There’s a new application-layer Internet protocol like (but also very much unlike) http by the name of Gemini. It was first launched in 2019 and until yesterday, flew completely under my radar. It’s primarily meant to be used for uncluttered text-only pages (although any type of file can be distributed), which are created using a deliberately simple and limited markdown language. Unsurprisingly, this results in a plethora of small niche blogs being published through it.
The basic user experience is essentially the same as browsing the web, until you notice just how much it isn’t. You enter URLs (except that they start with gemini://) you read texts and you click on hyperlinks - except that every page looks exactly the same due to the markdown language. There are no pop-ups, no ads, nothing autoplays, nothing wants your consent to exploit your user data. Even images only load when the user clicks on them. It shows just how little is actually needed, how many aspects of the modern web are completely unnecessary and mere pointless distractions.
Gemini pages - and this is a small hurdle that will keep most people away from it - can not be accessed with a normal web browser and instead require a specialized client for viewing (although paradoxically, creating pages often requires a web browser, at least for now). The idea is that both the underlying tech and the browsers are much more straightforward than anything related to http and html. A Gemini client is not effectively an entire operating system of its own that can execute near arbitrary code. It displays formatted text with basic images and videos - that’s it.
Here’s a neat, but slightly outdated introduction that also recommends a few clients and where to find pages to read:
The entire thing feels very early, tiny, experimental and odd, almost like a parallel reality, as if the World Wide Web didn’t exist and someone came up with something like it only now, using today’s hard- and software. If Lemmy is a response to social media in general and reddit in particular, Gemini feels more like a response to the World Wide Web as a whole or like a time machine back to a highly idealized version of the early days of the information system (the primary difference being the lack of horrendous '90s UX design and malware everywhere), including some unfortunate aspects that I had long forgotten about, like how the common method of finding content next to feeds - manually updated indexes instead of search engines - is plagued by dead links; and these dead links, unlike on the normal Internet, cannot be attempted to be resolved using the Wayback Machine or some other cache, at least not yet.
Gemini is equally parts exciting and promising, like a new frontier, but also at times confusing and frustrating. Don’t expect your Gemini client of choice to replace your web browser any time soon (or ever), but it’s still worth trying out, if for the novelty alone.
I was initially interested in the idea of Gemini, but when looking for a client, I happened upon this blog post by the creator of one of the clients about why they were abandoning it.
After a lot of thinking, I’ve realized there is one main reason I don’t keep coming back to Gemini: it offers no advantage over how I already use the Web.
In practice, the Web already has all the Gemini content I’m interested in from various people, and then of course everything else. Having everything in one place (whether my web browser or feed reader) makes for a much nicer experience.
Gemini is a reaction to bloated modern websites, but in fact I don’t actually visit that many gross websites like that. When I do, my ad blocker and paywall bypasser usually make them decent again. Otherwise, I spend the majority of my non-work Internet time on lightweight sites like my feed reader and Hacker News, and some time on sites that Gemini can’t emulate: YouTube, Reddit, Discord. The reality is that Gemini just wouldn’t actually improve this experience for me.
These are exactly the reservations I had about the concept, so to have someone so invested in it reach this exact conclusion and leave it made me decide to forego it. I think it’s a neat toy, and if it becomes relevant I’ll definitely take another look, but I think it’s a bit of putting the cart before the horse. I don’t want to use a protocol for the sake of using a protocol, I want it to serve a purpose and solve an actual problem I have.
I enjoyed browsing Gemini capsules using the Lagrange browser. Its look and feel is awesome and made me want to write smol websites again. I’m appalled by what modern websites have become. I miss making light but cool sites without an ounce of scripts in them.
Have you looked at the source code of a capsule? It’s delightfully simple.
I’m not familiar with the Gemini protocol, but how does it differ from just starting up a webserver pointed at a single folder with an
index.html? Isn’t it still just as possible to make a simple site using http?
So, it’s Gopher?
Gemini is encrypted by default, but they both share a lot of similarities.
Similar idea, but entirely new. I don’t think many people even here know what Gopher is.
