Aired May 5, 2014
This week's guest is Rikki Poynter! Go subscribe to her vlog: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7wVohIwd66b95xyuw7DFQ -- and if subtitles aren't on automatically here, you can turn them on in your device settings! There isn't one universal sign language for all: even British and American sign languages have very little in common. Here, with full subtitles, is someone actually qualified to explain why!
Today's guest is 12tone! Go subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTUtqcDkzw7bisadh6AOx5w - and here's their video about the Imperial March: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA36-mQEYwk Solresol is a language, invented out of whole cloth by Jean-François Sudre in the 19th century, that used seven musical notes to create all the words that he thought you'd ever need. It did work: so why aren't we all speaking in notes right now? SOURCES: http://web.archive.org/web/20060115061414/http://www
This week's guest is Evan Hadfield, from Rare Earth. Go subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtGG8ucQgEJPeUPhJZ4M4jA -- start with his video on the last elephants of Cambodia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4SETSsXkx0 William Lyon Mackenzie King was a sexually repressed, hypocritical, guilt-ridden, prostitute-visiting momma's boy who was exceptionally weird. He was also, perhaps, Canada's greatest prime minister. This week, Evan talks about legacy, and about how you don't need to be a
I'd never heard of moiré effect beacons until I got an email asking me about them. It seemed like a really clever idea - but it was really hard to research. Or at least it was, until I stumbled upon one magic phrase that revealed its history. It turns out this thing's called an "Inogon leading mark" or "Inogon light" -- Inogon, not Inogen -- and it's a Swedish invention from the 1980s. But there's still a question: why is being used to mark an undersea cable, instead of guiding people home? (F
Many people sent me this story: it covers my favourite topics of power grids and temporal anomalies. But when the mainstream press have already covered it, how could I add something more? The answer: by adding another pet topic, Unnecessary British Patriotism. And a teasmade. Press release: https://www.entsoe.eu/news-events/announcements/announcements-archive/Pages/News/2018-03-06-press-release-continuing-frequency-deviation-in-the-continental-european-power-system.aspx Teasmade: http://amzn.t
Thanks to the RAF, Rolls-Royce, and the Red Arrows! Go visit their Starrship project, it's the reason I got to do this: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqSO3sA38W0YLwrwTxA0POw The Red Arrows are the Royal Air Force's aerobatic display team - the best in the world. They fly Hawk T1 jets, powering through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour, pulling high-G maneuvers with just a few metres between their wingtips. Here's how they do it: and part of it's a skill that you probably already know. S
As far as I can find, no-one has actually made a International Standard Cup of Tea - ISO 3103 or BS 6008 - for the internet before. Lots of people have talked about it, but that's easy. Making one? That requires precision... and some specialist equipment. You can buy a professional tea tasting set from this Amazon UK affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2qfbxyr Thanks to Morag Hickman for letting me borrow her workshop for last-minute filming! She makes beautiful jewellery, like ring-keepers, drago
Over the North Atlantic, there's no radar coverage: so how do air traffic controllers keep planes safe? The answer, at least in part, can be found at Nav Canada's Gander Area Control Centre in Newfoundland. The North Atlantic Tracks are like freeway lanes in the sky, if freeway lanes were stacked a thousand feet on top of each other. More about Nav Canada and the tracks, and the new standards they're introducing: http://blog.navcanada.ca/increasing-operational-flexibility-north-atlantic/ Edite
In Dawson City, a small mining town in the Yukon, sits the Downtown Hotel. Inside there is a tradition that tourists have been trying out for decades: the Sourtoe Cocktail. Thanks to everyone at the Downtown Hotel! More about them: https://dawsoncity.ca/attraction/sourtoe-cocktail-club/ Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) I'm at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott and on Snapchat and Instagram as tomscottgo
