random history thoughts

[Doctor Cringelord]

I don't think I've ever seen a Betamax cassette. I did pick up in Goodwill once some interesting kind of camera that used a rotary format, reminding me of a ViewMaster in a way. The Kodak Disc 3600, it was called.

they basically look like smaller vhs tapes

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

i don't mind tiktok but i don't like the way it has influenced youtube. now the YT app features a million shorts and their search function doesn't work as well as it used to. they are really trying to compete with tiktok's format when they should just stick to emphasizing longer form videos, because people who want to watch shorts are just going to stick with using tiktok most likely

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

i don't mind tiktok but i don't like the way it has influenced youtube. now the YT app features a million shorts and their search function doesn't work as well as it used to. they are really trying to compete with tiktok's format when they should just stick to emphasizing longer form videos, because people who want to watch shorts are just going to stick with using tiktok most likely

It seems like it's influenced the dimensions of the "screen" as well. Or something has, at any rate.

 

[The Cat]

i don't mind tiktok but i don't like the way it has influenced youtube. now the YT app features a million shorts and their search function doesn't work as well as it used to. they are really trying to compete with tiktok's format when they should just stick to emphasizing longer form videos, because people who want to watch shorts are just going to stick with using tiktok most likely

This. Everything has a place in entertainment, but it should stay in its own lane there's nothing wrong with multiple different foremats, but for some reason so many people inist on sameness.

 

[The Cat]

It seems like it's influenced the dimensions of the "screen" as well. Or something has, at any rate.

well I mean, intelligence operations always do.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

It seems like it's influenced the dimensions of the "screen" as well. Or something has, at any rate.

do you mean the aspect ratio, how every video seems to be filmed so you have to hold the phone upright to see the video take up the full screen? As opposed to widescreen mode where you hold the phone sideways?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

do you mean the aspect ratio, how every video seems to be filmed so you have to hold the phone upright to see the video take up the full screen? As opposed to widescreen mode where you hold the phone sideways?

It's acting normally now, it looks like. I'm testing it on "Let's Go Crazy" from Prince and can find no anomalies. Fascinating.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Warren Harding was a perv in letters to his mistress. Nicknamed his penis Jerry.

 

[ceecee]

Warren Harding was a perv in letters to his mistress. Nicknamed his penis Jerry.

It's wild that his affairs were more of an issue than government corruption and remain the thing that mostly tarnishes his reputation.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

It's wild that his affairs were more of an issue than government corruption and remain the thing that mostly tarnishes his reputation.

Yeah for real. Aside from the fact he was a cheating scumbag, there’s a sweetness to his romantic side that humanizes him.

Strange to think during his presidency that he was hugely popular, like Reagan levels almost.

 

[The Cat]

It's wild that his affairs were more of an issue than government corruption and remain the thing that mostly tarnishes his reputation.

Well you know what they say about a president with a reputation don't you? I'll bet he shaved past the knee too.

 

[The Cat]

Yeah for real. Aside from the fact he was a cheating scumbag, there’s a sweetness to his romantic side that humanizes him.

Strange to think during his presidency that he was hugely popular, like Reagan levels almost.

Strange to think that Reagan could ever be popular, but here we all are 40 years later

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Strange to think that Reagan could ever be popular, but here we all are 40 years later

People got drunk on the whole "America's grandfather" thing. Even some hardcore democrats loved him.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Strange to think that Reagan could ever be popular, but here we all are 40 years later

There's an old political cartoon that must date back to the Kennedy-Nixon debate (the first televised one), addressing the way the television might change things. There's a person disapproving of George Washington's fitness to lead because they can see his wooden teeth on TV. It's old-fashioned and historically inaccurate, but I think the larger point is sound. Being able to easily see someone like that up-close encourages a certain superficiality; I think it was in play for Reagan, an actor if mostly a B-movie one. For Trump it's the same thing; he was a TV star and has cameoed in all kinds of things, even fast-food commercials.

When it comes to television, that cartoon was right.

Anyway, I think social media has made things even worse than television. We'll also have AI thrown into mix, which is a different phenomenon all together but it might play a role.

 

[The Cat]

There's an old political cartoon that must date back to the Kennedy-Nixon debate (the first televised one), addressing the way the television might change things. There's a person disapproving of George Washington's fitness to lead because they can see his wooden teeth on TV. It's old-fashioned and historically inaccurate, but I think the larger point is sound. Being able to easily see someone like that up-close encourages a certain superficiality; I think it was in play for Reagan, an actor if mostly a B-movie one. For Trump it's the same thing; he was a TV star and has cameoed in all kinds of things, even fast-food commercials.

When it comes to television, that cartoon was right.

Anyway, I think social media has made things even worse than television. We'll also have AI thrown into mix, which is a different phenomenon all together but it might play a role.

Tomorrow Never Dies.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Tomorrow Never Dies.

I haven't seen this one. Please tell me Joe Don Baker is in it as Felix Leiter-type, like in Goldeneye.

 

[The Cat]

I haven't seen this one. Please tell me Joe Don Baker is in it as Felix Leiter-type, like in Goldeneye.

You should watch it this weekend.

 

[ceecee]

People got drunk on the whole "America's grandfather" thing. Even some hardcore democrats loved him.

Regan Democrats. The pre-Trumpers. Garry Willis' book - Regan's America - is a great read about this "mythology".

 

[ceecee]

John Brown was executed by the slave state of Virginia 164 years ago today.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

The English civil war and it's belligerents, the roundheads (being parliamentarians) and the cavaliers (being royalists), greatly explain the the political divisions of America today.

The puritan roundheads landed on Plymouth and preceded to people the north east with their ways and particular idiosyncrasies. These idiosyncrasies have remained durably in the north east in its culture and politics.

The cavaliers landed in Jamestown (13 years prior to Plymouth) and preceded to people the south with their ways. Ways which have remained durably in the South.

These differences were reinforced with the Quakers coming to the Delaware valley. Being similar to the Puritans and peopling the mid Atlantic they reinforced much of the cultural architecture that had been erected in the North. Their well known pacifism is still an active (if not particularly powerful) current in US politics.

In Appalachia and the frontier moving west, we have the Scots Irish who's more war like and honor bound culture reinforced the foundations already laid out by the Cavaliers.

As of 2018 Southern men enlisted in the military at a rate 22% higher than the rest of the US (per a study by the Uni of Omaha Study ).

It's funny how as kids we seem to be taught much more about Plymouth and the Puritans than about Jamestown and the Cavaliers.

David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed lays much of this foundation out. I'll have to read it soon.