True. I’m probably showing my age there.
I considered mentioning it, but I’ve been accused of being far older than I am, simply because I know about things from the past, so I skipped it.
I remember switching from Gopher to Pine.
I used Gopher a bit, but we were just looking for free games, and usually ended up on a big college FTP server.
Then Netscape changed it all.
Eventually Hotline came along and was our favorite way to get warez.
I remember seeing it mentioned here and there in 96, 97 when I first got access to internet. I was never curious enough to dig further. I just know it’s another protocol…
I have seen Gemini before but never tried it. Maybe i will but i do have a few questions first:
- Is there a Gemini search engine?
- Is there support for Forms/server side code
- How big is it? Is there like just a few sites or a few hundred?
Is there a Gemini search engine?
I’ve found this one:
gemini://geminispace.info/
Needs a client to access, of course. Basic, but functional. I found a general-purpose forum not too different from reddit or lemmy through it (and they decided to call it a BBS, because the Eternal September hasn’t happened to Gemini yet):
gemini://bbs.geminispace.org/
Is there support for Forms/server side code
To the best of my understanding (and it’s highly limited, since I only just learned about this, so take everything with a grain of salt), what Gemini does is primarily limit what the client can do. No local scripts, highly limited markdown. The server side is not limited. You can write any complex code you want that works behind the scenes - but it still has to deliver static pages (called “capsules”) to the end user. This series of articles explains the basic underlying tech and uses the example of a simple server to illustrate how Gemini works:
And yes, forms are possible, even though there appears to be a somewhat widespread misconception that they are impossible. Please excuse the sketchy-looking IP address instead of a URL, this was the best resource I was able to find on this (and yes, I checked if this page is on Gemini - this appears to be not the case):
http://216.218.220.144/tutorials/sig-tutorials/misc/gemini-forms.gmi
Screenshot if you don’t want to click on the above link: https://i.imgur.com/s2mL3bM.png
Disclaimer: This is two years old and I have not tried to implement it myself. Looks entirely plausible though.
How big is it? Is there like just a few sites or a few hundred?
According to the search engine linked above, there are 2420 domains and 1,854,666 individual pages as of yesterday. This is about comparable to the World Wide Web at the same time 1994, a number that grew to 10,000 by the end of that year; I wouldn’t expect the same explosive growth from Gemini - the field has already been plowed, after all. Gemini Space is small, but not a ghost town.
This is fascinating and I’ll have to take a look. I wonder where all the people creating this are hanging out as I’d love to get involved.
Appreciate all the detail and the extra mile of providing the screenshot!
Have some Lemmy gold: 🥇
This sounds cool, but the name is unfortunate due to Google’s gemini
Not the project’s fault, given that it came out four years earlier.
then the Gemini project, both the OS one and the NASA one.
And the star system and sign. Naming projects after very common words (or even worse, just letters or numbers) is really stupid as it makes searching for them or discussing them difficult and context sensitive and prone to fail.
To be fair I thought from the start that the world wide web was a pretty stupid name but it did okay.
Rfc 1178 is leaking.
Yes! I use the Buran app (open source on Android) to browse it. :)
What are your favorite sites?
Ascii porn
I honestly don’t really use it, but I am excited about it in the future. :)
I installed it because of OSNews, my favorite tech news website. But the Gemini page seems to be down?
https://www.osnews.com/story/136770/osnews-launches-gemini-capsule/
Thank you so much for sharing this. I literally cannot stand the modern net. I’ve made it a point to curate personal websites. Found a bunch of cool ones on the lainchan web ring. Will check out Gemini
If you have any Lain/Lain-adjacent content feel free to post it over at !lain@sh.itjust.works
It’s cool and all, but this feels more like a toy than a tool. I can make dead simple web site in minutes with current stack. Nothing, but plain static pages.
Heck, if I looked for it, I bet I could set up markdown to HTML converter as this is already a widely used functionality throughout the web.
Sounds a bit like Gopher.
Couldn’t they just use No JavaScript and get the same approach? Or no JavaScript and no CSS?
