Jet Lag, a good bus, and a wonderful web toy.

Hello! And we start with a new thing that I'm in on YouTube: the first episode of this season of Jet Lag: The Game is live! Sam, Ben, Adam and I race to visit the most European countries in six days.

This week on Lateral, it's the return of one of our regular trios, as Sabrina Cruz, Melissa Fernandes and Taha Khan from 'Answer in Progress' face questions about serial stabbing, political pacts and cellist coordination.

On YouTube this week, here's what I've found:

Network Nathan reviews London's most controversial new bus. I did not expect to watch this whole video, but I was sold on it by Nathan's charming and enthusiastic delivery. There's a lot of comments from people saying that the YouTube algorithm pointed them to it, so it looks like Nathan's following a tried-and-true path to success: keep plugging away for a long time, hone your craft, and then when something like this finally works, take advantage of the opportunity. Good luck to him and the channel.
Back in September in this newsletter, I linked to pictures of "auto polo". Well, Dime Store Adventures now has a whole video on it! And as usual, the research is thorough, digging through dozens of old newspapers and using their records as contemporary sources for "the most dangerous sport in the world".
Firing the Lorentz plasma cannon. Terrifying homebrew technology, from someone very competent and very experienced. "You can definitely tell a stable plama channel formed, since it blew a hole in the plywood, and the peak current reached tens of thousands of amperes. ... Now let's try doubling the energy."

And away from the world of video, try these links:

The "Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute" is a group of designers who are cataloguing the various corporate styles of the last few decades. While you'll know most of the "looks" here, you may ever have considered that they have names, movements, and histories.
Tired of Losing is an emotional piece about self-storage, identity, memory, and our desires and attachment to physical things. The writer is both a journalist and a poet, and it shows. Strongly recommended.
715-999-7483.com is a wonderful web toy. (Content warning: there could be anything on this site!) After visiting the site, call the number, describe how you'd like it to be changed, and it will happen. It's a really clever, fun hack, and I wish I'd thought of it. A request, though, if you call the number: try to do something just as clever. Don't promote yourself, or me, or shout out the newsletter; try to do something that'll make the world smile.

And finally, here's an excellent lamppost.

All the best,

— Tom