The
purpose of this section is to
collect my views / opinions /
comments / notes on the various
videos I watch online, mostly on
Youtube, rather than simply
watching and absorbing and
moving on to the next.
Disclaimer:
It came to my attention a while
back that
some people are finding their
way here and seemingly taking
offence to some of the content.
I don't seek to offend; at most
I like to share alternative
views and be open to polite
discussion. I rarely take issue
with individuals, rather, I
consider the system that created
them/their/our views/behaviours.
I welcome responses/feedback to
any points I make.
I
don't always leave comments on
videos directly because:
The
video has received a vast number
of comments already and I think
mine will go unnoticed
The
youtuber doesn't appear to be
someone who reads/responds to
comments (so why bother?)
I
have a lot to say, or more to
say than is relevant
This
is my space and have no trouble
finding my way back here, rather
than posting on a video and
forgetting about it
I
intend my viewing habits to
revolve more around
"thought-provoking" content, but
intend to include some
"entertainment" also, if not
both in one sitting (my comments
are often laced with sarcasm).
If
you happen to watch any of these
videos, or ones on a similar
topic, then you are welcome to
get in touch to share your
views and links.
Cyclists
Must Go
The Podcast of the Lotus
Eaters | Date added:
29-March-23
My response (as a cyclist,
and a car driver)...
On the whole I like this
channel, but there can be
presenters spouting views
and a perspective I don't
agree with. This video is
one such example - I present
to you below my (counter)
opinions of the cycling
clips presented. The
comments section is also a
case where the views here
just parrot what has been
said to them, because people
have a tendency to become normy fan-boys regardless of
whether they think they're
on the "left" or the
"right".
(1:36)
Two clips from Jeremy Vine
of the BBC (bus cuts him up,
taxi 'almost' pulls out on
him). Most of what what the
"lotus eaters" say is just
hating on Jeremy, more on
this in a moment. The bus
pulling out was unfortunate
and indeed the driver may
have failed to see the
oncoming bike
(understandable yet not
excusable); perhaps they
should have prepared for
this possibility; Vine had
the right of way (although
could have also prepared for
what happened) and I don't
buy the excuse that "it's
hard to stop a bus"; it
takes effort to stop a bike,
plus the loss of momentum is
a faff. The taxi incident
was simply a common one due
to Vine being hidden by the
vehicle he was passing; the
taxi stopped when it
realised.
(7:29)
Guy "flips off motorist" for
beeping (apparently, because
I'm not certain), then comes
a cropper - this is kind of
bad karma, but I feel bad
for the cyclist hitting the
road. The response of the
"lotus eaters" shows their
lack of compassion. The guy
could have ended up in
hospital, but they would
just say "that serves him
right". I'm not sure if he
signalled that he was
overtaking the other cyclist
or was doing a similar pace
to the motor vehicles, plus
with oncoming traffic making
it not ideal for them to
overtake him, he was perhaps
perfectly justified in his
manoeuvre; some motorists
just like to beep at
cyclists in situations like
this when there was hardly
an impingement, just some
vague notion that "he
shouldn't be doing that".
(8:35)
Close call with van: "should
have been in the cycle
lane". I despise this
excuse; it's no excuse to
drive so close (with this
kind of footage I would have
reported this driver for
dangerous driving; 2 meters
is the requirement in the
Highway Code); it has
happened to me numerous
times and it is not
pleasant. This kind of
driving could land someone
in hospital, or worse. In
the UK it's not law to use a
cycle lane and sometimes
it's safer not to; if the
cyclist was capable of doing
25mph here (which seems
plausible) then surely he's
best off on the road, rather
than having to navigate
perhaps pedestrians on the
path or joining side-roads.
I've had similar
considerations myself; there
was no context in the clip
but the cyclist clearly had
a reason.
(11:25)
On shared path, a dispute
with a family who apparently
called the cyclist out;
perhaps they didn't realise
it was now a shared path
(even when it's not a recent
change pedestrians don't
always realise), but there
is little excuse for saying
something "under one's breath"
- the cyclist did indeed
appear to have slowed down,
or be going slow. He wasn't
"whizzing past", some paths
are too narrow and all need
to be courteous to others -
give space/allow time to
move pets/children out of
the way; in this instance I
think the pedestrians could
have moved over sooner, but
perhaps distracted, and thus
the cyclist needed to have
slowed down a little more or
sooner.
(13:31)
Car turns into cycle lane
(on Vine).
The car indicated and was
obviously going to struggle
to see the bike approaching
so the cyclist should have
paid attention and just
allowed for the inevitable
instead of making a fuss and
getting right up to the car,
but sometimes I do this (not
so vocally) to illustrate to
the motorist that I was
there and they hadn't
noticed when they turned in
(perhaps they'll take care
to look in future); Vine is
quite the drama queen
though.