I am 100% down for that approach. We even have options now so the entire web doesn’t have to be a fucking Table element.
Why do we need a whole new standard? That’s never a good approach
That would be doable, but in my opinion markdown is far easier to understand than HTML.
They were teaching HTML in Primary Schools and then again in Middle Schools. I have a hard time believing it’s easier.
It’s not even standard Markdown. Because again - why use a standard when I can make my own???
Admittedly I’ve only just found out about this today, but my understanding is that it’s meant to be going back to basics since modern web design is so far removed from the original intentions of HTML.
I’m probably too young for that- I didn’t learn HTML in school, all the programming curriculum was in Scratch or Microsoft Makecode, and I assume it still is.
This comment thread is making me feel old!
Logo is the way.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, this is really fascinating and just my kind of thing.
I’d love to host my personal site over Gemini but that site doesn’t have any details about self-hosting. Guess I’ve got to research it in more detail. Do you have any recommendations? Should I just write my own server? 🤔
That’s like html when it started out. The idea was that the user got to choose what all pages would look like. That gave way to the author having total control.
Ferrero (the company that owns Kinder, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher) controlled one quarter of the global production of hazelnuts in 2014.
(Edited to remove some unintentionally deceptive language)
That’s way too much for one company. Is it just me or does the world just keep making more and more monopolies?
That’s how capitalism works.
It’s just deceivingly worded. It’s not like they took that much out of the total supply, taking away from others that would have needed it. Reality is that hazelnut farmers were farming them in order to sell them to Ferrero.
I guess that makes somewhat sense. But it still gives Ferrero too big of an influence on the price of hazelnuts I would guess
Or we just don’t actually have that many hazelnuts. Or Ferrero just makes some really yummy stuff and hence it’s bought in insane amounts.
If its such a lucrative business for Ferrero, how come there aren’t competitors enough to make it so they can’t hog 25%?
80% goes to the EU confectionery industry, according to what I could quickly Google. So 65% go to Ferrero like companies that aren’t Ferrero.
80% - 25% = 55%
This is me, math genius. 😒
American candy manufacturing mostly uses peanuts and/or almonds instead, so they compete but not for filberts/hazelnuts.
I will also contend that they’re not that good a nut on their own, they need chocolate to achieve their true destiny.
I have to downvote you on the hazelnuts not being very good. They’re one of my favorite nuts, and they look cool!
To me they look like chickpeas wearing windbreakers, and I prefer pecans. But you are welcome to your own preferences, enjoy! I do think hazelnuts are the very best nut with chocolate, even over pecans.
Major sporting events are a popular time for men to schedule a vasectomy because they’re advised to take it easy for two to three days after the procedure. For most men, this means sitting on the couch in front of their television, and sporting events offer them something to watch while resting.
https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/why-more-men-get-vasectomies-during-march-madnessI find it hard to believe young guys still plan any aspects of their lives around watching sports events.
Not everyone lives in a busling city with lots to do. For some, sport is one of not many outlets, so it becomes almost like a religion
Ummm… as someone who lives in Philadelphia, I can inform you that young men who live in and around this bustling city have adopted sports as their primary religion.
Fair enough. I some times am jealous of people who like following sports. Hanging in a bar watching the sports game and getting drunk sounds fun. I just don’t find it fun.
You can hang, drink tea and knit if that’s what you like. But it is easy to understand why people get tribal for their sport’s favorite team.
I don’t know about bars for it, but I do know people who have shows they watch together with a large group of friends, and alcohol can easily be involved there. Works especially well for trash reality TV. The people I first learnt about this practice from watch the Bachelor.
I think Netflix killed this one
NSA spends $250 million per year to insert backdoors in software and hardware
Sources:
I thought your post said NASA at first, and I was really skeptical.
They install backdoors on their spaceships though :p
Would be highly tragic if the astronauts only had a single exit.Just get Boeing to make the spaceships then
You are not alone.
Traffic (the book) says most Americans merge into traffic wrong when lanes reduce (from say 3 lanes to 2 lanes for example.)
