Tower workers and expensive typos!
22nd January 2024
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Hello!
I realise this newsletter isn't "here's what Tom got up to on sabbatical", but for those keeping tracking: I think I might
have actually managed to get some rest this week. But anyway! This episode on Lateral, it's the return of the team from Let's Learn Everything, facing questions about confectionery companies, Covid conditions and culinary
choices.
What good stuff have I found on YouTube this week?
- Deconstructed Animations makes excellent "how it works" explainer videos for common tools, like an oscillating sprinkler or torque
wrench. These must take so long to produce! I know a couple of folks who have "faceless" channels, voiceover and animation, who are worried about the rush of spam-churn, AI-created, low-quality competitors that are appearing; and I think one of the things I like about this channel is that it's clearly being made by people (probably, just one person). There are occasional imperfections, in the animation and the voiceover; it "feels like" an actual person telling you something they're
interested in, rather than the cash-in scripts you can find in many other places. (Thanks to Chris for sending this over.)
- Qualified "debunk" videos are a great genre, and over at Lab Muffin Beauty Science, a chemistry PhD
takes on TikTok's haircare misinformation. (I didn't even know how shampoo worked before watching this.)
- I went to Zermatt last year, but didn't have time to travel on any of the many gondolas and cable cars. Well, DownieLive has
been on all of them (and a few other, more fun ways to travel, too). That includes the huge and newly-opened linked network of gondolas that crosses an international border!
- Turns out there's a whole genre of professional tower-climbers who post their jobs on YouTube: here's a seven-minute, uncut POV shot of a team stacking a piece of a new radio tower on top of the other pieces... using a helicopter.
Other interesting links I've found this week:
- A typo that cost the US postal service $500 million. This is a fascinating story of how seemingly double-checked systems can fail. But I would love to see some sourcing on this: the story makes sense, but it's on a blog run by a tech startup as an advertising base, there's not even an "according to" in
there, and I can't find any other references.
- Forty years ago, scientists did the impossible and found a cure for cockroach infestations, and it feels like the world has
forgotten.
And finally, over on TikTok, Marcus Keeley visits... well, I wouldn't want to spoil the glamorous destination.
All the best,
— Tom
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