Breakfast! fiction! and a theme tune cover.

• This is the second time recently that I've linked to someone's first video on their brand new channel. And it's another maker: Gregulations has built a working breakfast machine like Wallace and Gromit. (Frequent strong language; occasional flashing lights.) Much like the cat-litter video from a few weeks ago, this is rough around the edges in a few places, and it's clearly from someone new — but it's also clearly from someone who's got an understanding of how to entertain an audience. And also someone who's got the patience to build something ridiculous over months for a ten-minute video. (Thanks Paul for sending this over.)
   
• And a new, pilot format from a very, very well-established channel: a cooking show escape room, from the Try Guys. (Strong language.) It's not perfect! The format needs a little bit more tweaking and playtesting — ideally, I reckon, the contestants would be cooking simultaneously, and there'd be times when only one person would get some benefit or drawback depending on how they perform. But this has a little bit of Taskmaster energy about it, and by that I mean: I both enjoyed watching it and want to have a go. Worth a watch.
   
• For Pi Day, Vi Hart has something to say about Folded Circle Snack. A charming ramble about discovery, invention, aliens, and pi!
   
• And also for Pi Day: Matt Parker attempts the biggest hand calculation in a century, an astonishing amount of work, with dozens of people trying to break the record for most hand-calculated digits of pi. Contains both complicated maths and a ridiculous skit.

• The history of the red circle-and-slash "no" symbol is much more involved than I thought it would be. Someone had to invent it, after all.
   
• Two atmospheric pieces of science fiction. First, a short piece of atmospheric flash fiction: "We keep finding space stations, and we don't know why yet". And then, from this year's Nebula nominees, the novelette "The Year Without Sunshine", in Uncanny Magazine, a gentle cozy-apocalypse hopepunk tale.
   
• Brailliance might not be the best word game of its type — it has a steeper learning curve than many such puzzles — but I found it fascinating. It's based around Braille tiles, and importantly it's fully accessible for anyone who uses a screen reader or any other sort of accessibility device. That takes a huge amount of effort on the developer's side, and the result is worth a look. (Thanks to Amy and husband for the suggestion.)

And finally: in case "a cover of the Fireman Sam theme tune, as a style parody of the Pet Shop Boys, by one half of the Cuban Boys and the bloke who performs Hacker T Dog" never popped up on your various feeds over the last few years, then let me recommend the Pound Shop Boys to you.

All the best,

— Tom