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In Which Hank Worries for a Little Bit and then Looks at Microbes

2021-01-08 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Personal life, US politics & society) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: timely hook, self promotion

After a brief worried aside on a hard week in US politics (Biden will be president, no coup, no civil war, but real damage to democracy), Hank takes refuge at his new microscope, examining a sample from freezing Flathead Lake, and plugs Journey to the Microcosmos's microscope Kickstarter.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's new microscope station in an old Games with Hank set

  • ★★ Hank now has a microscope, set up in a rarely used office corner he built as a Games with Hank set around 2015, and is very excited about it. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · Games With Hank

00:00:26 — A hard week: Biden, no coup, no civil war, damage to democracy

  • ★★ Hank says it is nice to be brought into a beautiful world less complicated than his usual one, which this week (week of 4 January 2021) has been a lot. — 00:00:26
  • ★★ Hank thinks Joe Biden is going to be president in two weeks (by 22 January 2021). (hedged) — 00:00:26
  • ★★ Hank does not think there will be a coup. (hedged) — 00:00:26
  • ★★★ Hank says all of this is tremendously destructive to democracy and to the country. — 00:00:26
  • ★★ Hank does not think the US is headed into a civil war: things are very bad, just nowhere close to that bad. (hedged) — 00:00:26

00:00:54 — A Flathead Lake ice-water sample under the microscope

  • ★★ Hank says the people suggesting there may be a civil war want us to think so because they want one, because they are idiots. — 00:00:54
  • ★★ Hank recently went to freezing Flathead Lake, where waves of ice chunks crashed ashore, and dipped his bare hand in to collect water and vegetation. — 00:00:54
  • ★★ Trying to pick up one of the little white moving dots, Hank gets a shrimpy thing on the slide but thinks he killed it on the first try. (playful) — 00:01:53
  • ★★ Hank finds a large organism he did not mean to grab, big enough to see on the slide. — 00:02:22
  • ★★ Hank gets a live shrimpy creature with little arms under the cover slip but still cannot tell what it is. (unsure) — 00:02:22
  • ★★ Hank marvels that the sample he pulled out of what was basically ice is teeming with life. — 00:03:00
  • ★★★ Journey to the Microcosmos is running a Kickstarter for this microscope with a phone attachment for making content, plus a guide to starting your own microcosmos journey. — 00:03:00 · Journey to the Microcosmos, Kickstarter

00:03:42 — Journey to the Microcosmos as a relaxing break; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank calls the Journey to the Microcosmos channel a nice break and the most relaxing part of his job by a fair margin. — 00:03:42 · Journey to the Microcosmos

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank recorded a whole video about voting rights, coups and leaders who thought they could ride tigers, but felt unable to add anything without oversimplifying or rambling. — video description
  • ★★ The description says Hank is angry and glad he can sometimes take refuge in microbes. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: microorganism

Also: coup d'état · democratic backsliding · Flathead Lake · Games With Hank · Joe Biden · Journey to the Microcosmos · Kickstarter

Only in the description or credits: suffrage

Also centred on microorganism: Tiny Chickens Invade, But Still I Vote · My New Obsession

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