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Videos showing how everyday things are made in less than 30 seconds are so satisfying

So. Satisfying.

@fastworkers6/Twitter

People love watching videos of things being made.

Do you ever pick up an everyday object like a fork or a phone charger or a box of cereal and think about how that object came into being? It's amazing that we have gone from primitive tools to complex manufacturing plants in a relatively short span of time.

In the scope of human history, it wasn't that long ago that if we wanted something we had to figure out how to make it ourselves by hand. Innovation and industry have completely altered the way humans live, and though there are certainly some downsides to industrialization and mass manufacturing, the fact that we've figured out how to make machines reliably and consistently do precise work for us is incredible.

So incredible, in fact, that videos showing machines at work have become popular entertainment. The Canadian TV series "How It's Made" took something that has often been thought of as basic and bland—factory production—and turned it into fun family viewing. I can't count how many times I've found my kids watching YouTube videos of machines making something, calling them "so satisfying."

"Satisfying" is exactly the right word. Not sure why or how, but seeing the repetitive precision of things being made is mesmerizing and calming at the same time.

The Twitter account How Things Are Manufactured has been sharing brief videos of everyday things being made, and people are loving it. Most of them are shorter than a minute, so a nice, quick manufacturing fix.

Check out how these different shaped pastas are made as one example:

\u201cHow pasta is made\u201d
— How Things Are Manufactured (@How Things Are Manufactured) 1659781300

Why is that so fun to watch? (And do people really eat black pasta?)

How about how cookie cutters are made? This one is is hard to look away from:

\u201cHow cookie cutters are made\u201d
— How Things Are Manufactured (@How Things Are Manufactured) 1659865505

So. Satisfying.

Ever look at a chain link fence and wonder how it came about? Here you go:

\u201cThis is how hexagonal wiremesh is made\u201d
— How Things Are Manufactured (@How Things Are Manufactured) 1659606473

It's not just manufacturing that wows, though. Machines that make other things easier, like farming, are also fun to see. For instance, check out this carrot harvester:

\u201cThis is how a carrot harvester works\u201d
— H0W_THlNGS_W0RK (@H0W_THlNGS_W0RK) 1659855923

Again, so very satisfying.

Sometimes it's also fun to see how things used to be made, though. This traditional method of making noodles in China is so simple, yet brilliant:

\u201cTraditional way of making noodles in Chongqing, China \ud83e\udd24\u201d
— How Things Are Manufactured (@How Things Are Manufactured) 1659087599

And for those of us who grew up in classrooms with a globe from the 1950s, watch how they were made by hand. Who knew so many people were part of the process?

\u201cThis is how handmade globes were made in the 1950s\u201d
— How Things Are Manufactured (@How Things Are Manufactured) 1659931508

Humans are so fascinating, aren't we? We love the wild beauty of nature and yet we are also drawn to the purposeful precision of human ingenuity. We like to marvel at the magnificence of mountains and gaze at the gargantuan night sky, yet we find wonder in our own creativity and innovation as well.

Now if we can just find the balance between the usefulness of innovation and industry and the protection of our planet and people, that would be truly satisfying.

From Your Site Articles

Many people just know Chobani as the company that makes those little cups of greek yogurt goodness.

That's right. Line 'em up! Photo by Meng He/Flickr.

But thanks to Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya, the company is also known for something else — hiring refugees.

Hamdi Ulukaya visiting a refugee camp in Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Michael Gonda/Wikimedia Commons.

This kind of support is important for the nearly 85,000 refugees who entered the U.S. this past year, fleeing their home countries due to extreme poverty, natural disasters, or war. Once stateside, many refugees struggle to find a way to provide for their families while overcoming a language barrier and navigating a slew of cultural differences.

It's an experience Ulukaya knows all too well as a Turkish immigrant of Kurdish descent. Ulukaya moved to upstate New York in the 1990s and by 2007 had turned an $800,000 loan and defunct yogurt factory into the tasty yogurt treat we all know today.

When business picked up and Ulukaya needed more hands, he turned to a nearby refugee resettlement center for help. He offered newcomers transportation and translators as well as salaries above minimum wage. When he opened a second factory in Twin Falls, Idaho, he went around and did the exact same thing.

Today, Chobani employs over 300 refugees. And the company isn't stopping anytime soon.

In 2015, Ulukaya started the Tent Foundation, an alliance of industry leaders that helps displaced refugees from around the world and integrates them into the workforce.

Photo by Michael Gonda/Wikimedia Commons.

