5 ms·

I like Big Clive (and Electroboom) because they know how to be safe, but do the stupid thing anyways (safely) to show how bad the ideas are.

kzrdude 4y ago
I can't watch Electroboom because he always gives himself shocks in every video. Don't care that they are small or it's set up, I can't stand watching it, makes me ill. Seems to be interesting stories he's telling otherwise though, so it's a shame.
- donatj 4y ago
  Why so? That’s honestly the whole reason I started watching him years ago, he was the dude who shocked himself.
  - jakear 4y ago
    They’re an empath
- ntoskrnl 4y ago
  I'm a fan of ElectroBoom, but I have to agree, some of them are pretty horrifying to watch. The Jacob's Ladder video sticks out in my mind - I still can't decide whether it was staged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g1z47U_kZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g1z47U_kZQ
  - kzrdude 4y ago
    That's the one where he has said it was not staged, if I'm not mistaken. According to comments here https://old.reddit.com/r/ElectroBOOM/comments/7gnt46/that_jacobs_ladder_video/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ElectroBOOM/comments/7gnt46/that_ja...
    - zrobotics 4y ago
      The Amp hour podcast interviewed him, and he confirmed that that wasn't staged; he considered leaving it out since it was legitimately dangerous. https://theamphour.com/562-electroboom/ https://theamphour.com/562-electroboom/
  - kouteiheika 4y ago
    IIRC in one of the interviews he had he said that it wasn't staged.
- wongarsu 4y ago
  I think he's great. Often you have people preaching cargo-culted safety rules without communicating the reasons for them, when you then see other people blindly disregarding those rules without apparent ill effect that reinforces people to do stupid things. Mehdi/Electroboom shows you what you can do, and why it's dangerous; usually by shocking himself, blowing something up, or having stuff catch fire. He isn't teaching mindless, disprovable safety culture, but showing you the actual boundaries you have to respect. As such he has both videos of "let's shock me with lowly increasing voltage to see when it starts to hurt" and "ranting about badly wired wall sockets and lack of GFCI in this hotel room".
- quasarj 4y ago
  It's supposed to be funny. Why does it make you sick?
  - kzrdude 4y ago
    Not everyone is the same or thinks the same way. Maybe I'm more scared of electricity than others, don't know? (Extended) family have died in accidents, too, so it's a well-respected hazard in my family.
  - hef19898 4y ago
    Because promoting baf safety habbits around potentially dangerous stuff to clueless people is a bad idea?
    - imtringued 4y ago
      Are you really saying that telling clueless people that they will get painful shocks encourages bad safety habits? If you show a kid a video about someone intentionally putting e.g. a fake hand on a stove and it getting severe burns and faked screams, what's the likelihood of a child following the video to get the same sick burns vs a video showing that it is perfectly safe to touch the stove?
      - hef19898 4y ago
        A video showing work, while ignoring safety pratices, promotes bad safety practices. People that know to work save will still do, people wothout a clue will start DIY projects ignoring safety. And get hurt. I consider this to be a bad thing.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  Some of the shocks are completely fake. For example, in the classic electric guitar video [0], if you advance frame-by-frame and capture the frame containing the flash [1], it is obviously Photoshopped in. Poorly, I might add. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE [1] https://imgur.com/KBOX11K https://imgur.com/KBOX11K
willcipriano 4y ago
One of the funniest videos on the internet is Electroboom's "how to make a electric guitar", it looks like it changed the title at some point, I guess for the reasons in the article, but I was on the floor the first time I watched it and he panned down to the plug. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE
foobarian 4y ago
It's disappointing how most of the articles and videos criticizing the dangerous content don't explain why exactly something is dangerous. They just scream "omg high voltage" "one mistake you're dead" and so on. I honestly think they are worse than the source; it reminds me of the medieval experimenters and alchemists being oppressed by the conformist public.
- throwaway744678 4y ago
  There's not much more than that to it: high voltage, high current and exposed wires. It does not take a PhD to understand what can go bad.
  - foobarian 4y ago
    It actually does "take a PhD." Having insulated wires can still be dangerous with a high enough voltage because of dielectric breakdown. Furthermore even if you don't get electrocuted but have a vacuum chamber with high voltages you can get irradiated. What I would have liked is, "OK this here wire is where the high voltage is, if you touch it you will get hurt and possibly die. If you need to manipulate it use long wooden or plastic tongs. Do not use gloves because of dielectric breakdown possibility." You get the idea. Not "just don't do it."
    - krisoft 4y ago
      The very first comment in the thread links to a video which does the exact thing you are wishing for. The video explains why the experiment is stupidly dangerous then gives tips on how one could make it safer. (But not safe.) Note, it has nothing to do with plastic tongs. The main danger, according to the youtuber, is that you turn on the aparatus, get momentarily distracted, and forget that it is on and touch the wood or the electrodes. He offers multiple mitigations: - indicators which show when the transformer is energised. He in fact recommends two separate paralel indicators. An audible one and a visual one. - momentary switches where you physicaly can’t forget them on. Two switch in an “AND” configuration, where you need both of your hands to actuate them, so you can’t accidentally try to adjust an electrode with one hand while the other is energising the system. He in fact goes further and recommends some fancy specialist switches, which turn off if you push them too hard as a result of a muscle spasm from an accidental electrocution. So now you need to make a complicated electronic setup with multiple independent indicators, and specialist switches and yet the project is still not safe! There are still multiple things which can go wrong where a simple and inocous action leads to instant death. It is a thing which is easy to do unsafe, and relatively hard to so safe. At which point can we simplify the advice to the general population into “don’t do it”?