The right way is waiting until you are at the very end of the lane that’s reducing. When that happens up to 60% more cars per hour get through the bottle neck in heavy traffic and accidents resulting in killed or serious injury are reduced by up to 80%.
Bottom line having multiple entry points in a queue with multiple slow down points due to the multiple entry points is the cause of the reduced performance with the way most Americans do it.
But, if I merge as soon as there’s space for me I don’t have to stress and panic about not having room to get into the other lane or keep driving forward. What do you do if you get to the end of the lane and people aren’t letting you in?
The studies were done on highly congested areas. So there wouldn’t be an easy way to fit in like I imagine you mean. If it’s not congested then I bet it doesn’t matter.
As for people not letting you in the study didn’t say but I’ve not found that to be the case. People realize you are at the end of the road and just let you in overall. Not that I’ve driven everywhere mind you or that a sample size of whatever my experiences are is statistically significant. If it doesn’t freak you out too much maybe give it a shot?
People realize you are at the end of the road and just let you in overall.
Come to NewJersey. It’s hit-and-miss, moreso if you duck.
🤣
let yourself in
And you tell other Americans this and they think you’re rude. “No, you need to merge as soon as you can, that’s rude to drive all the way to the end!”
If traffic is free flowing and an opportunity presents itself then it’s still better to merge earlier.
- That’s not the discussion.
- Why/How is it better? If traffic is flowing and there is space to be literally NOT disruptive to flow, then it doesn’t make a difference where you merge.
I’ll bet though that when you merge, it is actually slightly disrupting flow as the person behind backs off, and then everyone else slightly adjusts. Now multiply this by more cars merging wherever they damn well feel like? If traffic is flowing and enough gaps exist so nobody has to adjust at all, then the merging literally doesn’t matter and it’s not the same argument.
Because as the lane is ending, the entire distance from wherever you are to wherever the lane ends is an opportunity to merge without disturbing other traffic. When the lane ends, that moment is now forced, leading to a higher likelihood of the driver(s) behind having to brake more abruptly and/or to an even lower speed.
Both drivers knew the merge end was coming. Unless they’re morons. People are morons. That’s why this is an argument.
Exactly… Now I’m armed with some data. I look forward to the next interaction.
Does the book mention that the Zipper merge is inherently flawed as it relies on drivers to be far more cooperative than they are?
Yeah. So, like communism, the entire theory breaks down when humans are actually involved.
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issue is less about humans and more about americans, specifically
Yes
Sadly, there are many places in Canada with the same problem. I blame Americans for that, too.
They mostly solved for that with our HOV lanes in Colorado. Some places you can’t enter or exit, some places you can enter but not exit, and others you can exit but not enter. Also merging with slow lanes instead of fast lanes. And all monitored by the people who charge for HOV lanes. Adherence looks to be pretty good overall.
Not riding peoples ass and leaving room would make it smoother too.
Agreed! Though the book says multiple studies find people who leave 2 seconds or more are more likely to rear end someone. While the studies didn’t identify why it was hypothesized people who most often leave 2 seconds practice distracted driving. I know the last time I was rear ended my rear dash cam clearly showed he has 200+ feet and didn’t look up from his phone until right before he hit me.
At driver school we were taught to leave 3-4 seconds of space and not to look at our fucking toys while we drive.
It’s a winning combo. Add in some convictions with loads of embarrassing community service and we change the world a dickhead at a time.
It could also be that the impatient people on the road keep cutting them off, leaving them with less than two seconds between them and an ignorant driver who you will have to prove cut you off or you’re at fault for the accident. Of course, that doesn’t happen if there’s no space in front of you for someone to cut in. So there’s my hypothesis.
That’s a fair point, when driving my wife’s EV it has the fancy cruise control that leaves a good sized gap and people are always taking advantage of that.
Thats probably more of a correlation though. Like, the drivers that leave that much space are probably doing so only because they know they arent paying attention. If they were paying attention, a 2s distance would be safer.
