This also works well for safari lodges. They worked out you can just put a pond there and elephants etc will come while guests are having breakfast. Reliably present fresh water in a dry area = animals
My wife and I honeymooned in Botswana many years ago. On our first day in the bush we watched a pride of lions on a kill. Our driver radioed into camp, "fill up the water pans, the lions will be thirsty tonight." Sure enough, late that night the lions came in and drank at the water pan about five feet from the front of our tent. Mind-blowing experience to be lying in bed watching them right there.
We've since explored quite a bit of Southern Africa. The Namib desert is incomparably cool.
In my opinion this is one of the most productive uses of the Internet.
It can really help to have this running on some spare screen while trapped in the deep, deep depths of cubicle hell.
Even the wind is soothing.
Another great Namibian destination is the "Ocean Conservation Namibia" channel, where one can witness the rescue of ocean life (mostly mammals, i.e. seals) from the plastic trash of humanity.
This has been a constantly soothing device in my life for a few years. There is something so cathartic about seeing the little pups being chased down to have their bindings removed.
Do you know when you look for a restaurant on google maps and you see a "Popular times" map of people density throughout the day + live updates like "Less busy than usual"? Would be fun to build such a thing for this
I love nature, and I am seriously thinking of changing careers completely away from technology and getting into a nature-related field, or at least something to use my technology background but spend most of the day with animals and in nature. I just don't know the whats and hows of that change yet. I would definitely take a job even if it's not paying that much in that direction if I found one in a heartbeat!
A barn like in Philly used to put this up on their TV at night if there wasn’t a game on and it was really popular. It was always cool to see large animals show up.
Does anyone know what type of camera the stream uses? Or recommendations of an outdoor camera/microphone that could accomplish the same thing? I'd love to do this sort of thing in our rural backyard
Hey, thanks! Very kind of you. Full story re: bookofjoe blog:
1) I started it on Typepad in 2002 and it continued with multiple posts 365 days/year until September 30, 2025, when Typepad shut down after 30 days notice.
Reminds me of Africam. Back in the day my kids were very young and we would check it out every morning to see if we could see animals live at the watering holes, probably back around 2005-2008 or so?
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[ 0.70 ms ] story [ 93.2 ms ] threadWe've since explored quite a bit of Southern Africa. The Namib desert is incomparably cool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_lick
As it happens, I made this wrapper for it
https://waterhole.genmon.partykit.dev
This single-serving waterhole:
- makes the YouTube stream fill the browser for an Immersive Experience(TM)
- shows how many people are watching in real-time
- provides ephemeral chat with other people present
I know at least one team at an unnamed big tech co who would all have it open on their second screens for shared ambience + chat...
(If anybody from YouTube is reading, I have a ton of idea about how ambient live steams are the Next Big Thing and how to lean into that.)
Fyi the page is not rendering well for me on an iPhone Pro Max (latest iOS 26, Safari browser.) It's basically cut in half...
https://github.com/hauxir/macos-live-screensaver
It can really help to have this running on some spare screen while trapped in the deep, deep depths of cubicle hell.
Even the wind is soothing.
Another great Namibian destination is the "Ocean Conservation Namibia" channel, where one can witness the rescue of ocean life (mostly mammals, i.e. seals) from the plastic trash of humanity.
https://www.youtube.com/@OceanConservationNamibia
This has been a constantly soothing device in my life for a few years. There is something so cathartic about seeing the little pups being chased down to have their bindings removed.
https://imgur.com/a/UbIefte
I love nature, and I am seriously thinking of changing careers completely away from technology and getting into a nature-related field, or at least something to use my technology background but spend most of the day with animals and in nature. I just don't know the whats and hows of that change yet. I would definitely take a job even if it's not paying that much in that direction if I found one in a heartbeat!
Okaukuejo waterhole in Etosha National Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeMUdOPFcXI (at the time of posting, a herd of elephants are enjoying the water)
Kalahari Desert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME0dPuBtzug
https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bookofjoe
1) I started it on Typepad in 2002 and it continued with multiple posts 365 days/year until September 30, 2025, when Typepad shut down after 30 days notice.
Sporadic archives here: https://web.archive.org/web/20020915000000*/bookofjoe.com
2) After Typepad gave notice, I explored various options (Ghost/Squarespace/WordPress/Wix/Medium/Substack/Blogger) but all but Blogger were too complicated for my TechnoDolt©®™ capabilities, thus I moved to Blogger in early September (https://bookofjoe2.blogspot.com/2025/09/im-shocked-not.html) and have become settled in there, now posting (as I did for years on Typepad) 3 times daily (8am/12noon/4pm) 7 days a week.
Edit/warning - Wow the thunder is loud!