A river with an off switch, and a chase around London.

• Jeremy Fielding deep-dives on the subject of aircraft tires: how and why the design and manufacturing differs so much from car and truck tires, and just how harsh the conditions they have to bear are.
   
• I wasn't surprised to discover that slinky juggling is a thing on TikTok; I was surprised at how it looks, though. I'd swear some of those tricks defy the laws of physics.
   
• I strongly suspect that most people reading this will already have seen the Slow Mo Guys perform a 400mph pool break: but if not, it's definitely worth your time, because the final shot could not have gone better. I've no idea how they aimed that well.

• The Death of the Key Change: why don't songs modulate up for the final chorus any more? (It includes a graph that shows just how unpopular that's become.)
   
• Another statistic that's changed over time, that I discovered this week: The British Social Attitudes survey has been run annually for decades, and in one of their old reports: in 1987, three-quarters of British adults thought that being gay was "always wrong" or "mostly wrong". Three-quarters! By 2012, just 25 years later, that number would be 28%; I can't find more recent data but it's safe to say that number continues to fall. The past is, as ever, a different country.
   
• I've been in Québec this week, which means I've learned about some very strange profanity: it turns out that the Québecois can swear by stringing together seemingly-random terms from Catholicism. (The article, obviously, contains very strong language.)
   
• brr.fyi is a brilliantly-titled blog from an IT tech at McMurdo Station. How do you vote in Antarctica? How does the wastewater treatment plant work? This is well worth reading.
   

And finally, some expeditious field repair creates the last professional, but most endearing, crossing sign.

Next week: 

All the best,

— Tom