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Tildes Video Thread
So, quite a few people don't like/watch video content, and don't like seeing the homepage filled with videos. Let's try something new, see if it sticks.
What are the best videos you have watched this past week/fortnight?
A mildly curated selection from my history:
The Jeremy Hunt Rhyming Song by the Commoner's Choir, a modern folk project at least one ex-Chumbawamba member is involved in. This is fairly old but was doing the rounds as Hunt was appointed Chancellor this week. Who'd have thought it was so hard to find rhymes for the surname "Hunt"? (bonus, many UK newsreaders seem to have no problem)
Halo Anniversary - How NOT to do a remaster, animated gamer character shouts about how terrible Halo Anniversary is. I don't have a great deal of skin in this game, I was very much PC Master Race when Halo came out and didn't see the big deal about another shooter, but this is pretty fun and they appear to know what they're talking about. (bonus: Mountain Dew XBox)
Shuffle-T & Marlo vs Bobby Rex & Raptor Warhurst | Premier Battles | Rap Battle. The UK battle rap scene has been a bit of a mess in recent years with various leagues imploding and a lot of the big players drifting away, but this is Shufflo (UK 2-on-2 champions for almost a decade now) back and on absolute top form. Rex and Raptor give a very good account of themselves as well, although I don't think they quite did enough to win, but it's still a hell of a good battle. (bonus: Shufflo vs Craft-D and Harry Baker. Harry Baker, world poetry slam champ and one of my favourite modern poets, used to battle rap and that's such a great thing because battle rap has been the domain of poets for centuries)
New Paper Mario 64 Speedrun WR Glitch is set up in Ocarina of Time. Remains the most insane speedrun of all time. Speedrunning Paper Mario by playing Ocarina of Time. As the kids say, I can't even. Incredible stuff. (bonus: Speedrunning Spongebob by putting ketchup on the CD)
What do Protons Taste Like. I think the title explains that fairly well.
If you don't have time to watch the above video:
Sour.Mention also to the excellent new-ish channel Inheritance Machining, in which a guy inherits an entire machine shop from his grandfather and painstakingly restores and refurbishes every machine tool, and makes some cool stuff along the way. He's inexperienced enough to have lots to learn as he goes, but not so clueless as to not have lots to teach and explain to viewers. It's a nice balance, and his presenting style is very calm and relaxing, even when things go wrong.
Finally, The Kingdom Exodus trailer. I never really thought Twin Peaks would get a third season, but that happened and now Lars von Trier's equally bonkers/terrifying The Kingdom is doing the same. A rewatch of seasons one and two is definitely in order because I can't remember anything much about them other than (a) weird, (b) scary, (c) WEIRD.
Plainly Difficult
Discovered this channel when their Croydon tram crash video popped up in my YouTube feed. I watch a lot of transport content, so this wasn't really a surprise! What impressed me was the fine balance they struck between in-depth detail of events and light whimsy, often through a very rudimentary animation style. It's been so easy to binge their content due to video run times not tending to spiral past the twenty minute mark, which my older easily distracted attention span loves.
I've been really enjoying Kill Tony. It's rare for me to watch something and laugh out loud repeatedly. This comedy show does it for me. They bring a bunch of amateur/professional comedians that have 1 minute to share their best jokes. They also have some regulars that you'd see on every episode. The guests are random and they get to judge and comment on the performance of all the comedians or whatever, they often end up roasting each other and it's just hilarious.
Tech Tangents - Cloning a rare ISA card to use a rare CD drive
I don't know much about electrical engineering, but I do enjoy watching electrical engineers work their magic. Basically he had the first commercial CD Drive, but lacked the very rare ISA card to make it work. So using some photos and info he and a few other pieced together, he built a clone of the ISA card and got it all working.
Practical Engineering - How to move a space shuttle through the streets of LA
A really good look into the logistics of moving the shuttle Endeavor from LAX to its semi-final destination at an LA museum.
If you like watching people doing electronics, I'm a big fan of Marco Reps who is a repair technician and amateur metrologist. His delivery is just so wonderfully deadpan (people who say Germans have no sense of humour just don't get German humour), and he really knows his stuff. Also he did this bit of wonderful madness to an off-the-shelf e-bike kit.
Recommendations Request: Who/what do you recommend on Nebula?
I finally got worn down by all of you fine folks here (and my husband chain-watching Half as Interesting videos), so I signed up for the CuriosityStream/Nebula bundle. It was long overdue, really — especially for how inexpensive it is.
So, where should I start?
My recommendations are going to be similar to my youtube ones. To get you started:
In Nebula Originals: Wendover's documentaries are excellent (The World's Most Useful Airport, The Final Years of Majuro, Alaska's Silent Summer, The Colorado Problem); that last one is ESPECIALLY relevant now.
Working Titles is pretty fucking cool - I've not watched many of them, but the ones I have are neat!
I don’t have any specific recommendations, but I would recommend going through the list of creators and check out their content and figure out which ones make content you like. I honestly found that a lot more useful than looking by the categories.
My highlights of the week:
Best video I've watched this week: How This Man Profited $1 Billion Betting on Hong Kong Horse Races by Economics Explained
PBS Space Time is my favourite Youtube channel. If you've ever watched any documentary series on astronomy or even physics in general and thought "I wish they went deeper" this is the channel for you. It's the only channel where I've gone back to watch from the start because every single episode is good, even their first ones. Beware though, once you start understanding some of the most complex subjects in physics, mainly quantum mechanics, you realise that reality makes no objective sense and our brains are just tricking us into thinking that it does so that we don't go crazy.
Veritasium is similar to the above but it's more about general sciences and math and usually not as in depth.
Dust hosts a collection of sci-fi short films. Not every film is a hit but the production value is really good in general, and there are some gems in there.