I visited a strange German attraction, and got a Dutch song stuck in my head.

• First, Distant Signal talks about how railroad crossing signals work in the US. It's much more independent than the UK's crossings, which mostly have CCTV backup these days. Speaking of which, here's a compilation of UK level-crossing near-misses released by Network Rail as a safety warning!
   
• Why The Dutch Wait Less At Traffic Lights is a great video by Not Just Bikes, who has a lot of videos about traffic infrastructure in North America and Europe. Recommended.
   
• And while it's a very different type of instruction to give, this video of a Dutch concert shot from far away and high up is spectacular. It's a bit shaky and windy, but for context: there's a Dutch party song being played, and starting at 0:14, the performer tells the crowd to go left for eight beats, then right for eight beats, then repeat, then jump. You can see two things in the video: first, the crowd movement, but second, the speed of sound as each instruction moves back across the crowd! (There's also an official broadcast of the moment here, but their camera angles don't show the speed-of-sound effect well, and it includes the song. Even as someone who quite likes cheesy European party music, I don't recommend the song.)

• A great investigation into how data and AI can be misused.
   
• Some people in the US are hoarding pennies, because if it stops being legal tender, then they can be melted down for more than one cent each.
   
• "Please, enough with the dead butterflies!": one of those facts that, once you know it, will irritate you regularly. In this case, almost every time you see an illustration of a butterfly.
   
• And finally, a Twitter thread with an absolutely devastating review of London's newest (and temporary) tourist attraction, the Marble Arch Mound. Apparently it's not finished yet, and they're offering refunds or postponements.

Whew! That seems like a lot this week, even though it's only eight links. I'm going to try to get that Dutch party song out of my head now.

All the best,

— Tom