Probably
I got into a debate about this with about four people a number of years ago. I was unable to convince them that merging at the merge point was more efficient. We all looked at each other like *wtf is wrong with your brain, how do you not understand this? * It’s one of those things that so obvious to me but I don’t know why - it’s just the definition of ‘chaos v. efficiency’ in my head.
But if we look at the bottle neck point - the point where traffic must be 1 lane - as long as that is moving at the same rate what is the difference if cars merge sooner or later? We’re still getting the same number of cars per minute through the 1 lane section of road.
If there is an alternate turnoff that is being blocked by the traffic then yes I can see it. Otherwise I don’t see how it makes any difference.
The people who drive up the shoulder around everyone and then cut in past the end are the real problem.
people
It’s okay to say BMW drivers.
But this is how the Zipper dies, every fucking time.
I mean they aren’t increasing the KSI rate, so I disagree with that position. They may be assholes, or maybe they have a loved one dying in the hospital and are trying to get there before they die?
Nah, they just think their time is more valuable then everyone else’s. It’s the same people who, when a road divides, cruise up the less popular side and then cut across solid lines to get into the more popular side just before the end.
Edit to add - my son’s way of not getting frustrated with those people is to assume that they’re rushing home to poop.
If you wait until the very end, there is no guarantee that someone will let you in.
See how deeply entrenched scarcity mentality is in every aspect of our lives.
Is there an illustration of how American’s merge? Or how the roads are designed for this?
I read this wrong… Let me see if I can find one.
This gives you an idea. Nothing special about the lane, it’s like a lane anywhere else. We just overall merge early and at random distances causing chaos.
The pictures are correct, but they don’t show how traffic can back up for miles before the merge point with everybody sitting in just one lane, and some guy who has taken it upon himself to police everyone else’s “manners” swerving to block anyone who dares to the the open lane and “cut in line.”
I try to be a patient and understanding person, and I hope that person stubs their toe, and right as it’s about to heal they stub it again, and on and on until death.
I think there’s an assumption in the illustrations.
The merge point can be singular, but not at the very last moment. If the giant flashing light sign that is visible long before the cutoff was considered the merge point, all of the benefits of the premise still hold.
In addition, in the real world the unused lane space is a buffer zone to help the merge to happen without completely stopping, reducing overall traffic.
Where both concepts fall apart is with the “me first” people that use the space to get ahead and cut in, forcing everybody to hit brakes and creates more traffic as nobody is moving, prompting more “me first” to not want to wait and cut in at the end.
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That’s interesting.
Ahh okay. Thanks for sharing
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Zip merging isn’t it?
I didn’t know that term until this post
I can see this being accurate. I’ve seen it where cars are jammed up before the road narrows and free flowing by the time the road actually narrows. The largest road block (pun intended) to this that I see is driver competency, and people letting them in.
I always hear this statistic on how proper zipper merging increases traffic flow rate over no strategy at all, and I simply do not understand how it helps.
They keep pointing to how much of the upstream second lane is “wasted”. But like, from a strict perspective of flow rate, is it really?
The bottleneck restricting flow is the reduced speed single lane. Put a vehicle counter on it. Assuming no one wastes time getting through whatever funnel point there is, this flow is consistent. The same number of cars passing at the same speed are getting through regardless of whether the zipper point was a few cars back or ten kilometers back. Unless I can hear an explanation on how zipper merging changes this I remain unconvinced.
Zipper merging still has unquestionable advantages that are obvious to glean, of course.
Putting the merge point as close to the blockage as possible minimizes the time spent in the shared lane. Flow is the same, but the overall time spent in the jam is averaged over all drivers.
That “wasted lane” does not, as far as I can tell, improve flow. But it does improve storage. If cars are piling up at the choke point, utilizing the full extra lane keeps the pilup from backing up as far down the road, reducing potential domino effects through the road system.
Zipper merging is fairer to all vehicles by promoting a FIFO processing order. No one in the closed lane gets screwed, everyone gets through in roughly the order they showed up.
It has lots of advantages, and is clearly the winner, but I fail to see how increased flow is one of them.