On the topic of Jeremy Vine,
he is worth millions (to the
BBC at least). For insurance
purposes it is
understandable that he
covers himself with cameras
and puts the incidents out
there as evidence for any
future case that may arise
(either cycling or abuse),
or for promoting his ego,
but he's not the only one.
Should he come a cropper due
to someone's negligence be
certain they will be made an
example of.
(15:01)
The guy on the tram lines
was just a moron and would
likely be charged for his
vandalism.
(16:00)
Barriers against bikes...
just because it was a
"little bike" and he had to
get off it... but what if he
was carrying KGs of
groceries, or had a child
strapped in a seat on the
back? To dismount and lift
the bike over... I'm pretty
sure I've encountered such
barriers when I had a full
complement of panniers on my
touring bike, and it was
indeed a stupidly tight squeeze.
Councils need to take such
things into consideration
especially when at the same
time they are supposedly
encouraging the use of
bicycles.
And in the comments section
there is a whole mass of
people generalising and
"hating" "all" cyclists.
None of this improves
anything. Yes it's bad if a
cyclist puts a pedestrian at
risk (or worse), but this is
no reason to hate all
cyclists, or indeed suggest
they should all be driving a
car instead (I both ride and
drive, as do others). There
are too many people, all
trying to get around by
whatever means they
choose/have at their
disposal, whether it be
walking, on a bike, in a
car, or on a bus. Out of
principle I'm against the
whole "15 minute city"
thing, but most responses
are along the lines of "I
should be able to drive my
car/van without incurring
such a penalty" rather than
"actually, I could walk to
the shops or ride a bike to
work..." These people are
objecting to being dictated
to, which I appreciate, but
they are, most of the
time, failing to even
consider alternatives to the
car-driving culture they
subscribe to.
Sadly, I'm pretty sure that
the minority of cyclists who
cause problems for other
will lead to rule changes
and severe penalties (just
as motorists have done so);
such as licenses for
cycling, and mandatory
proficiency tests and
insurance, all of which I
would begrudge. If we could
all just chill out then
getting from A to B could be
far more pleasurable for
all.
They're
Already Dead
Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen
| Date
added: 18-March-23
My response...
I've watched a number of
"talks" by Bjorn now. He
gives some good advice and
comes across as a good roll
model or someone to look up
to (although this should be
done with caution about
anyone, particularly if you
only see brief snippets of
their lives in Youtube
videos).
He reads a quote: "The full
of guys who mow the lawn and
watch TV..." essentially, as
he says, these are dead
people. It's a depressing
thought, but I see it a lot.
Sure, the lawn might need
mowing, or there might be
something worth watching on
TV (but I guess both these
things could be debateable!)
but it's kind of too easy
(if that's not an excuse) to
be consumed by these mundane
things.
The advice in the video is
to make the most out of your
life; treat every day like
an adventure. Don't put off
doing what you want to be
doing, or at least take the
steps each day to achieve
those things.
What inspired you as a
child? Playing outdoors?
Camping? Building dens?
Perhaps something more
intellectual like learning a
language? I think these
things, whatever they were,
are important, they say
something about our
individual "essence" but
they seem to get "washed"
out of us as we get older.
Elon
Musk's Twitter Files Rollout
FAILING, The Story Is Dying
Timcast IRL | Date added:
23-January-23
My response...
"The Twitter Files are a set
of internal Twitter, Inc.
documents that were made
public, starting in December
2022, by CEO Elon Musk, [and
various] ... and authors
...shortly after Musk
acquired Twitter ... [They]
coordinated the release of
the documents with Twitter
management, releasing the
details of the files as a
series of Twitter threads."
-
Wikipedia
Instalments include content
relating to:
Twitter's moderation
process regarding a New
York Post article on the
Hunter Biden laptop
controversy.
what Musk and others have
described as the shadow
banning of some users.
events within Twitter
leading to Donald Trump's
suspension from Twitter.
how Twitter employees
reacted to the January 6
United States Capitol
attack.
how Twitter employees
influenced the decision to
ban Trump from the
platform.
how the FBI contacted
Twitter to suggest that
action be taken against
several accounts for
allegedly spreading
election disinformation.
Twitter's interaction with
the intelligence community
around the New York Post
story on Hunter Biden's
laptop.
the Twitter Site Integrity
Team whitelisted accounts
from United States Central
Command (CENTCOM) used to
run online influence
campaigns in other
countries.
to the CIA and FBI's
alleged involvement in
Twitter content
moderation.
