles? October 20th 2022

99.99% good is still 0.01% bad duh

you would think after the first 1000 go well, that your machine is pretty damn good. But so often we don't have the patience to look at the whole picture. Fascinating vid for a lot of reasons.

Daily vid: the kingdom of Dahomey, October 19th 2022

Some history about one of the most interesting and controvertial kingdoms in West Africa

I've been watching a lot of these vids recently. I think with the Woman King in cinemas it's bringing some of this history to the mainstream. Dahomey recieves a mixture of respect and criticism both for its support of women's rights in society and for its active involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. The deeper you dig, the blurrier the lines become.

Daily vid: Some wholesome good teaching, October 18th 2022

A story about a kid who hates doors

I don't know whether it's him finding his hidden talent, or finding love, but something about this warms the heart.

Daily vid: Simpson's hit and run, October 17th 2022

...but open world

If you cast your mind back to 2005, all anyone was talking about was this game. The Simpson's hit and run. Now with the craziness of Unreal 5, they remade it in a week. I've now watched a few of their vids and all are impressive, but this one was kind of next level.

Sunday update: some thoughts about running, October 16th 2022

A random monologue about something I've recently grown to love.

Running is a pretty popular pastime. It’s a quick form of exercise. Most able-bodied people can do it, and it’s the primary building block of most major sports. Because anyone can do it, and everyone has some idea of what distances mean, the basic concept is easily communicable and well understood. Someone will know what you mean when you say you’ve run 20 miles – that you’ve recently travelled a distance that no-doubt caused you a lot of pain. Because running, for all its great accessibility is hard. That’s kind of the point. It pushes your body into a state of emergency where its suddenly trying to garner energy much faster than it’s normally used to. Your body releases painkillers just to help you through this turmoil, and injects adrenaline to push you beyond your usual physical comfort zone. All your mind can think about is when you plan to stop, thrusting everything else to one side. As a reward you get a clear mind and a pain relief high for a few hours after. You get a sense of freedom and refreshment. You feel oxygenated and satisfied. But one of the best things about running is how quickly the gains from one run can pass on to the next. When you run you do battle with three bodily systems. One, most obvious, is the muscular system in your legs. This has an inherent resilience which if exceeded will see them start to slow and eventually fail. However, this system seldom fails before your second system, your cardiovascular system. This is the ability you have to keep oxygen flowing to your muscles at a sufficiently high rate. You notice this system failing pretty early if you haven’t run for a while. Your heart beats uncomfortably fast and your breathing rises out of control; at worst you wheeze and hold your knees, or get a bad stitch from all the anaerobic work your muscles are having to do to keep up with the lack of oxygen. But your cardiovascular system is unlikely to be the first system to fail. Far more likely is that your mind, the final system, will let you down first. Training for a long run is as much about building a positive belief in yourself as it is about improving your cardio and strengthening your legs. It’s about gradually persuading yourself that you are able; that “you are worthy” of the task ahead of you. If you’re doing a long run and all your body is telling you is “stop, for god’s sake!” that’s absolutely normal. But if you can hear yourself screaming stop and decide instead to keep going, that’s true strength. And that’s what spills over into normal life when you finish it.

Daily vid: Beating the Betz limit, October 16th 2022

A wind power enthusiast stumbles across a potentially game-breaking discovery

It's a really random video but I really love it because its so DIY and low-tech. The Betz limit is the theoretical maximum efficiency of a wind turbine. Byt the calculations of Robert, the guy in the video, it seems his fan system breaks this limit. It's evident he is having a lot of fun making the video: it's a great watch.

Daily vid: Impossible wind car, October 15th 2022

Veritasium trying to outrun the wind using nothing but the wind

Seems impossible, may well be. Either way I think it's worth an experiment.

Daily vid: best seats in the jedi temple, Oct 14th 2022

The seats are comfy but how comfy??

ESSENTIAL VIEWING check it out!

Daily vid: ww2 army boot deconstruction, Oct 13th 2022

breaking down why these boots were so good

Rose anvil does these amazing deep dives into boots and shoes which really shows off the build quality of some of these old boot designs. Love how valuable this particular brand became in the army just for being durable and well built.

What's this about?

Image

This is intended as a place to talk about the things that interest me at any given moment. It will be a random assortment of blog posts, videos, and general thoughts. There will be two types of post here. The daily vids, uploaded daily (obviously) with one video from the day that I found particularly interesting. And the weekly update, posted on a Sunday, discussing what's been happening in my head over the last week or so, ranging from ethics, politics, working life etc.

Popular Posts

Image

Image

Image

Don't follow Me

seriously, don't.