Other Weird youtube rabbit holes
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
The algorithm recommended me Not Just Bikes today and now I've watched seven videos or so about urban planning and its effects on culture and behaviour.
Wow this is incredibly fascinating
Got recommended him a few months ago and lead me down a rabbit hole where I wondered if I should've become an urban planner
Yes that's me as well now.I've watched a few dozen of his videos too but grown tired of his arrogant tone and blindness to the fact that not everyone wants to live and work within a 5mile radius. Basing everything on bicycles is fine if your country is as flat as a pancake and the size of Massachusetts, but it isn't for everyone.
No one is forcing anyone to live close to their workplace. I'm sure Dutch people commute as well. However, making residential zones purely residential and killing all modes of transport except cars is surely nonsensical no matter how far you prefer to live from your workplace. And it's not like the roads are great at moving cars anyway under the American design philosophy.
If motorized transport becomes so prohibitively complicated that the costs outweigh the benefit (the premise of most of his videos) one is changing people's behavior. I didn't say anyone was forced, I merely said not everyone preferred what he constantly advocates as the solution to basically everything.
The thing is American roads, at least the highways, were never designed with that in mind. They were thought of by a former military leader after his experiences in a military campaign. They don't just move all those cars, they move all the trucks with all the stuff too... and buses, and emeregency vehicles etc. American roads don't suck because of the roads, they suck because the railroads suck, because local transport sucks, because everyone is forced to drive because driving has been so successful it killed of all other means (besides flying) of transport.
That said traffic in Rotterdam, between Utrecht and Amsterdam, in the Hague or Eindhoven parallels anything in the US (outside NYC and California maybe, i've not been everywhere... yet).
If I flew a drone over a bunch of Favelas and told everyone how horrible non car communities are it would be similarly one sided.
Last edited:
I'm concerned that a series called “Not just bikes” is still going to be a lot about bikes.
No but your sole reason for dismissing his points about urban planning in your first post on the topic was that not everyone wants to live and work within a five mile radius. There was nothing else to discuss. And that's obviously not a great argument as having suburbs with shops and other businesses and public transport doesn't mean people can't live further away from their workplace than five miles if they so please. This post is much more interesting.
I agree that cars are successful because all other modes of transport suck, but I'd say it's more a case of people "being forced" into cars because the infrastructure has been designed to be car friendly and pedestrian/cyclist hostile. Of course people are welcome to think that that's great. Personally I like being able to walk from my home to various places (maybe because cars are very expensive here and that I like not having to drive home after a drink).
I think you have to explain to me how a very rich country designing their suburbs to only be accessible by car and comparing that to another rich country designing their cities to be accessible by different modes of transport is similar to poor people living in a place where they can't afford a car and where it probably would be impractical anyway.
EDIT: Although I guess you're actually saying American urban planning is the favelas with regards to motorism.
Last edited:
I did not dismiss every single point he has ever made. I simply stated why I've grown tired of him.
You have this the wrong way around. The US used to have among the best trains for such a vast country, every larger city had trams of some sort. However the automobil at one point made it viable for everyone of modest means to live on their own piece of land with the freedom of travelling anywhere within a certain range. And people chose that over what had previously existed (which wasn't luxury highrises or modern dutch row houses, it was the tenements the free market had on offer). To be clear i'm all in favor of modern developments to reignite whats been lost (tram in Detroit, the big dig in Boston etc.), however I don't think it benefits anyone to continually blame 1 form of transport for the woes of all the others.
Dutch cities are an entirely different proposition with a different past and different social and economical structures. The one I've briefly lived in (Utrecht) was essentially still planned around the canals. That layout obviously suited bikes a lot better than cars, and they've built to that strength (fine by me). Being able to walk anywhere was also nice. However anyone my age who wanted a home with a garden would need to win the lottery. People with limited means (not the poor!) basically have no opportunity to own anything other than a flat, if that. The young professionals around me pretty much all shared flats with others (and they earned decent). If they wanted a garden they'd have to move so far that it wouldn't be practical nor financially doable to drive in every day.
Trust me, me not loving his videos won't keep you from walking from work. You're safe.
I'm referring to his constant focusing on walmart parking lots etc. He doesn't show suburbs like Royal Oak
It's like me saying every non car centric community is shit and showing a Favela as proof.
Just stumbled across this shouty angry Irish guy who’s obsessed with watches and I’ve been laughing my bollocks off watching some of his videos.
Over the last days I've spent way too much time watching videos of animals getting groomed. Mostly cats and dogs, but I also found one of a sheep that ran into a forest and hadn't been sheared for six years. Sometimes it's just satisfying, sometimes they're funny as hell.
This one made me laugh quite hard
This one made me laugh quite hard
Here's that poor sheep
Mr Sheep really felt that lockdown.
I started 7 or 8 hours ago watching these videos, and still haven't stopped
what a fecking rabbit hole and messed up people there are in the world!I would apologize if the channel wasn't great.I started 7 or 8 hours ago watching these videos, and still haven't stopped
Never thought I could sit for hours like that but I didI would apologize if the channel wasn't great.
Even made my wife sit and watch the case of Dalia that hired a hitman to kill her husband! So goodI could watch these all day
Never thought I could sit for hours like that but I did
That channel is brilliant I've watched every single one.
Much Better than tv programmes.
This is great. Been following the channel for a while. That chapter is another good true crime channel if you’re into watching more of that kind of stuff
Brilliant I need some stuff to watch before bed.
Hey! I'm the one who posted it in this thread!
@Ali Dia just watched the first video brilliant thanks again for posting!
It’s funny how that’s exactly when most fans of the stuff like to watch it and it helps them relax and wind down and how that would be unfathomable to plenty of other people. I have to use headphones when my gf stays over because she always says it gives her freaky dreams? I sleep very well
Anyone got any good channels that are mystery-centric? Could be crime or anything really.
Hey JP you might like this. We could have similar taste? I also like true crime and psychology stuff.
I like psychology but not so much true crime. I like science in general.
Do you have any other psychology recommendations?
Unfortunately not in that kind of format. I think that this channel reached my feed through MIT opecourseware, there are a few psychology courses in the channel.
Nice one. Cheers for the heads up. I’ve seen those MIT videos but they are usually long lectures and maybe slightly intimidating not knowing where to start but I’ll have a better rummage this evening.
Love this stuff
this could seriously push people towards violent crime, just by listening and seeing his face
what an annoying tit!
edit: if you like criminal psychology stuff you probably seen this already, but in case you haven't: JCS - Criminal Psychology - YouTube,
it's kind of watchable, even though the author's insights are very, very basic and obvious. But some of the cases are interesting.
Last edited:
The most youtube rabbit hole-ingest youtube rabbit hole you'll ever watch.
Thought he'd been in the bath too long until I realised he was wearing finger sheaths.
@Hectic thanks chief, got a feeling I've seen the first one but will look at them tonight
Lemmino is great channel (first vid), unfortunately he only releases 2-3 vids a year.
Yeah I realized after I clicked on it that it was from his channel, think I binged a lot of them a year or two back.
Girl with the Dogs. I don't know how it ended up in my recommendations but I've watched about 20 videos of dogs being groomed now.