site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3336 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 20, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Object restoration hobby videos. A lot of them are suspiciously clickbaity but some are more straight forward. Clickbaity ones tend towards digging up a cosmetically damaged high value object like a Rolex, the straight forward ones are more like restoring a rusty antique bench vice or a pair of bespoke leather shoes.

Big Clive. An affable Scottish electical engineer who dismantles and analyses the circuitry of discount shop gadgets.

Techmoan. A man who buys and reviews a mixture of high end vintage hifi components that were out of the ordinary buyer's reach when released, or low end Amazon novelty hifi components that are beyond the ordinary buyer's good taste.

SoftWhiteUnderbelly. A retired commercial advertising photographer conducts open-ended studio interviews with the inhabitants of Los Angele's Skid Row. This is the one I'd most recommend to Motte readers for the obvious sociological aspects. The common thread running through many of their narratives is a shitty childhood that the person assumes is basically normal. While they often have a sympathic story reading the comments is mind boggling to see people praising pimps, johns and heroin dealers with bottom shelf platitudes about what nice boys they are. It's like they watched The Wire and can't tell Bubbles from Snoop.

IsaacArthur. A man with an amusing accent (Virginia?) analyses sci-fi technology through the lens of real world engineering possibilities.

This guy who builds huts and other primitive technologies in the woods by himself

The ones I've watched always seemed dubious, it might just be the one channel I landed on. A guy makes a beautiful swimming pool in the jungle using only a knife and a bucket... hmm. At the least it seems like they always pick a spot with the softest, loosest, most diggable dirt in the whole world. There's never half of two brick walls buried four inches down.

People doing traditional crafts (especially Japanese art craft like urushi and kintsugi, wagashi making etc)

Link it up. I love watching craft and Japanese woodwork videos.

SoftWhiteUnderbelly

This one is really cool, thanks for telling us about it. I love the show Intervention and this channel reminds me of like raw footage from the interview portions of that show which is cool.

IsaacArthur. A man with an amusing accent (Virginia?)

It sounds to me like he has a bit of a speech or hearing disability, the one man I know who speaks similarly to him is from California but I think he grew up in a very poor household and didn't have speech therapy but most people who would speak this way as adults have had their speech corrected. I only listened to a few minutes of him speaking though so I'm not sure.

primitive technologies

Yup, the guy I was talking about is the one @JhanicManifold linked to. Primitive Technology.

Link it up. I love watching craft and Japanese woodwork videos.

Incredible braided cord: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uXF_-eXRnUo

Handmade fans: https://youtube.com/watch?v=olIUslC6mv0

Also everything else on that channel is great: https://youtube.com/@aoyamasquare/videos

Good video on Japanese carpentry: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rMtSc2MJLcw

And not quite as relevant but I'm obsessed with this Japanese fruit sandwich making video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eatQ9-79zGU

speech or hearing disability

I realised after posting I probably should have said something like speech impediment instead of describing it as amusing. I've seen lots of people say that his voice makes it unwatchable but combined with the accent it's a little extra part of the appeal for me, and it's too prominent not to mention it. A hearing problem would make sense too.

The ones I've watched always seemed dubious, it might just be the one channel I landed on. A guy makes a beautiful swimming pool in the jungle using only a knife and a bucket... hmm. At the least it seems like they always pick a spot with the softest, loosest, most diggable dirt in the whole world. There's never half of two brick walls buried four inches down.

You've found the copycats, the original Primitive Technology dude is extremely impressive and realistic. The swimming pool videos are obviously fake and done with modern machinery, the dude I linked is making bricks, vases, kilns, hatchets, etc. which are much more realistic for a single guy alone in the jungle.

Thanks, bookmarked for later.

Japanese woodworking is amazing, I love how the techniques are so similar but still very different from Western woodworking, like pull vs push planes.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats