Month: May 2026

I admit to being an avid YouTube watcher. While I find lots of interesting, amusing, and educational videos on the site I do have my favorites. I recommend that you try them out.

Sampson Boat Co

These videos follow Leo Goolden as he rebuilds the pilot cutter, TALLY HO, from the rotting keel up into an ocean-going wooden sailboat, with the intention of partaking in the world famous Fastnet yacht race in 2027, 100 years after TALLY HO won the race in 1927. When he purchased the boat in 2017 for $1, she was a rotten hulk, but over the next 7 years, with the help of a lot of amazing people, he rebuilt TALLY HO from the keel up – documenting and funding the process through his YouTube videos. TALLY HO is now sea worthy and the adventure continues with a huge voyage ahead of her as she is sailed from the state Washington, where she was rebuilt, through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic Ocean to England to qualify and partake in the Fastnet.

CruisingTheCut

David Johns quit his job in 2015, sold his house and went to live on a narrowboat. Initially he produced videos of his travels, he now documents various aspects of canal life. David takes you on a grand tour of the British canal network in his narrowboat, a specialized canal boat found in England. He has recorded almost 400 videos of his adventures. See the English countryside close up while experiencing the life aboard a canal boat and meet lots of people along the way.

2vintage

This channel is all about having fun. Joe Weber and his brother Charlie go on some crazy road trips where they pick up unique and rare motor bikes, quads, go karts, snowmobiles, etc. repair and rebuild them and test them out. Joe usually buys these machines in a non-running condition then displays his expertise in diagnosing why the machines don’t work. He then repairs and rebuilds them into running condition and either adds them to his collection or sells them at a profit.

Cutting Edge Engineering Australia

CEE is a machining, welding & hydraulic repair workshop based near Brisbane, Australia. Kurtis & Karen run the business with Kurtis doing the welding, machining and fabrication and Karen producing the videos. CEE specializes in helping business in mining and earthmoving to keep their machines running smoothly. Kurtis loves working on broken parts and the bigger the better. They upload new videos every week showcasing machining, welding, line boring, honing and all the other awesome stuff that goes down in their workshop. Learn how they tackle different projects and see the satisfaction of creating something useful. You will be amazed at how one man can repair and replace large broken parts for complex machines in some very clever ways.

The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum

The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum opened to the public on Saturday the 6th of September 2014. The museum is privately owned and is the largest museum of its kind in the southern hemisphere. They are in a suburb of Cairns, North Queensland, Australia. They are dedicated to the collection, preservation, restoration and display of Armored Vehicles and Artillery from the 1800’s to the present day, including exhibits from the USA, UK and USSR. The collection includes armored vehicles and artillery from both world wars with a particular focus on WWII. Currently the collection consists of over 200 armored vehicles and artillery pieces, many of which will not be found anywhere else in Australia. They are constantly on the lookout for additional pieces of equipment that will make the museum a richer experience for those visiting. They produce a video every week entitled, Workshop Wednesday, where they show current activities in their restoration workshops.

Midlife Stockman

Sean Stockman had a bit of a midlife crisis when he decided to devote some of his time to helping his community in a unique way. He searches around the poorer neighborhoods of Detroit to find homes of the less fortunate that badly need a landscaping makeover. After seeking permission from the home’s resident, he cleans up the landscaping, cutting the grass, edging and trimming the trees and shrubbery, all for free. His activities and those who support them form a community of help that believes that they can do more by working together. As you watch his videos you will see the needs of real people, and how cleaning up their yard and cutting their lawn can greatly improve their condition.

Sabine Hossenfelder

Sabine Hossenfelder has a PhD in physics, and is now semi-retired from the elementary particle field. She is author of the books “Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray” (Basic Books, 2018) and “Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions” (Viking, 2022).

She provides as simple as possible, but not any simpler Science and technology updates and summaries. No hype, no spin, no tip-toeing around inconvenient truths. She presents explanations of new and old topics in physics with a gifted ability to explain them clearly and concisely. You will find explanations of some of the most basic questions about the nature of reality in these videos. Currently 5 videos a week are produced (Tue-Wed-Thu and Sat-Sun), with early access for channel members.

