My new YouTube channel

[Lucifer]

I'm a heck of a lot older and not much wiser and still kicking

Thanks for pointing out that we're all older.

I like to characterize it as we're sexier.

Also, this video has a copyrgith claim against it, so hurry up and watch it before...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dxmD18jc9k

(Before I win, because it's clearly fair use)

[Lucifer]

Here's one where I talk about societal collapse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2kKRhH9VU

[Word]

Professionally i often deal with the stuff from the Ancient Roman collapse. The thing that I often go back thinking about is that it was relatively peaceful in our region, since the romanized Germanic tribes in the West and the "barbaric" ones in the East were sort of used to each other and often related. It was much more bloody in the Eastern regions, especially if you look at the Battle of Adrianople from which the Romans never recovered (but numerous attempts were made). Why do I often think about this? Because it was actually the Barbarians who wanted to negotiate while the Romans refused although it was all written on the wall for centuries. So now in our time our Nazis, often enough from Eastern Germany of all places, compare Muslim refugees to the Germanic Barbarians from the East.

During the Roman empire's history it recruited more and more soldiers from the recently occupied territories and then send them far away to another province, so they weren't likely to take part in a rebellion (it's not that different from what the UN or NATO do, actually, and I mean that in a neutral way). And for a very long time, that system worked, until the empire became too big to manage.

[Lucifer]

Heh, why did the Roman Empire fall? They didn't have internet.

I honestly just get frustrated at people talking about societal collapse like it's some huge apocalypse. I'm not saying it's a walk in the park or anything, but there's definitely a whole spectrum here ranging from Czechoslovakia's mostly peaceful breakup to the civil war in Yugoslavia. The US had their own without losing the federal government (the American Civil War).

I realize you can argue that in both Czechoslovakia and the US, there wasn't a "societal collapse". But there was definitely anarchy in a lot of places, and that seems like it should count. Lots of death and famine and everything (In the US for sure, don't know about czechoslovakia), but the period of actual collapse is pretty short.

[Word]

Well, I get most of my information about the US from the internet/CNN/CBS/NBC and what Congress/Trump keep doing seems dangerous enough to me. I don't think the media should in any way take part in causing a civil war and do everything to de-escalate right now, but the underlying problem is that you reach an audience if you give a megaphone to the most polarizing and controversial opinions out there, and that has happened for far too long.

I don't think there will be a total societal collapse, but as long as Trump and Putin are still alive, there's a lot of chaos in store for us. And all this without even getting into climate change and religious fights. As for Russia, I've read some of Navalny's utterances on Ukraine and the guy basically thought Ukraine belongs to Russia as well, so I'm not even sure anymore why he's celebrated like a martyr or what exactly his opposition to Putin is defined by other than being a little more democratic about it.

And we don't even really know right now what Xi-Jin-Ping-China is up to. In Europe we used to have mostly functioning wellfare-states, but a lot of that has eroded over the last few decades thanks to neoliberal policies, and now all these alliances that were taken for granted are called into question, and with them, so is peace. Which is dangerous in itself when so many countries have nuclear bombs and a power-hungry head of state. Also, immigration. People feel insecure and vote far-right. Sure, I guess it's ok that we Germans pay our dues and spend 10% of our GDP on military expenses, but let's not forget the Putin-loving Nazis in the parliament who, if they ever come to power, will try to use that army and militarized police like in a shitty sci-fi movie.

[compguygene]

I have finally taken the time to watch your videos and subscribe. I like your viewpoint!

[Lucifer]

Thank you Compguygene!

Here's something about Starliner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk0x90Lm1NA

Still working on the van video (if you don't know what the van is, you'll find out soon).

[Word]

no rocket scientist but felt the same way about that piece of news emotionally. read about it in the evening and thought "oh those poor astronauts, the next morning there'll probably be obituaries everywhere and questions why the bloody door got sucked off".

[Lucifer]

Well, they made it to orbit, and Starliner hasn't had a problem coming back, it's problem has been getting there, so I expect we'll see those two astronauts again. I still think this should have been an unmanned flight, though, as well as the next one or two.

The thing I like about SpaceX isn't just that they launch knowing they can't possibly finish the mission, it's that before they even get to that point, they've already bench tested everything and deliberately tried to break it, because it's when you break shit that you know what it takes to break it.

