This is How an FPP Works

April 27, 2016 10:02 PM

@ThingsWork tweets short GIFs abstracting how things work. Sometimes informative, always hypnotic.
How an octopus cleans itself. How chicken and rice is made in space. How a male seahorse gives birth. How crowd control at a comic book convention in Japan works. How Nintendo’s controllers have evolved How metallic coral is made. How the Genie from Aladdin is drawn. How a ladybug takes flight. How walruses sleep while floating.
posted by Going To Maine (26 comments total)

How to get Sugar Daddy playing in my head.
posted by unliteral at 10:13 PM on April 27, 2016

This is awesome, thanks. Already passing it around to friends. :)
posted by mordax at 10:25 PM on April 27, 2016

Did somebody say Microsoft Works? (Warning: unimproved 1999 site design)
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:47 PM on April 27, 2016

These are great. Really needs 'how to find my damn keys' though.
posted by adept256 at 10:55 PM on April 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is how a comment works.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:55 PM on April 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is how I am late for work
posted by fullerine at 11:03 PM on April 27, 2016 [6 favorites]

The way the Wii U controller just sort of sadly falls out of frame seems poignant.
posted by these are science wands at 11:07 PM on April 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Half an hour of scrolling later, this is how where the hell did all that time go works.

Walruses, though. When I grow up, i wanna be a walrus.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:53 PM on April 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Walruses, though. When I grow up, i wanna be a walrus.

Goo goo ga joob.
posted by adept256 at 12:01 AM on April 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

I am the walrus.
posted by yueliang at 12:20 AM on April 28, 2016

Little known fact: those are ancient walrus fighting words, and the release of that album and their attempt to profit off of traditional walrus culture caused the Beatles to be banished from walrus society forever. As you can see from Ringo's mustache at the time, he identified quite strongly with the walruses, and the banishment hit him the hardest of the four.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:20 AM on April 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

A couple of those walruses look like they are snoring pretty heavily, and I worry that they might have sleep apnea. I suspect that getting CPAP masks on walruses would be a pretty hard and thankless job, though.

Also, I think that octopus was hugging itself in delight over being an octopus.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:08 AM on April 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

I want to learn how to do this, but would definitely take my fingers off. Also, I don't need that much chopped onion, ever.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:12 AM on April 28, 2016

The Japanese crowd control one gives me the heebie jeebies just imagining myself jammed in the middle. Amazing watching the coordination though.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:18 AM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Metallic coral? I was under the impression that natural coral, as in reefs, is mostly calcium. Calcium is a metal.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:35 AM on April 28, 2016

The crowd control at Comiket - a bi-annual fanzine/indie game/hobbyist convention in Tokyo's Big Sight - is absolutely astonishing. They get over half a million visitors over three days, many of whom are there hours and hours before the doors open, as fan favorites tend to sell out really quickly. (Staying overnight is illegal, but arriving in the wee hours of the morning is not.)

One of the amazing things is that it never feels overcrowded or threatening - as you can tell from the gif, people are lined up in huge outdoors areas, which helps. And though the crowd controllers do sometimes ask the people in line to tighten the gaps before marching, most of the waiting is done in enough of a personal bubble that you can easily sit down or get things out of your bag without elbowing anyone.

I don't know how much training the volunteers get, but they are eagle-eyed and everywhere - they don't allow pictures (both for privacy reasons, that that selfies can be dangerous in the middle of a human tidal wave), and they are super alert for anyone getting out of line, climbing on things, or accelerating past a slow walk. I've never been to any crowded event outside of Japan that has left me feeling that safe and efficiently processed. (Though I did always wonder how well they'd handle an earthquake of any magnitude...) That said, I wouldn't recommend it for the claustrophobic.
posted by harujion at 5:25 AM on April 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Calcium is a metal.

Calcium carbonate (the main constituent of the exoskeleton of corals) is a salt.
posted by koolkat at 5:32 AM on April 28, 2016

This is why those GIFs are being served more efficiently as video.
posted by rh at 5:49 AM on April 28, 2016

I have found my new god
posted by the painkiller at 6:28 AM on April 28, 2016

...getting CPAP masks on walruses would be a pretty hard and thankless job...

Well, that one otter learned to use an inhaler, so maybe there's hope for other marine mammals with respiratory issues.
posted by rh at 8:02 AM on April 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Wow, does this person give any of the gif creators credit?

I guess "not erasing other people's watermarks" is a start...but, wow.

Didn't some other tweet stream mentioned here get taken down recently for this reason?
posted by sidereal at 8:59 AM on April 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Love this Twitter channel. So many fascinating things to see and learn! Thanks for this post, Going To Maine.
posted by nickyskye at 11:26 AM on April 28, 2016

Yeah this is neat but I would appreciate crediting the original videos. We shouldn't be turning into 9gag here.
posted by numaner at 12:28 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Metallic coral? I was under the impression that natural coral, as in reefs, is mostly calcium. Calcium is a metal.

the original video is actually more of an experiment, not really a "how things work" type of deal.
posted by numaner at 12:35 PM on April 28, 2016

Wow, does this person give any of the gif creators credit?
I guess "not erasing other people's watermarks" is a start...but, wow.

Yeah this is neat but I would appreciate crediting the original videos. We shouldn't be turning into 9gag here.

In fairness, this did once result in a hilarious mistake by McDonald’s PR.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:35 PM on April 28, 2016

"This" is how a demonstrative works.
posted by cortex at 12:19 AM on April 29, 2016