A lot of good things! Also, I got scared.

13th February 2023

Heads up! This newsletter is more than two years old. Links may be out of date or lead to unexpected places, or the context may have changed. Please handle with care.

Hello!

In this week's video, it's opinion time! That's right, brace yourselves, because it's an experiment for me, a personal story in video-essay form: I tried using AI. It scared me. Ideally I'd be presenting that on a stage somewhere, but these days, YouTube is my stage. How long that'll be for... well, after that video, I'm really not sure any more.

And over on Lateral, Jay Foreman, Kip Heath and Jason from Not Just Bikes face questions about awkward animals, Indian ingenuity, and a Peter Pan problem. Jay also spends the entire episode in his car, because it was the only quiet place he could find.

And it's been a good week for other stuff I've found on YouTube! This has been one of the easiest newsletters to write in a long time. (That might be connected to the fact I actually got to have a day off this week.)

Did you know that ice can sing? Jonna Jinton puts together a beautiful video from her home in the north of Sweden.
Well, someone had to explain the Liar's Dice scene in Pirates of the Caribbean. This is a really well-assembled video: it doesn't matter if you can't remember the scene, everything's explained for you. This is also a textbook definition of what "fair use" means, and what "reaction content" should be.
Building the world's fastest Roomba: it starts small and then keeps escalating.
I rediscovered the video for Sigrid's song Sucker Punch this week (some strong language), and the match-cuts are just so good. It's such a simple effect, with no CG required: just a slight bit of zoom-and-pan on each shots. Also, that transmitter in the background is in Crystal Palace, where I filmed this video!

And written, away from the world of YouTube, this week:

Flappy Birdle. I cannot believe it took so long for someone to combine these: it feels obvious with the benefit of hindsight. And this is well executed too: mostly because it seems to be made by metaphorically duct-taping two existing games together. My high score in the normal mode is just over 100, and as soon as I achieved that, I vowed never to try again. It has a perfect amount of frustration. (Note that, in some browsers, you may need to switch "easy mode" on and off again to actually unlock the normal mode; if you can't hit the pipes, you're in easy mode.)
You may have heard of the AAirpass: American Airlines' terrible idea to sell lifetime, unlimited, first-class tickets to anywhere. But you may not have read this story by the daughter of one of the ticket owners, who tells her tale of a uniquely privileged childhood.
In 1998, the Dancing Baby took over the then-nascent World Wide Web. 25 years later, the person who made it popular tells his side of the story.
"They filmed me without my consent": the dark side of those viral TikTok 'kindness' videos. As with so many things: it's about asking first, and the person having a chance to understand what they're agreeing to, in full context.

And finally, here's a very pleasing gravity-powered rock mover.

All the best,

— Tom

« Previous

Index