I realize Boeing and NASA do some of that, too, but they put it all together and immediately, on the first launch, they're trying to certify. The most reliable launch platform that has ever existed was *not* developed using NASA methodology, and they really need to learn from that.

[Word]

The thing I like about SpaceX isn't just that they launch knowing they can't possibly finish the mission, it's that before they even get to that point, they've already bench tested everything and deliberately tried to break it, because it's when you break shit that you know what it takes to break it.

I realize Boeing and NASA do some of that, too, but they put it all together and immediately, on the first launch, they're trying to certify. The most reliable launch platform that has ever existed was *not* developed using NASA methodology, and they really need to learn from that.

Yes. The whole topic of space exploration as done by SpaceX is very ambiguous to me, I also think their technical progress in a relatively short period is admirable and SPACE TRAVEL IS ******* COOL PERIOD, but then there's that guy at the top of the company, and there's that enormous consumption of resources, and all these satellites that will become/already have become garbage at some point. Yes, we get faster internet and it might help end the Ukraine war in democracy's favour, among a lot of other benefits, thanks for that, but those things shouldn't be the highest priority from a "planetary" point of view. It'll help communication during natural disasters and at the same time worsen the disasters themselves. From what I gather there's lots of stuff we don't know and we're already making a tourism thing out of it because a) we can and b) it's profitable.

https://theconversation.com/satellites- ... ate-223618

[Lucifer]

Here's my review of the Ice Pirates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_UaPYqfcE

[Lucifer]

I got more on the Starliner. Jeez, that thing just can't catch a break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPn5nAgun8g

[Word]

Still enjoying your videos a lot.

I've also watched some Lewis Black recently because the guy is consistently great at telling me what I already know. If one wants more viewers I'm pretty sure making the tone more "aggressive" like that guy is a good strategy, but actually your videos are enjoyable for me personally precisely because they're narrated relatively laid-back, which is in my opinion something this media age is lacking most of the time. Content aside, I also love the "practical humour" with the car door opening slowly or the leaning-against-a-tree bit at the end, pure gold.

In case you need some inspiration, I watched lots of Donald Sutherland movies in recent days, like Klute, The Eagle has landed, Eye of the Needle, and The Dirty Dozen, and they're all awesome in their own way. "The Eagle has landed" is especially hilarious. Michael Caine (still alive) plays a nazi. Robert Duvall (still alive) plays a nazi. Donald Sutherland plays a nazi. Donald Pleasance plays a nazi (ok, he already did that in the James Bond movies, sort of, but here, he is Himmler himself, not Blofeld). Anyway, they have a plot to kill Churchill, because. Larry Hagman steals every scene he is in as some US Army miles gloriosus kind-of-guy. One small scene made me read up on the history of human torpedoes, which are apparently still a thing.

[Lucifer]

I'm glad you're enjoying the channel. I'm finding that as I get more used to shooting, more of my personality is making it to video. I'm pretty happy with the Last Starfighter video, and I'm still editing that. I tried to do something different where I copied the whole movie into it, and then started chopping out sections so I could do the plot summary, but that's turning out to be a lot more work, so this video is running late. I'm going to start the extraction script tonight and do it the same way I've done the other videos like this.

I'm not a fan of Lewis Black, actually. He was a Daily Show correspondent, and I just don't like his angry/aggressive schtick. I've always been more laid back, sardonic, with a sense of humor so dry you could wipe up Florida with it. I also need to start assembling clips of various little phrases from media that I can insert into videos as a joke. I passed up the opportunity to grab a lot of Star Trek clips from the movies, but I can go back and do that. I'm definitely going to grab something from the Last Starfighter while I'm here, and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, which is next.

I think I'm also going to do a "Spock or Therapist?" game video where you'll have to guess who said the quote, Spock or a therapist. I think that would be fun. I'll probably slip that in before the Killer Tomatoes video. And I'll just assemble those quotes into a long text file so whenever I get to collab with other YouTubers, I can ask them to play that game with me.

[Lucifer]

I've posted a few more videos since the last time we talked here, but here's an update on the van.

https://youtu.be/YsLiJWuMYCQ

At the time I'm posting this, it's still uploading, so be patient if you're too quick.