kzrdude 4y ago

I can't watch Electroboom because he always gives himself shocks in every video. Don't care that they are small or it's set up, I can't stand watching it, makes me ill. Seems to be interesting stories he's telling otherwise though, so it's a shame.

donatj 4y ago
Why so? That’s honestly the whole reason I started watching him years ago, he was the dude who shocked himself.
- jakear 4y ago
  They’re an empath
ntoskrnl 4y ago
I'm a fan of ElectroBoom, but I have to agree, some of them are pretty horrifying to watch. The Jacob's Ladder video sticks out in my mind - I still can't decide whether it was staged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g1z47U_kZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g1z47U_kZQ
- kzrdude 4y ago
  That's the one where he has said it was not staged, if I'm not mistaken. According to comments here https://old.reddit.com/r/ElectroBOOM/comments/7gnt46/that_jacobs_ladder_video/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ElectroBOOM/comments/7gnt46/that_ja...
  - zrobotics 4y ago
    The Amp hour podcast interviewed him, and he confirmed that that wasn't staged; he considered leaving it out since it was legitimately dangerous. https://theamphour.com/562-electroboom/ https://theamphour.com/562-electroboom/
- kouteiheika 4y ago
  IIRC in one of the interviews he had he said that it wasn't staged.
wongarsu 4y ago
I think he's great. Often you have people preaching cargo-culted safety rules without communicating the reasons for them, when you then see other people blindly disregarding those rules without apparent ill effect that reinforces people to do stupid things. Mehdi/Electroboom shows you what you can do, and why it's dangerous; usually by shocking himself, blowing something up, or having stuff catch fire. He isn't teaching mindless, disprovable safety culture, but showing you the actual boundaries you have to respect. As such he has both videos of "let's shock me with lowly increasing voltage to see when it starts to hurt" and "ranting about badly wired wall sockets and lack of GFCI in this hotel room".
quasarj 4y ago
It's supposed to be funny. Why does it make you sick?
- kzrdude 4y ago
  Not everyone is the same or thinks the same way. Maybe I'm more scared of electricity than others, don't know? (Extended) family have died in accidents, too, so it's a well-respected hazard in my family.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Because promoting baf safety habbits around potentially dangerous stuff to clueless people is a bad idea?
  - imtringued 4y ago
    Are you really saying that telling clueless people that they will get painful shocks encourages bad safety habits? If you show a kid a video about someone intentionally putting e.g. a fake hand on a stove and it getting severe burns and faked screams, what's the likelihood of a child following the video to get the same sick burns vs a video showing that it is perfectly safe to touch the stove?
    - hef19898 4y ago
      A video showing work, while ignoring safety pratices, promotes bad safety practices. People that know to work save will still do, people wothout a clue will start DIY projects ignoring safety. And get hurt. I consider this to be a bad thing.
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
Some of the shocks are completely fake. For example, in the classic electric guitar video [0], if you advance frame-by-frame and capture the frame containing the flash [1], it is obviously Photoshopped in. Poorly, I might add. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE [1] https://imgur.com/KBOX11K https://imgur.com/KBOX11K

willcipriano 4y ago

One of the funniest videos on the internet is Electroboom's "how to make a electric guitar", it looks like it changed the title at some point, I guess for the reasons in the article, but I was on the floor the first time I watched it and he panned down to the plug. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIvUbOhcKE

foobarian 4y ago

It's disappointing how most of the articles and videos criticizing the dangerous content don't explain why exactly something is dangerous. They just scream "omg high voltage" "one mistake you're dead" and so on. I honestly think they are worse than the source; it reminds me of the medieval experimenters and alchemists being oppressed by the conformist public.

throwaway744678 4y ago
There's not much more than that to it: high voltage, high current and exposed wires. It does not take a PhD to understand what can go bad.
- foobarian 4y ago
  It actually does "take a PhD." Having insulated wires can still be dangerous with a high enough voltage because of dielectric breakdown. Furthermore even if you don't get electrocuted but have a vacuum chamber with high voltages you can get irradiated. What I would have liked is, "OK this here wire is where the high voltage is, if you touch it you will get hurt and possibly die. If you need to manipulate it use long wooden or plastic tongs. Do not use gloves because of dielectric breakdown possibility." You get the idea. Not "just don't do it."
  - krisoft 4y ago
    The very first comment in the thread links to a video which does the exact thing you are wishing for. The video explains why the experiment is stupidly dangerous then gives tips on how one could make it safer. (But not safe.) Note, it has nothing to do with plastic tongs. The main danger, according to the youtuber, is that you turn on the aparatus, get momentarily distracted, and forget that it is on and touch the wood or the electrodes. He offers multiple mitigations: - indicators which show when the transformer is energised. He in fact recommends two separate paralel indicators. An audible one and a visual one. - momentary switches where you physicaly can’t forget them on. Two switch in an “AND” configuration, where you need both of your hands to actuate them, so you can’t accidentally try to adjust an electrode with one hand while the other is energising the system. He in fact goes further and recommends some fancy specialist switches, which turn off if you push them too hard as a result of a muscle spasm from an accidental electrocution. So now you need to make a complicated electronic setup with multiple independent indicators, and specialist switches and yet the project is still not safe! There are still multiple things which can go wrong where a simple and inocous action leads to instant death. It is a thing which is easy to do unsafe, and relatively hard to so safe. At which point can we simplify the advice to the general population into “don’t do it”?