I’ve posted heaps of videos this year – and a lot of them had “Christian” connotations or content. I put “Christian” in inverted comments because at times they were more about cultural Christianity than about Christ.
Here are five that have had some sort of profound impact on my life this year…Tag: youtube
How to stop a pair of purse snatchers
If you happen to see two bag snatchers getting away with daylight robbery and all you have to stop them with is your pushbike – this is how you do it.
YouTube Tuesday: Guns don’t kill people, Australians do
Scarily enough – this guy is Australian.
How World Cup balls are made
I can’t get enough of those “how stuff get made” videos. The World Cup is this year. Here’s how they make the balls.
Avatar v Fern Gully
I haven’t seen Avatar yet. I know it’ll be worthwhile when I eventually do.
But a few people – davemiers.com included – have been saying it’s just a pretty version of Fern Gully.
Here’s a YouTube mashup.
How stuff works
I have a fascination with how ordinary things are made. I used to wonder how the deodorant companies packed all that smelly stuff into a can. Or in fact how any aerosols worked.
Then Abraham Piper of 22 words posted links to these 22 videos of stuff being made.
Now, though I’d never wondered, I know how globes are made. If you watch this video you will too.
Here’s how roll-on deodorant works.
And some of my other favourites.
And most importantly, how bacon is made.
And a musical interlude.
There goes half an hour of your time.
Pacman v Mario
Have you ever wondered what would happen if some sort of video game worm hole opened up and Pacman ended up in Super Mario World?
Me neither.
YouTube Tuesday: Bear with me
I know it’s Thursday – but I can’t let the week go by without my regular prescription of YouTube Tuesday…
It seems the story of Elisha the prophet and the two she-bears is popular with atheists at the moment for showing that God is an angry figment of our imagination. It cropped up in a comment thread here a few days ago, and has been mentioned in a couple of other posts around the atheist blogosphere.
I’ve never read the story (included below) with the understanding that the youths died. I’ve always thought a “mauling” didn’t involve a fatality. It certainly doesn’t in Rugby (though spectators often die of boredom).
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
Some bright spark has further mocked Elisha (risking the ire of a new generation of bears) – creating a video (containing graphic, but comic, violence and some language) to retell the story with Elisha portrayed as a Hip Hop Gangsta Rapper. Or something. It made me laugh – but be warned – it’s not for everyone. You’ll probably find it very offensive and regret watching it. I’ll probably regret posting it.
How to throw a paper plane
Paper planes are the stuff childhood dreams are made of. I’m almost certain every pilot flying commercially these days grew up experimenting with updraft, wingspan, and all manner of rudimentary rocket science using only a sheet of paper and the limits of the human imagination.
I remember printing out pages lined with Microsoft Publisher’s Paper Plane templates, and then experimenting further. On one occasion my sisters and I produced a garbage bag full of 100 paper planes. It was our airforce. I don’t think they made it much further than the bin.
This is a pretty long preamble to point out an awesome world record that just about anybody can break – provided you’ve got about 10,000 hours of spare time available to master the origamic art of Paper Plane Making.
Japan’s Takuo Toda is the current world record holder and, as such, the world’s premier paper plane pilot. He shares this tip in an article on a recent failed attempt to best his own record.
“In the world of competitive paper airplane throwing, a 20-second flight is exceptional, 25 or better is world class.”
Toda said that the secret to throwing a paper airplane is to aim upward — not straight — so that it has time to gain altitude and slowly circle back to the ground. Toda appeared to be on his way to a record Sunday, but his second and best throw was ruled a foul because it hit a passenger jetliner parked nearby.
“It’s really a sport,” he said. “The throwing technique is very delicate.”
Via Lee’s Lemon Harrangue Pie.
Here is the video of Toda’s world record flight.
Here’s a template from Wired for that plane.
YouTube Tuesday: Goal
FIFA’s goal of the year candidates are pretty special. You
Rhapsody in iPhone
I thought having two iPhones was excessive – check out what this guy can do with six.
Via Human3rror
Running rings around earth
Wouldn’t earth be cool if it had rings like Saturn. I’d totally live on a planet like this…
Slow motion explosions
While cool guys don’t look at explosions and exception can probably be made for looking at slow motion explosions – even slow motion explosions involving toy cars.
Journalism and literal blowholes
The exploding whale video is one of my favourite YouTube videos of all time – and is in fact one of the most popular ever uploaded.
The journalist who reported the story in 1970 has now written a book about the story.
“We’re hearing this noise around us and we realize it is pieces of whale blubber hitting the ground around us (from) 1,000 yards away. A piece of blubber the size of a fingernail could kill you if it hit you in the right part of the head, so we ran away from the blast scene, down the dune and toward the parking lot. Then we heard a second explosion ahead of us, and we just kept going until we saw what it was: A car had been hit by this coffee-table-size piece of blubber and had its windows flattened all the way down to the seats.”
Now he’s pigeon-holed as the whale guy.
Linnman, now a reporter and morning host for KEX Newsradio 1190 AM in Portland, said not a day goes by that someone doesn’t mention or reference the story to him.
He has learned to accept his fame and people’s undying interest in the bizarre story by writing a book, “The Exploding Whale and Other Remarkable Stories From the Evening News,” featuring detailed accounts of his day on the beach along with some of his favorite feature stories from his career.