YouTube

What a cornucopia of wheat...and chaff!

News & politics, entertainment, education, style are just a few of the categories, and each one offers hundreds of videos. It seems likely a viewer could find something on almost any subject in a few clicks.

I especially liked the news & politics zone (watched an AP clip highlighting career of White House flack Tony Snow, who died of cancer at 53).


I like the idea of being able to catch video when you want, without having to wait for the next cycle on CNN, for example .

That said, it appears that many of these non-news videos are moronic, poorly edited or both.

One so-called "comedy" selection has a guy opening a bathroom door, and sneaking up to the tub where his male roommate is showering. He yanks back the shower curtain and ....TA-DA...there's the naked roommate. Ha-ha.

Or, "Futuristic Brunch," in which two guys loudly complain that the breakfast options at McDonald's are not "lunchy" enough. So...a few minutes before the lunch/breakfast changeover at 11 a.m., they order an Egg McMuffin. At 11:01, they order chicken and fries. At their table, they reconstruct these items and creat a sandwich combining all the ingredients, along with honey-mustard sauce. The end.

Most surprising were the page after page of video offerings that were either Japanese karaoke singers, or what seemed to be snippets of Japanese TV comedy shows, subject/plot/punchline inscrutable to me, of course. But the audiences will laugh at anything.

Library applications? Possibly training videos for new employees, or mini-workshops for those already on the job.