Mind of Feynman

This is a series of talks on modern science narrated by an AI reproduction of Richard Feynman, in my opinion the best physicist born and raised in the USA in the 20^th century. While the use of an AI narrator is distracting the content is well worth the visit. You will find answers to many of the questions that you might have about the universe and the nature of reality.

Mind of Feynman is a tribute channel dedicated to the teaching spirit, curiosity, and legendary clarity of Richard Feynman. This channel is not officially affiliated with Richard Feynman, his family, or his estate. The goal is to introduce a new generation to his way of thinking — the joy of asking questions, breaking down complex ideas, and seeing the world with curiosity and wonder. The voice you hear is an AI-generated recreation inspired by Feynman’s speaking style, created purely for education, inspiration, and storytelling. It is not original archival audio, and no impersonation is intended — only deep respect for one of the greatest scientific communicators in history. We create content to make physics, critical thinking, and curiosity accessible to everyone — whether you’re a student, or someone who just loves big ideas explained simply.

 

 

I have lived in the United States of America for almost half my life, immigrating here from The United Kingdom and becoming a US citizen. During my time here I have noticed a number of changes since my arrival, not least the not so gradual change from political thinking based in reason to an age of politics more based on emotional thinking.

The Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, was a notable era in world history that heavily influenced modern philosophy and government. It was a 17th–19th century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, and individualism, promoting rational thought and skepticism over tradition. Its core philosophy focused on replacing superstition with science and skepticism. Its key thinkers include John Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Thomas Paine, and Jefferson who advocated for liberty, constitutional government, and the separation of church and state.

The Age of Reason, or Enlightenment, generally ended in the late 18th century, with most historians citing the French Revolution or the start of the Napoleonic Wars as its conclusion. The movement gave way to Romanticism, which emphasized emotion, nationalism, and individual experience over the empiricism and strict rationality of the Enlightenment.

The difference between logical thinking and emotional thinking are that logical thinking is an objective, slow, and analytical process focused on facts, data, and long-term consequences, whereas emotional thinking is a subjective, rapid, and reactive process rooted in personal feelings, values, and immediate survival needs. Balancing both, often called “wise mind,” is ideal because logic offers structure while emotions provide insight into care and motivation. Sadly, I detect that this balance is rapidly fading from American politics.

Emotional thinking, or emotional reasoning, causes individuals to treat feelings as facts, leading to distorted perceptions of reality, flawed decision-making, and increased anxiety. By relying on emotions rather than objective evidence, people often experience negative thought cycles, strained relationships, and reduced workplace performance.

There are significant consequences of emotional thinking including a distorted reality where feelings are interpreted as truth; Impulsive decision making based on a temporary emotional state; a worsening of anxiety, depression and low self-worth; misinterpreting the actions of others because of personal emotional states causing conflict and resentment.

Emotional thinking in American politics, driven by anger, anxiety, and moral conviction, has created a deeply polarized environment, accelerating affective polarization where opposing sides are viewed as immoral or threats. This emotional surge increases civic engagement, such as voting and volunteering, but also fosters the spread of misinformation, the normalization of political violence, and severe declines in mental health.

Citizens increasingly view opposing parties not merely as wrong, but as immoral, unintelligent, and a direct threat to the country, leading to increased hostility. This can cause people to more likely to accept and share misinformation that aligns with their partisan identities. In addition, emotional distress, coupled with conspiratorial thinking, is linked to a higher tolerance for political violence and a willingness to reject democratic norms.

While often viewed negatively, scholars note that emotions like passion, hope, and empathy are also vital for driving political participation and democratic engagement, not just hostility. However, the current political landscape is heavily dominated by affective polarization, where the emotional distance between groups is rising

The consequence of these changes over the years is that many don’t want to be confused by facts and data that contradict their internal feelings. They are chained to their beliefs and do not wish to be deviated from them regardless of objective reality. There’s also a great amount of political lying occurring to both support and challenge those beliefs. It’s becoming more and more difficult to winnow out the objective truth from a barrage of falsehood. While I stubbornly cling to my search for empirically supported objective truth in a sea of lies, other grab the nearest ‘fact’ that fits their worldview to run with. I long for the America that was and weep for the country it has become and is becoming.

Further reading:

1. Age of reason – Wikipedia
2. The End of the Age of Reason? – The Globalist
3. How emotions affect logical reasoning: evidence from experiments with mood-manipulated participants, spider phobics, and people with exam anxiety – PMC
4. Emotional Reasoning and Psychopathology – PMC
5. The Pros and Cons of Emotive Politics – Braver Angels
6. Everything You Need To Know About Emotional Reasoning | REBOOT FOUNDATION

About a year ago I got tired of being called obese. I got tired of my doctor’s short intake of breath when he checked by BMI number and my blood glucose level. I would claim to have gotten tired of the TV talking heads and their self-superiority when discussing obesity, but I got tiered of them long since for their hypocrisy and their certitude about subjects they can barely spell far less understand, but I digress. Suffice it to say I took on a scunner[1] about the subject.

A little background on my previous eating habits. My father was a POW during WWII for almost five years from June 1940 until May 1945. He was held in a POW camp in Poland. Most of the time they had little to eat. From late 1944 through 1945 until their liberation the POWs had almost nothing to eat. It will therefore be no surprise that I was brought up in a clear your plate household, just like many Americans whose parents endured the Great Depression. That’s where I developed my eating habit of finishing all that was put in front of me.

A large minority of our population have lots to say about obesity and have little reserve about sharing their opinions, especially with folks who are a pounds over a fashionable weight. These ectomorphs[2] are critical of those of us who are efficient consumers of calories, that sometimes causes us to be obese. It turns out that obesity is a chronic, complex disease defined by excessive body fat, typically diagnosed with a BMI of 30 or higher. It is caused by an energy imbalance from high-calorie diets, sedentary lifestyles, genetics, and metabolic conditions, often resulting in severe health risks like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Treatment often involves lifestyle changes, medication, or surgery.

I do admit to a sedentary lifestyle. Since I despise those who spends their waking hours in the gym, building a body image concomitant with their aspirational vision of who they should be, losing weight through exercise didn’t appeal to me. By comparison with the gym rats, I just live my life, spending my free time reading books about scientific topics and world history, and occasional brain candy, RC sailboat racing, and riding my E-bike, not activities that take me to the gym. However, in recent times our pharmaceutical industries have developed medications for weight reduction, the so-called Fat Shots.

The Fat Shot consists of a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist that is highly effective and is an FDA-approved medications for type 2 diabetes and for chronic weight management. By mimicking a natural hormone, these medications reduce appetite, slow gastric emptying, and improve insulin secretion, leading to significant weight loss and lowered blood sugar. Sounded good to me so I arranged with my doctor to get the Fat Shot.

I won’t tell you which one I chose to use other than it is a name you would probably recognize, but not the two best known ones. It comes in a self-injection gadget that you stab yourself with in a fatter part of your anatomy. It doesn’t hurt and is over in a second. You start at a low dose with an injection once per week, and the dose is increased by month depending on your reaction to the medication.

While it reduces food cravings and does aid weight loss, it does have side effects. The most common adverse effects listed are gastrointestinal, including nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and constipation. They do not mention digestive gas, both upward and downward. I was most affected by diarrhea and gas, lots of gas, enough to cause a measurable increase in global warming.

The positive side is that my blood glucose fell from the mid 130’s to less than 90, and my weight has so far fallen from a high of 215lbs, a BMI of 35, to 170lbs, a BMI of 26, all in about six months. I certainly feel better and fitter and have more energy to do stuff. I am about to end my shots and will record any rebound, which I hope to avoid. I’ll be sure to post an update of how I get on.

[1]  Scunner – a Scottish word meaning a strong, deep-seated dislike, aversion, or a person/thing causing disgust.

[2] Ectomorphs — An ectomorph is a body type characterized by a naturally lean, slender frame, fast metabolism, and difficulty gaining weight or muscle. Known as “hardgainers,” they typically have narrow shoulders/hips and low body fat. They thrive on high-calorie, nutrient-dense diets and resistance training to build mass.