In the last few years, wildfires have been getting worse - and, oddly, it's because humans have been preventing them. From a helicopter above the forests of British Columbia, and from the Tree Ring Lab at UBC, let's talk about how we should just let some wildfires burn. Thanks to Bradley Friesen! He's about to properly launch his channel 'Destruction by Gravity': https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL3Kr3kf9W34cUvurxl7AGw and Mister Bentley the Dog is on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrben
In Porthcurno, Cornwall, there's an old telegraph cable landing station. It's how Britain talked to the Empire -- and it's now a museum. But the technology here isn't quite as obsolete as you might think. Thanks to Steve and all the team at the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum! You can find out more about them here: https://telegraphmuseum.org/ Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) I'm at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott an
Back in the 1920s, wingwalking claimed lives. Daredevils would move around on the top of a plane's wings, in mid-flight, often without any harness or any safety line. Maybe they'd be able to clip onto something during takeoff and landing, but maybe not. There are still a few of those true daredevil wingwalkers out there in the world, but in the 21st century... it's usually a bit different. Thanks to the team at Aerosuperbatics Wingwalking: http://www.aerosuperbatics.com/ (this isn't sponsored,
Ogham is an old Irish script made by carving notches into stones. It fell out of use more than a millennium ago - but it's an interesting exception to a linguistics and computer-science rule that I'd never even realised existed. Let's talk about the Ogham Space Mark. Thanks to all the team at the British Museum! You can visit their YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/britishmuseum I'm at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook
Every month or so, somewhere in London, a manhole explodes. It's so common that it doesn't make the news unless it's spectacular or someone gets injured. Here's why, complete with gratuitous pyrotechnics. Filmed by Perspective Pictures Pyrotechnics by Paul at Darkstar Pyrotechnics News articles: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/11169183/Explosion-in-city-street.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/pavement-explodes-yards-from-pedestrians-and-cars-in-old-street-a35
Dinorwig Power Station, otherwise known as Electric Mountain, is a pumped-storage hydro station in Llanberis, Wales. And yes: it's Britain's largest battery. Here's how it works, and why some of the things you think you know about TV pickups might not be so true any more. Thanks to all the Engie team! More about them: http://home.engie.co.uk Public tours of Electric Mountain are closed until mid-2019, but you can find details here: http://electricmountain.co.uk/ Camera op: Ryan Priestnall Edi
The Tree That Owns Itself in Athens, Georgia is well known. The other Tree That Owns Itself in Eufaula, Alabama, really isn't. It's the same story in a different place. Why? I'm at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott and on Instagram as tomscottgo
The Multi Axis Trainer, or MAT, is an icon of space exploration and astronaut training. But other than spinning round kids at Space Camp: what's it actually used for? Thanks to Moriah and all the team at Space Camp! You can find out more about their programs for kids and for adults at https://www.spacecamp.com/ Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) I'm at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott and on Instagram as tomscottgo
Go subscribe to Medlife Crisis! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgRBRE1DUP2w7HTH9j_L4OQ or start with Rohin's video on why you shouldn't test for everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kQk9-KLPfU The Bajau people of Borneo can hold their breath longer than almost anyone else on the planet. How? Why? And how can the rest of us learn to hold our breath for longer? Rohin from Medlife Crisis explains.
Subscribe to Up and Atom! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIvk78tK2TiviLQn4fSHaw/ or start with Jade's video on quantum tunnelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPZLRtyvEqo You've got a painting and two nails. Can you use both nails to hang the painting so that if either nail is removed, the painting falls? That's the puzzle: in this week's guest video, Jade's going to solve it with maths.
