I ride the world's fastest train! Plus, some really good Lego.

In the world of video this week:

• It's worth watching Brick Technology's seven Lego water pumps: both for the intricate stop-motion build sequences, and for the pleasing sequence that shows them all working together. The final montage, complete with EDM soundtrack, is so ridiculously over-produced as to be charming.
   
• Tibees talks about the physics experiment that ruined Australia. Part of my brain wishes I'd covered this story when I was in Australia, but the rest knows that it's not a story I could tell — this video is better than anything I could make.
   
• Why are animals darker on top and lighter on the bottom?
   
• At the intersection of AI, linguistics, and biology: could ChatGPT talk to whales?

• An Icelandic town goes all-out to save baby puffins (which are, adorably, called pufflings).
   
• Influencer parents, and the kids who had their childhood made into content is an article that coalesces a lot of the worries I've had for a long time about "family channels", or even child-vloggers in general. I wonder how many more testimonials like this we'll see in the next few years.
   
• This story on decarbonising home heating is a bit long and dry, but I'd encourage you to just read the first part, because there is a staggering anecdote (sadly unsourced) about placebo buttons.
   
• On average, how often does a car crash into a storefront in America? Once a week? Once every couple of days? Nope: that happens one hundred times every day.

And finally, the pebble-mound mouse is very good at its job.

All the best,

— Tom