Cheese! A weird dark ride! And helicopter skills.
1st May 2023
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Hello!
This week's the video is the first of three (possibly three in a row? but the publication order's not sorted yet, don't hold me to that) where I have to don some sort of clean-room clothes or scrubs. It's time to find out how they saved the holes in Swiss cheese!
And over on Lateral, it's the return of Emily the Engineer, Wren Weichman and Kip Heath, facing questions about right-handed roads, tea taxonomy and broken bikes!
This week's the video is the first of three (possibly three in a row? but the publication order's not sorted yet, don't hold me to that) where I have to don some sort of clean-room clothes or scrubs. It's time to find out how they saved the holes in Swiss cheese!
And over on Lateral, it's the return of Emily the Engineer, Wren Weichman and Kip Heath, facing questions about right-handed roads, tea taxonomy and broken bikes!
What else has been going on in the world of video?
- I won't run through a whole biography of Tim Hunkin, but suffice it to say that if you're ever in London, it's worth a visit to his museum of automata, "Novelty Automation". On YouTube, he's creating a whole in-depth series about electronics, and his latest video on programmable logic controllers includes footage of a bizarre never-opened British dark ride, shots of his own strange arcade machines, and a lot of really clever explanations about how PLCs work. It's worth checking out both his channel, and the rest of his work. (Thanks to the many people who've sent Tim's channel in over the last few months!)
- A helicopter lifts the final part of a 400' broadcast tower, filmed as a close-up POV from a construction worker on the top of the tower. It's a rare thing to see a birds-eye view of a helicopter taking off, and the video just gets more astonishing from there. (Thanks to Tim for sending this over!)
- Johnny Harris and his team (and given the quality and frequency of these videos, that's a heck of a team) take on the surprisingly-uncertain history of who actually got to the North Pole first?
- Rachel Maksy found an old knitting machine in her basement, and even for someone like me who has no idea about crafts or textiles, this was an entertaining watch.
And around the rest of the internet:
- I can't tell whether this is an actual good idea, or just a PR stunt that some advertising agency's cooked up: but a German ambulance has been painted with
a high-visibility design that's also a QR code. If you try and take a photo of an accident scene, you'll get offered a link reminding you that, in Germany, that's not legal. (Thanks to Aron for sending this over!)
- Long freight trains keep blocking crossings across America: which means kids sometimes have to climb over, under or between carriages to get to school.
- Brown Windsor Soup was a running "bad British food" joke for years... and it probably never existed.
- In the most "Black Mirror"-esque story I've seen in a while: Replika is an AI chatbot that pretends to be a friend or even romantic partner. If you think "hey, that doesn't sound healthy or safe", then you're absolutely right.
Right! That's it for this week. Next week: actually, I'm not sure yet, it's going to depend which video gets edited first. Deadlines are a bit tight at the moment!
Oh, and finally, the thagomizer.
All the best,
— Tom
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