Of course, I’m making a lot of assumptions about perfect behavior of drivers, while this statistic is supposedly real-world empirical data. That suggests there are significant inefficiencies in real-world human driving, and that the zipper merge addresses them somehow. But I can’t fathom what those are or why zipper merging is relevant to them.
Australia has the largest feral camel population.
Interesting fact, but what came to mind for me was camels, dumpster diving like raccoons, running away when the driveway light turns on.
They are chill when you drive past them.
They can be a hazard for vehicles if in an accident, because of their size. Think moose size.
The main feralness is that they can smell water, and will head to water-mills to get a drink. They destroy water tanks and pipes to get access. Can’t blame them, the outback is hot.
Also can outgraze native animals for grasses and shrubs.
Water-mills look like this:
A rat, a cat, a dog, a person, a human, a horse and an elephant all piss with a full bladder,
Who finishes first?
Weirdly enough, according to science, it’s the same time for every mammal to urinate (except really small ones like mice because liquid dynamics starts behaving differently, surface tension etc).
https://www.theverge.com/2013/10/19/4855076/the-law-of-urination-mammals-take-21-seconds-to-pee
A person and a human? So if a legal person like a company pisses it still takes the same time, neat
Oh lol.
I woke up like 3min before writing that, hahahaha
Good catch
But I would contend that I know quite s few human who I wouldn’t necessarily call people and quite a a few non-people I definitely consider worthy of personhood
It’s not listed but the Cicada wins. By a lot.
Butterflies even more. They don’t piss, they mist.
Cicadas are a) mice-size or smaller and b) not mammals.
Thanks for the info tho
Both true but it is a weird fact
Cicada piss-jets were interesting, yes, thank you
This is my go-to too! It was especially great when I did it at the bar I used to work at lol.
This is very dubious. I tried recreating this experiment with my dogs over months and found them to pee anywhere from 7 seconds to almost a full minute. Is there another detail I’m missing here?
7 seconds means they didnt have a full bladder. A minute means they stopped somewhere in between or you didnt count correctly.
When is a bladder really full though? Can it not expand to some degree if it’s really full?
I mean, it’s ofc talking about averages.
My pisses vary in length greatly as well, but if you take the average, it’ll be the same average as your dogs, roughly.
Earlier today I learned the voice of Shredder from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon was Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince. I never knew.
I knew. Then I forgot. Now I know again.
Sounds like a text book case of remembering. There’s a great tragically hip line that goes “it would seem to me, I remember every single fucking thing I know!”
But do you know what I remember? Checkmate non-believers!
runs away
Yep! Though he didn’t do all the episodes. They had a few stand ins too
For the longest time I told people the peppy tgif waiter from Office Space was the voice of Michelangelo. Then I looked it up… its not true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTeUAHNMpeA
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=OTeUAHNMpeA
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Hummingbirds eat mosquitoes.
Good on them
One of my favorite moments from last summer was sitting on my back patio watching a hummingbird flying circles around my back yard in the dying light of sunset, gobbling up insects with every lap. Adorable.
They also repeatedly killed wasps that were attracted to the sugar water from the feeder I set up for them, that was pretty fun to see
The word “asteroid” literally means “star-like”, because when they were first observed, no telescope could see enough detail to know what they were, so they were basically just called “those things that look a bit like stars”.
Even when eventually we figured out what they were, they were generally considered to all be spherical like tiny planets (see: The Little Prince) until the 1970s when one of the Mars probes flew close enough to have a look at one.
It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Nah, pretty sure a microscope or telescope will not only do the job, they would be even better.
Did you know the infinity sign is called a lemniscate?
That sounds like a setup to a deez nuts joke.
Can I shorten that and just call it a lemmy?
I know it as an ouroboros
Isn’t an ouroboros a snake in a circle biting it’s tail?
I believe that’s an Auryn!
AURYN is a mystical Ouroboros talisman in The Neverending Story
That was joke
Edit: “Joke”
They also kidnap baby seals and rape them to death, but cutely.
that’s otterly horrifying
That’s otterly adorable.
