I haven’t posted any survival videos in a bit, so when I ran across these, I thought they’d be good fodder. They give a slightly different perspective. Also, while this runs about an hour in total, it’s broken up into handy 15 minute chunks.
“SAS Escape, Evasion, Survival” with Barry Davies.
Bonus, slightly longer, video, which you would not see on television today. Or any time after about 1965, I’d guess.
A 1950s episode of “Bold Journey” featuring the editor of True magazine, Douglas Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy goes to Africa…to hunt rhino.
This is within a few years of Ruark’s Horn of the Hunter: that was published in 1953, so I think (but can’t confirm) that Ruark’s safari was 1951 or 1952. According to the YouTube notes, this aired in the third season of “Bold Journey” which ran from 1956-1959.
Bonus #2: as a hattip to ASM826, I thought I’d post this one: “YOJIMBO & A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS – How The Western Was Changed Forever”.
Some people may be surprised by this, but: I like poetry.
I know, maybe I should turn in my man card. But I’m weird about the poetry I like. I find much of T. S. Eliot incomprehensible, but his imagery! Rod Dreher wrote a while back about the Australian poet Les Murray, and I want to read more of his work. Someone gave me a coffee mug with a quote from James Merrill’s “The Black Swan” on it and now I want to read more Merrill.
And Penny Arcade introduced me to “i sing of Olaf glad and big” which I find comforting from time to time.
I believe there are two poets you don’t have to turn in your man card to like.
One is Kipling.
Charles Dance reads “The Road to Mandalay” during a 70th anniversary of VJ Day commemoration in London.
“The Power of the Dog”.
The other poet you don’t have to turn in your man card for? Robinson Jeffers. I think even TJIC would concede this point: you have to like a poet who apprenticed himself out so that he could learn stonemasonry, then used that skill to keep adding on to Tor House for the rest of his life.
A couple of food videos on the shorter side today.
First off: an explanation of grog, and the importance of rum.
Bonus: how to make garum. First off, you leave a barrel of fish with some salt added out in the sun for two months…okay, not in this case, but that was basically the traditional Roman method.
Bonus #2: James May on the subject of Spam versus ham.
I thought I’d try some things that are lighter and shorter today.
First up: “See A Job”. Actually, I have the impression that “See A Job” is the title of this whole series of educational films, and the actual title of this one is: “The Airline Stewardess: What’s A Nice Girl Like You Doing Way Up Here When The Ground’s Way Down There?”, “the story of Elaine Vaughn, an African-American Pan Am airline stewardess.”
That was from the 1960s. Bonus: “Airline Glamor Girls”, stewardess training from the late 1940s.
More bonus, and in the interest of equal time: TWA explains their “Inflight Services Personnel Selection Process” as of 1979.
Another really short bonus. “Top Gear” enthusiasts may have seen this one, but I had not previously: Clarkson’s custom drink cabinet for the trunk of his car.
I just find that very cool. One more, but still on the short side: “A Roman Solider Prepares Dinner”.
Today, a compilation of shorter videos for once. First up: yes, it is a TED talk. But it is also James Randi. As I’ve said previously, I consider debunking pseudoscience (including “psychic” frauds) to be legitimately science.
Bonus #2: from the MIT Science Reporter, “Underwater Photography”. I picked this one because it features another one of my heroes, Harold “Doc” Edgerton.
I know I’ve been running long all week. I apologize for that: next week, I’m hoping I can keep things a little shorter. Also a confession: I’ve watched the second two videos, but I’m only about 50 minutes into the first one.
Since today is Saturday, and since this video sits at the intersection of two of this blog’s obsessions interests, here you go: “Hadrian’s World: Leadership Lessons from a Roman Emperor”. You know, Hadrian? The wall guy?
Bonus: We haven’t spent enough time in the UKOGBNI recently, so let us remedy that. “How To Make A Royal Marines Officer”.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Richard Van der Horst. More from the Telegram. I know this seems out of context, but it will make more sense if you watch all the way through to the graduation ceremony in part 2.
Here’s something a little different: “To Catch a Dream”, a visit to Spain by way of Iberia Airlines. I could go for Spain right now. Sherry! Tapas!
Iberia merged with British Airways in 2010, according to Wikipedia, but both airlines still operate under their own names.
Bonus video, for two reasons: in keeping with the Spanish theme, “Morocco to Madrid by train & ferry”.
The other reason is that I like The Man In Seat 61. One of these days, if I can ever get the time and money together, I want to ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and his site has a lot of useful information on doing that (as well as other train travel).
I understand if you don’t want to watch all 46 minutes of this. Not everybody is that interested in the Falklands War. But at least listen to the first 45 seconds or so: is that literally the most 1980s music you’ve ever heard?
Bonus video: if you’re interested, part 2: “Towards Stanley”.
I know these are long, and I apologize, but I think they are worthwhile.
First of all: this is a talk at Stanford University from 2011 by Dame Mary Beard: “Mistaken Identities: How to Identify a Roman Emperor”, in which she talks about various busts and statues, and why the identification of them with Romans like Julius Caesar probably isn’t true.
(You could probably fast forward to about the 7:00 mark if you want to skip the excessively long introduction.)
Bonus video: “The Accidental Suicide of the Roman Empire” by Michael Kulikowski. I have another reason for posting this: while Dr. Kulikowski is currently at Penn State, he gave this lecture in 2012 at Washington and Lee University, where he was formerly a professor of history. So this is basically bait for the Washington and Lee contingent out there.
Bonus #2: Dame Beard again, at the 92nd Street Y from 2015, talking about SPQR: The History of Rome.
Point of etiquette: if someone is both a PhD and an OBE, does the OBE title (Dame or Knight) take precedence over the “Dr.”? I would assume that it does, since I believe it is a lot harder to become an OBE than a PhD, but I’d like to establish that for certain.
Bonus video: I could sit here every Sunday and post videos of Richard Feynman from YouTube until the end of time. But I’m going to try to avoid doing that.
This one interests me, though: Feynman responds to the question “Do you think there will ever be a machine that will think like human beings and be more intelligent than human beings?”
I like that statement: “Intelligence is to be defined.”
One more. I’m going to assert something here: pseudoscience is science. At least, when you’re debunking it.