Linguistics! a puppet cameo! and trains!

And I'm happy to say that I made a cameo appearance on another channel! Okay, this is going to take a bit of explaining, so: Miikshi, star of the charming kids' puppet series of the same name, is a sheep scientist who has a potato satellite in orbit. As part of a collaboration with the University of Tokyo, she's now got a series about cosmic ray science. And episode 2 features a video from someone that you may find a bit familiar...

Elsewhere on YouTube:

• For years, people have said I should go and film the soccer stadium with a steam train running through it. It's not quite right for my channel, so I never did — and I'm glad, because The Tim Traveller has made a better video about it than I ever could. Tim is great at bringing his audience along for the journey, and I'm really impressed with just how well it all comes together. And the piano work in the closing montage, though it'll only land for Brits of a certain age, is genius.
   
• Researchers at the University of Kentucky have recovered the contents carbonised ancient scrolls, too degraded to be unwrapped, using artificial intelligence and a particle accelerator. (Thanks to Manuel for sending this over.) It's worth comparing this with the BBC's efforts to recover an old Morecambe and Wise show from a similarly degreaded, although more modern, reel of film.

• An interesting visualisation of how often each OpenStreetMap tile is accessed: it's worth scrolling down to the replies to see the discussion, too, which explains a lot of what initially appear to be anomalies. Then that gets followed up with this one-frame-per-day animation!
   
• Busted's Thunderbirds Are Go was the British Record of the Year in 2004, and hardly anyone outside the UK has heard of it. Well, for those who do remember: the finally-reformed Busted have put out an album called Greatest Hits 2.0, with re-recorded songs. And I think the new version of Thunderbirds Are Go may actually be better than the original: the Barry Gray sample at the start is great, the vocals are cleaner, and the production isn't early-2000s loudness war. I'm less convinced about the alternate version with McFly on the all-collabs version of the album, I think there's a Bit Too Much there, but it's still worth a listen. As is their cover of Mmmbop featuring Hanson, where more of the verse lyrics are actually intelligible but it's missing the all-important 90s Record Scratch Sample. Plus, there's a definitive version of Year 3000 with the Jonas Brothers, who brought that song to the US.
   
• Money in the Bank, by John Kessel and Bruce Sterling in Lightspeed Magazine, is an homage to the buzzword-filled, hyperactive cyberpunk fiction of the 80s and 90s... only using the actual, ridiculous language of modern technology and crypto-bros. And then adding in properly weird stuff.
   

And finally: if you're not already watching, Jet Lag: The Game is back.

All the best,

— Tom