"These actions have inspired us to launch the Tent Pledge and the Tent Challenge," Ulukaya wrote in a CNN Money opinion piece. "The Tent Pledge asks companies all over the world to step up and do more. We're asking them to provide refugees with job training, employment opportunities, and the kind of direct assistance that experts have identified as a priority — everything from blankets and water, to debit cards and Internet access."

Sadly, not everyone was thrilled to hear about Chobani's dedication to helping refugees find work and support their families.

— (@)

This was just one of many similar tweets calling for boycotts of companies that have made progressive commitments to social justice and equality.

But just as fast as hateful tweets calling for a Chobani boycott started showing up, people responded even faster to show their support for the company.

Mostly people were buying lots of Chobani yogurt and tweeting pics of their bounty:

— (@)

Try though some people might, there's just no stopping Chobani's commitment to hiring refugees.

On top of Ulukaya's refugee hiring policy and the work of the Tent Foundation, he also started the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give majority of his fortune to aid refugees. Just like in his Tent Pledge, he's tapped the world's wealthiest people to be part of it.

Many people don't understand that refugees and immigrants play an important role in improving the economy — opening small businesses, creating new jobs, and helping raise wages for all workers. Initiatives like Chobani's are a huge step in the right direction, helping refugees get settled and integrated in society. At the end of the day, a little empathy towards refugees, coupled with the right job opportunity, can make all the difference in our success as a country.

Heroes

When these teens took on Baltimore over a garbage idea, the city actually listened.

True

What do you do with your free time? 17-year-old Destiny Watford spends hers saving her neighborhood.

Destiny lives in Baltimore, a city where more people die from air pollution than homicide — and the homicide rate is nothing to scoff at.

This isn’t an exaggeration; it’s a reality. And the people who live there deal with it every day.

Why is the air pollution so bad? Well, Curtis Bay — a neighborhood in Baltimore — is home to a coal export terminal, the nation’s largest medical waste facility, and an animal rendering plant, to name a few reasons.

All images via Starbucks, used with permission.

In 2012, Destiny learned about a plan to build the country’s largest trash-burning incinerator in Curtis Bay just a mile from her school.

Destiny looked around at her neighborhood, polluted by factory after factory, and decided she’d had enough.

Watch Destiny's full story:

These students banded together and stopped what would have been the nation's largest trash incinerator from being built just a mile away from their school. A Starbucks original series.
Posted by Upworthy on Friday, September 23, 2016

You may wonder, how could the country so completely disregard the health of these residents?

There's a reason Curtis Bay and communities like it are often the proposed sites for these types of facilities (ahem, environmental racism). A study published in Environmental Research Letters revealed that factories using toxic substances and waste plants are usually found in poor neighborhoods — and those neighborhoods are often predominantly made up of people of color.

The phenomenon is nothing new. History has shown time and time again that poor neighborhoods are often used as dumping grounds. See the Flint water crisis.

The communities being affected often don’t have a voice to fight against this injustice. That’s why Destiny is so special.

Determined to stop the incinerator from invading their neighborhood, Destiny and her classmates started a movement.

"Curtis Bay is my home," explained Destiny. "I grew up here. I live here. My family lives here. My friends live here. If a development like this is happening that would be putting our lives at risk, I couldn't ignore it."

She and her peers started Free Your Voice, an organization aimed at stopping the development of the incinerator.

They found out that the Baltimore City Public School System would be purchasing energy from the incinerator and challenged that decision. They won — the school board changed its decision and backed out of the contract. 21 other businesses followed suit.

Then, something even bigger happened.

"We learned that the incinerator’s permit had expired," Destiny said. "This was a huge opportunity for us because with an expired permit, you can’t construct. But it would not matter unless the Maryland Department of the Environment said publicly, 'Your permits are expired.' Which they hadn’t."

Free Your Voice organized protests, with people standing outside late into the night, urging the department to enforce the law and stop the incinerator.

It took months, but eventually the state did declare that the permit was expired, effectively halting all operations.

The community united, and their unified, persistent voice was loud enough to be heard.

Thanks to Destiny and her peers, the future of Curtis Bay — and its air — is clearer.

And Destiny led the charge. Her passion for her community inspired positive change. If more communities follow suit, hopefully together, they can force the tide to change.

Heroes

9 vintage photos of smoggy London to remind us to take care of our air.

Londoners deserve better.

