A carbonated geyser, some welding, and an emu.
1st August 2022
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Heads up! This newsletter is more than a year old. Links may be out of date or lead to unexpected places, or the context may have changed. Please handle with care.
Hello!
In this week's video, I visit a geyser that shoots carbonated mineral water! And in the last of this run of the Technical Difficulties, Chris puts his beard in significant peril.
In this week's video, I visit a geyser that shoots carbonated mineral water! And in the last of this run of the Technical Difficulties, Chris puts his beard in significant peril.
(Thanks to everyone who's been watching the new channel: it's been more successful than we'd dare hope for! If all goes well, we should have another run at some point this year. Maybe.)
Also in video this week:
- Captain Disillusion's channel is the epitome of quality over quantity: this is a staggering breakdown of music video VFX that is months — perhaps years — in the making.
- And speaking of music videos: the motion-control robot-arm shots in AJR's I Won't are world-class. I'm sure the technique's been done before, but I've never seen it to this level. (Some moderate profanity in the chorus.)
- Cruising the Cut has a lovely little documentary about the deepest, highest, and longest canal tunnel in Britain.
- And James Hoffmann reviews a ridiculous coffee maker made by a power-tools company.
But mostly this week, I've been reading rather than watching, and I've found some really interesting stuff:
- GPS Jam is a daily map of where GPS signals are being blocked, spoofed or otherwise interfered with. This is a very clever use of technically-public data and I'd recommend reading the 'about' and 'FAQ' pages.
- This deep-dive interview with someone from the Antiquities Theft Task Force is worth a read. The introduction sums up exactly my thoughts on the subject: that now I know it exists, I want to know a lot more! (Some moderate profanity.)
- Randall Munroe, of XKCD fame, uses an AI art generator to create Pokémon cards through history, back from the 1990s to neolithic times.
- Stratovision was a briefly-popular idea to relay television and radio signals using aircraft. For just a few years in the mid-20th century, it might actually have been a good plan.
- Wikipedia's list of common misconceptions is very long, very interesting and somehow (for me, at least) absolutely infuriating. At least it's phrased so that everything in it is true: if it were phrased "these myths are false", I'd worry that only the myth itself would stick in my head.
All the best,
— Tom
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