They also often have a favorite stone and a pocket to keep it.
Reagan made it legal to use cartoons to sell toys by deregulating marketing to children, according to the recent Wizard and the Bruiser episode
There’s only one thing cartoons should be selling.
Christ, what an asshole. 😤
Oh god.
Flintstones wasn’t originally meant for children, but for adults, that’s why there are cigarette commercials with these characters.
Winstons.
EDIT: Holy shit I was just joking because I watched that 37 hour long Quinton video where Winston sponsors were a running joke throughout, but no it actually was.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
So Bronies owe some thanks to Ronald Reagan
That would explain the nazi undertones.
Link to that episode? Haven’t heard of that podcast/series/video and sounds like something interesting to listen to during a commute or another.
That also explains a lot about the 80s sudden avalanche of cartoons that were just 30 minute long commercials for toys.
[Wizard and the Bruiser] SNORKs w/ Henry Zebrowski 🅴 #wizardAndTheBruiser https://podcastaddict.com/wizard-and-the-bruiser/episode/174210305 via @PodcastAddict
Watching historical stuff on youtube (I download and watch during my commute), today I learned how the Portuguese managed to get a very firm hold on the western coast of India in the early 1500s. The TLDR version is that they managed to get the cities that were vassals of Calicut under their wing, and even managed to fight off a massive siege the raja of Calicut sent to destroy their small garrison at Kochin in 1504: a 50k strong force was beaten by a garrison of 90 Portuguese soldiers + ~200 local Nayar warriors + 3 Portuguese ships (1 carrack and 2 caravels).
Before it got to that part, I also learned that Vasco da Gama, who led the initial demands on Calicut, was a short tempered psycopath and violent maniac hell bent on teaching “those muslims” a lesson.
Which videos did you watch?
Flash Point History - The bit on Kochin was in the last 2 or 3 videos about Duarte Pereira, I watched via the compiled stuff “Forging an Empire - The Portuguese Empire - Part 2 Commerce”
I’m not exactly fond of the excessive use of AI generated images, especially when the host could’ve used more historical pieces from wikipedia, but the overall structure of the video is really good.
Thank you!
I have to say though, the AI imagery is off-putting as an idea alone, because what else from the video is AI-generated? Text and perhaps even voice as well? I’ve seen this before, entirely artificial videos with absurd mistakes as part of the content or even entirely nonsensical content.
I share that sentiment. I can understand using some AI to give more visual candy so people have more help their imagination as to what things might have looked like. AFAIK, however, all the map and “token movement” (moving the portraits, ships, etc) can’t be done by AI, so there’s plenty of human meddling in the creation of the video.
A somewhat related channel that might interest you then is SAMA - Study of Antiquity and Middle Ages. Seems to be more focused on archaelogical findings than written history, the video on Sunken Sciences taught me a lot about stuff found in now submerged coastlines, as well as the Yonaguni Monument (with a nice tangent on why some people insist in conspiracy theories about “lost continents”)
A more directly related channel is Kings and Generals, it goes into good details of historical conflicts and battles. Seems to use the same graphic pack/map software as Flash Point
Fall of Civilizations podcast also releases big videos sometime after the podcast proper, and it’s always amazing.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
SAMA - Study of Antiquity and Middle Ages
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Before it got to that part, I also learned that Vasco da Gama, who led the initial demands on Calicut, was a short tempered psycopath and violent maniac hell bent on teaching “those muslims” a lesson.
Kicked out of his command because instead of establishing a trading post in Calicut he bombarded the city for two days when they refused to expel their Muslim population.
All mammals with a full bladder pee for precisely 21 seconds. Legit universal rule.
I tried recreating that experiment with my dogs over several months and can confidently say they pee anywhere from 7 seconds to almost a minute.
A study showing that nearly all mammals take the same amount of time to urinate […]
Just go to a dog park and observe them. You’ll be able to see for yourself. Hell, you might be able to search YouTube for videos of dogs, or any other mammals for that matter, pissing.
You know you’re also a mammal with a bladder, right?
Not Hank Hill and his narry urethra
