I moved some tires, and things went round and around and around.

16th August 2021

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Hello!

This week, I helped cover a 5,000-year-old monument with worn-out tires. Or tyres, if you're British. (The title, description, and subtitles will Anglicise if you have your YouTube language set to British English!)

And while it wasn't a deliberate choice of theme, all the videos I've really liked this week have been involved spinning around somehow:

I understand why CT scanners have a cover now: if you can see what's inside, it's looks like a terrifying experimental prop from a sci-fi movie.
Acrobatics with a robot arm! A brilliant combination of talent, heavy machinery, a chair, and crash mats.
Space juggling is perhaps a bit two-dimensional compared to what would be possible in actual zero-gravity, but it's interesting to see the patterns that develop.
And an incredible performance on a spinning platform. If you're only going to watch one video from this week's newsletter, make it this one. The performers somehow make their switches between reference frames look easy and seamless, but it must have required so much experimentation, choreography and practice. I wish I could have seen this live.

And elsewhere on the web:

I talked about AI-generated art recently. If you'd like to make your own, it's now easy and free with this tutorial!
Leap seconds cause bugs even when they don't happen.
And finally, scientists have discovered that not all rats like to be tickled.

If all goes well, there'll be two more videos from Orkney in the next couple of weeks. And production on the second channel has started: that'll launch on September 1st. Thanks for being part of all this!

All the best,

— Tom

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