[allegations] that the
U.S. government was
involved in moderating
COVID-19 content on
Twitter.
At present the Wikipedia
page ends there but
according to what was said
in the Tim Pool video above,
the fifteenth instalment has
been released (at the time
of writing).
Years ago it seemed to me
that Facebook was the
platform that was in a
position to control content
to show an apparent leaning
of political opinions, i.e.
in order to sway voters'
decisions in the way of the
platform's (Zuckerberg et
al's) preference. Now it is
clear to me that the FBI/CIA
have been in close cahoots
with all of these major
platforms (FB, Twitter,
Youtube and others) and
pulling the strings to guide
the populace the way they
wanted; anyone that speaks
out in away that is against
this chosen narrative is at
risk of being deplatformed
or shadowbanned.
Outside of these
externally-controlled
platforms are others that
are indeed medalled with by
those who run them because,
well, why not? It's their
platform and they can do
what they want with user's
accounts, right? If someone
operates such a platform and
is, say, anti-anti-vaxer,
pro-LGBTQ... then why not
kick someone off or quietly
shadowban/limit the
reach/artificially
down-grade the apparent
popularity of those with
countering views? (Kicking
someone off generally
provokes a reaction whereas
shadowbanning can go
unnoticed). I don't think
this is right but I can see
how it would suck to perhaps
end up with a platform that
gets overrun by things you
don't want to see or hear,
but I have landed on
platforms for the first time
that clearly present things
I don't want to see, so I
leave; the personal
challenge is when you've
been using a platform for a
while and it slowly changes
to something you don't like.
For platforms like FB,
Twitter, Youtube and TicToc,
it is the nature of
algorithms that pose an
issue (rather than providing
a neat webdirectory such as
sites like Yahoo! used to
provide in the early days)
since algorithms clearly
produce echo chambers and
not only amplify what is
seemingly popular but can
lead whole swathes of uses
down various paths
(sometimes to their literal
demise); people chase after
what is edgy or provocative
and therefore the extreme
takes precedence.
Back to Tim Pool's video and
he points out that the slow
drip-feeding of the Twitter
Files has lead to people
losing interest in the
topic; whatever is revealed
is no longer shocking. To me
this is the same with how
movies are; many a sci-fi
and dystopic movie portrays
either some truths about the
world, or potentials of what
"might" become. It is all
too easy to watch these and
feel the urge to shout out
"see, this is how things
will be!" from alien
invasions, to the take-over
of A.I. and robots, and the
human population being bred
in pods to provide energy
for their overlords. But
with every rendition of such
a plot line, the message
becomes weaker, and when
this start to come into
fruition in the real world,
it has already become
normalised.
Luke Rudkowski argues that
all the Twitter Files should
have been dropped at once
(and certainly not at the
end of a Saturday when
they'll generally go
unnoticed because people
have, as Tim said better
things to do (bars to get
drunk at), but as I see it
this hasn't been done for a
couple reasons: 1) they've
been releasing them as
they've been sifted through,
rather than holding back
until they've prepared the
whole lot, 2) releasing them
individually like this gives
people the opportunity to
read, comment on, and
converse about specific
topics therein. This second
one kind of mimic's our
addictive behaviour and our
preference for that dopamine
hit from having new things
arriving in our Feeds; that
people have lost interest is
not so much because the
topics themselves are less
important, but because their
impact is less impactful,
just like needing more and
more of a drug/substance to
satisfy the craving.
Something else to point out
that many of these topics
have already been talked to
death and they don't reveal
anything new, rather they
only provide evidence for
what was perhaps previously
a hunch or "common
knowledge". It's now down to
what is done with this
material evidence, but since
a lot of this boils down to
these platforms being run by
the likes of the
FBI/CIA/Chinese Government,
how do you expect this to
change?
Avoid binge-watching Youtube!
One way to achieve this is to download the
videos and watch them offline on
a dedicated device. Sadly a lot
of services that provide this
feature tend to disappear after
a while.
Y2Mate
This service allows you to
download Youtube videos as MP4
video or MP3 audio files (with
some informative content you
only need the latter). Be sure
to close the "advertising" page
that opens once downloading
begins.
ReturnYoutubeDislike
This is an Add-on for various
browsers that brings back the
Dislike counter on the Youtube
page. This is important in order
to help you judge if a video is
going to be worth watching.
Unhook
Youtube wants to keep you on the
platform for as long as
possible. This browser add-on
enables you to remove the Feed
and more, helping you to only
watch videos you've actively
searched for.
Video Length
Consider actively seeking
educational content of a
reasonable length (you can
always digest this in smaller
portions). Keep a
notepad/Notepad to hand and
build on what interests you.
