BobbyBroccoli

Kevan MacKay, aka BobbyBroccoli, is a You Tuber who currently ^note He previously did videos on video games and other miscellaneous topics creates documentaries based around scientific controversies and events, delving into the politics and culture that shaped them. I found his channel about a year ago and have enjoyed it since, so...

His current ongoing project is a three-parter detailing the failed attempts of the United States in the 80s and 90s to build the largest particle collider in the world. Parts 1 and 2:

Edited by TotemicHero on Apr 22nd 2022 at 2:58:25 PM

And now the conclusion and the end of the project. Welcome to physics (and politics thereof) in the Clinton Years.

The original third video had to be taken down and reuploaded due to a copyright claim.

I just discovered this beast of a channel through their video on Victor Ninov.

The quality of their visual presentation and the way they guide the viewer through the various bullet points of their subjects is spectacular.

Their series on the SSC, Schon and Ninov made me finally make an album for youtube documentaries.

Easily on the same caliber as Lemmino and Zepherus on visuals, and their physics subject make him a nice companion to the works of Plainly Difficult.

Edited by MrSeyker on Feb 18th 2023 at 1:30:42 AM

Recently discovered this channel myself. His videos are extremely well made and fascinating. Does a great job of explaining the relevant science in a way that doesn't dumb it down. I particularly enjoyed the videos on Hendrick Schon and Victor Ninov.

Time for a new video. The stage is South Korea at the turn of the millennium, where the economy was stagnating. Meanwhile, controversy stemmed from the legal and ethical debates in the U.S. and internationally over the cloning of human cells, and one Korean veterinary researcher saw an opportunity...

These stories are always so fascinating, and do a great job of dumbing down the science for a dummy like me (but not SO dumb that its insulting).

Oh yeah this guy, i remember his videos on the Bogdanoff brothers. Good stuff.

Edited by Ghilz on Apr 22nd 2023 at 7:04:30 AM

I started watching that video last night! I had to go to sleep but I am definitely finishing it, the story has gripped me.

And I do appreciate his level of science explenation. The particle accelerator series was a bit longwinded to my taste, but otherwise I enjoy his work immensly.

The show must go on, which apparently means journalists got the chance to go on an egg hunt. Here's the conclusion of the Hwang human cell cloning saga:

And so the story ends the only way a story about a famous guy and his flunkies could... Harassment campaigns towards the people who made accusations, loyalalists who even when the truth became undeniable STILL wouldn't turn agains Hwang, misogynistic attitudes abound, and slaps on the wrist for everyone involved. Truly, an outcome that proves even if places have differences, there are some things that work the same everywhere.

Edited by diddyknux on May 6th 2023 at 5:36:02 AM

The part that's wild is how he almost got away till someone made that anonymous post showing the cells being photoshopped. It's wild that to this day we don't know who did that.

I made a sandbox page with the eventual goal of turning it into a full work page. Feedback and/or assistance is appreciated.

So I'm not 100% sure about how some of these don't fall over the whole Don't trope real life people thing. Coz a lot of the tropes on the page are about the real life events he's covering, not specifically the documentaries he made.

For example Contrived Coincidence doesn't work because RL isn't contrived unless you believe someone is writing RL. It's just coincidences.

Edited by Ghilz on May 9th 2023 at 12:50:05 PM

That's why I tried to use phrasing like "highlighted" "detailed" or "framed" in examples. BobbyBroccoli's narration itself is calling these specific events out as tropes, which from what I can tell is standard for how documentary pages on the wiki are handled.

That said, I'm okay with pulling the Contrived Coincidence example if you think that's too far across the RL line.

So some notes:

No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Just misuse? The trope is about how there's one copy of an item and making another or having a copy/backup doesn't occur. In this case the item (his research), doesn't even exist. It's made up.

Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Doesn't refer to the documentary but the people, so it's troping RL people.

Contrived Coincidence: As mentioned, plus it's also under No Real Life Example so definitely should be removed. Bobby's just outlining the strange coincidence.

Removed those tropes for now (although I do think No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup could be rewritten to work, I'd rather focus on adding additional tropes).

Okay, barring any more suggestions, I think the page is ready to go. Just have to actually launch it and crosswick everything.

Bobby has combined the 3 super collider episodes into one super-length episode.

Trailer for his next video, which on Nortel. Part 1 is out on Nebula, coming to youtube in 2 weeks, Part 2 on Nov 4th.

Hmm... Its just early access, but this may be the tipping point for me to finally give Nebula a try. But I've been thinking about it anyway, it seems like there's a decent number of great creators on there.

Part 1 of the nortel video on youtube:

Part 2 is on Nebula.

Edited by Ghilz on Nov 4th 2023 at 11:18:37 AM

Fascinating video. Also educational, because I have to admit, I have not really thought about Canadian politics as it parallelled the US and UK during the post WWII era, and it was interesting to learn about it all.

Also, kinda reminded me of how the telecom boom and bust happened in Finland.

When it got to the last chapter of the video and the number of Nortel shares started ballooning, the realization was like "Yeah, this couldn't in anyway backfire spectacularly." And then when the Stock Exchanged created a new ruling to let Nortel bypass the usual regulations... Yeah, corporate greed leads to losing rational decision making.

I mean, we talk about this sort of thing on this site all the time... Investors always want MORE growth in their stocks year after year, even though its impossible for that to go on infinitely.

As part 2 shows, this is only half of it. It's hard to have growth when your company hasnt made a profit in years but you fudge the numbers.