The Thames Barrier, and made a video that'll come back to haunt me.

13th December 2021

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Hello!

In this week's video, I got to film at the Thames Barrier! And on Tom Scott plus, a video that will almost certainly come back to haunt me: can auto-tune make me a good singer?

Also, I put a call out for ideas and collaborations: my inbox is absolutely swamped right now, so thank you to everyone who's sent something in!

I found these videos while researching this week. I say "researching", at least half of these were found while procrastinating, but close enough:

Some Finns built a giant ice carousel! It's brilliant! A huge ring cut in a frozen lake, around an island, and slowly rotated. With a sauna on it. Absolutely spectacular project.
Many of the references will only land for British people, but: Darrell Maclaine has a whole series of videos where he impersonates famous singers doing theme tunes. Each one's under a minute, and they're great. Ben Folds sings the Muppet Show. Michael Ball and Alfie Boe sing The Flintstones. Paul McCartney sings Are You Being Served?. Perhaps the crowning achievement, Elton John sings Only Fools and Horses. The whole channel is brilliant.
"Power to the People" — great title — is a 20-minute TV documentary on the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant in New York state. Built, protested, shut down before properly generating power, decommissioned with its structure still standing today.
I rediscovered this video of C2C performing "Down The Road" live. It's a brilliant combination of well-practiced live turntablism, sampling, teamwork, technology, and stage production. (Some flashing images.)
"a very typical day for a civil engineer" is absolutely worth the 60 seconds it takes. (turn on sound)

Other interesting links I've found this week:

Fascinating television production details: how did the BBC fake a section of their commercial competitors' output for a sitcom?
How Netflix makes sure that their app works everywhere, even in languages that use long words.
"Surely you're joking, Comrade Beria" translates some Soviet-era humor which has a... different tone than you might expect.
And finally, 31 people were trapped by a snowstorm in perhaps the most comfortable and convenient location possible: an IKEA.

That's it! Now I've got to go back to sorting out my inbox...

All the best,

— Tom

(PS: Hey! Do you like the Technical Difficulties? You might want to, very quietly, have a look here and subscribe. It's empty right now, but who knows what'll happen next year?)

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