If you happened to be near the U.K.'s Department for Transport in London on April 27, 2016, you may have spotted this alarming scene:

Fortunately, it was a staged event. These were protesters, and they were perfectly safe and sound, out of harm's way. However, the crisis they're bringing to light is, unfortunately, pretty disturbing all on its own.

London has an air pollution problem, and it's putting the lives of city residents at stake.

The "die-in" protest, organized by Stop Killing Cyclists, brought 250 supporters onto the streets to demand cleaner air. Their staged deaths were meant to symbolize all the people air pollution silently kills in Britain each year — upward of 50,000, according to a bipartisan report from Parliament released this week.

Of course, a clean-air future is possible in London — especially when you remember what London used to look like.

Here are nine photos from the past that show just how far London has come in reducing air pollution:

1. This was London six decades ago.

Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

2. Doesn't it look ... gray?

Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

3. Smog, which became a big problem there in the 1950s and '60s, can certainly take the romance out of a cute stroll with a special someone...

Photo by Monty Fresco/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images.

4. ...or make a morning commute a whole lot worse than it needs to be.

Photo by Peter King/Fox Photos/Getty Images.

5. You could even say 1950s London resembles Beijing today.

Photo by Keystone/Getty Images.

6. Air pollution is definitely not an issue new to London in the 21st century. The smog there used to be much, much worse.

Photo by Edward Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

7. In 1952, London's Great Smog killed and sickened thousands of residents in a matter of days.

Photo by Terry Fincher/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

8. In response to crises like that one, the country realized dramatic change was necessary.

Photo by Keystone/Getty Images.

9. Like many other Western nations at the time, the U.K. began breaking its addiction to dirty energy and prioritizing cleaner methods.

Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images.

Clean Air Acts were passed in 1956 and 1968, which banned emissions of black smoke and forced regulations onto urban factories. In the decades since, clean-air technologies and higher pollution standards have helped guarantee London's worst smog days are far behind it.

Now, more than a half-century later, London has done quite a bit to clean up its act.

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.

But as the recent protest illustrated, so much more needs to be done to keep London's air fresh and clean and make sure the city never returns to the smog-filled air of the '50s.

Because who would ever want to go back to this?

Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images.

factories

Videos showing how everyday things are made in less than 30 seconds are so satisfying

So. Satisfying.

People wanted to boycott this delicious yogurt for all the wrong reasons. It didn't work.

Many people just know Chobani as the company that makes those little cups of greek yogurt goodness.

But thanks to Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya, the company is also known for something else — hiring refugees.

Today, Chobani employs over 300 refugees. And the company isn't stopping anytime soon.

Sadly, not everyone was thrilled to hear about Chobani's dedication to helping refugees find work and support their families.

But just as fast as hateful tweets calling for a Chobani boycott started showing up, people responded even faster to show their support for the company.

Try though some people might, there's just no stopping Chobani's commitment to hiring refugees.

When these teens took on Baltimore over a garbage idea, the city actually listened.

What do you do with your free time? 17-year-old Destiny Watford spends hers saving her neighborhood.

In 2012, Destiny learned about a plan to build the country’s largest trash-burning incinerator in Curtis Bay just a mile from her school.

Watch Destiny's full story:

You may wonder, how could the country so completely disregard the health of these residents?

Determined to stop the incinerator from invading their neighborhood, Destiny and her classmates started a movement.

Free Your Voice organized protests, with people standing outside late into the night, urging the department to enforce the law and stop the incinerator.

9 vintage photos of smoggy London to remind us to take care of our air.

Londoners deserve better.

If you happened to be near the U.K.'s Department for Transport in London on April 27, 2016, you may have spotted this alarming scene:

London has an air pollution problem, and it's putting the lives of city residents at stake.

1. This was London six decades ago.

2. Doesn't it look ... gray?

3. Smog, which became a big problem there in the 1950s and '60s, can certainly take the romance out of a cute stroll with a special someone...

4. ...or make a morning commute a whole lot worse than it needs to be.

5. You could even say 1950s London resembles Beijing today.

6. Air pollution is definitely not an issue new to London in the 21st century. The smog there used to be much, much worse.

7. In 1952, London's Great Smog killed and sickened thousands of residents in a matter of days.

8. In response to crises like that one, the country realized dramatic change was necessary.

9. Like many other Western nations at the time, the U.K. began breaking its addiction to dirty energy and prioritizing cleaner methods.

Now, more than a half-century later, London has done quite a bit to clean up its act.

But as the recent protest illustrated, so much more needs to be done to keep London's air fresh and clean and make sure the city never returns to the smog-filled air of the '50s.

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