Subscribe to Kurtis Baute! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTRM8LE1g6UXrVZKwgw5oEA or start with his one-take video on the history of the universe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObngtuPFI8A Inside his homemade, hermetically-sealed, airtight biodome, Kurtis Baute is already out of breath and surrounded by more carbon dioxide than he should be. And that's going to affect a lot of things -- including how smart he is. SOURCES: CO2 and Cognitive Function Scores: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/pdf
High-frequency traders have a few tactics on stock exchanges: but simply put, they gather price information faster than anyone else, sometimes even faster than the markets themselves, and use that to make a tiny profit many, many, many times. There are all sorts of solutions: but it turns out there's a simpler one that involves physics. Thanks to Ronan and all the team at IEX - you can find out more about them here: https://iextrading.com/ or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/IEX I fact-checke
Featuring the Gregory Brothers! Go subscribe to them: https://youtube.com/schmoyoho Pitch correction: it can make terrible singers sound decent, brilliant singer sound mediocre, or Cher sound like a robot. But how does it work? And is it possible to explain that without actually trying to understand Fourier transforms? I'm at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott and on Instagram as tomscottgo
Cape Reinga, at the very northern tip of New Zealand, is known for being where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, where two oceans collide. The truth, though, is a little more complicated than that.
Kerosene Creek is a natural hot spring near Rotorua, on the North Island of New Zealand. And there have been official warnings for years: don't put your head under water. It turns out that "brain-eating amoebas", naegleria fowleri, are a real, if rare, thing.
Olds Engineering, a traditional workshop and foundry, sits in Maryborough, Australia. It's not the sort of place you'd expect to find a new industrial invention in the 21st century: and yet the Olds Elevator, patented by Peter Olds, is just that.
A decade ago, engineers found the Humber Bridge had the same problem as many of the world's suspension bridges: unexpectedly fast corrosion. Here's how they fixed it, and how they're checking that it's staying fixed. Thanks to all the team at the Humber Bridge board, at Cleveland Bridge, and Visit Hull and East Yorkshire, all of whom spent a lot of time and effort getting me up to the towers!
Aerosparx are a British aerobatics team that perform displays with fireworks attached to their wings. This is how they do it.
If you've been a subscriber for a while, you probably know where this one is going. Although you may still be surprised about where I ended up going... Montana's Giant Springs State Park, and Lake Sumiainen in Finland, have very short rivers. Finding the shortest in the world, though: that could be trickier.
Oodi, the new Helsinki Library, has robots to help reshelve books. They get a lot of press attention. But they're not the important part of the library: here's why.
It sounds ridiculous, but it's true. At the Cooper Union Foundation Building in New York, there's the world's first lift shaft: constructed four years before the "safety elevator" was invented.
At the National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas, the US government once stored 32 billion cubic feet of helium. There have been breathless news articles recently saying the world's running out: but it's still possible to buy party balloons. What's going on?
The brain is a mass of neurons, but some areas are more important than others. How can surgeons navigate inside the brain? How do they know exactly where to operate, and what to do? Alex from Brainbook explains.
Coca-Cola's brand of bottled water, Dasani, was a flop in the UK after the public realised it was just filtered tap water. But the story's a bit more complicated than it might seem.
Dark scenes in television, YouTube, and streaming platforms all look pixelated and blocky. Here's why.
Ipley Cross, in the middle of the New Forest, is one of the most dangerous road junctions in Britain. Why?
When YouTube allowed music labels to "remaster" their original uploads, different videos had very different approaches. Some are in crystal-clear 4K; others are very definitely not. Here's why some of them look terrible.
The Icknield Way, in south-east England, is a road and footpath that's been part of the landscape for millennia. But if parts of it hadn't been legally marked down, then those parts would have become private land, gone forever. Who has the right to walk where?
Green screen looks terrible sometimes. Here's why
Linby is a small village in Nottinghamshire, England. It wouldn't have much strategic value... unless some commander didn't read their map properly. Here's a local legend, with a few questions about it.
In 1834, Parliament burned down, and the Standards of Measurement were melted or destroyed. So when there's no agreed-upon standard for length: how do you fix it? Also: how you can still publicly check the length of your sandwich.
Cornwall rises and falls by a few centimetres, twice a day. I didn't believe that when I read it. In this video: "ocean tide loading": why, how, and does it actually matter?
Kolbeinsey is the most northern part of Iceland, a tiny island that, according to Wikipedia, is due to disappear due to wave erosion "probably around the year 2020". Which raised an obvious question: is it still there?
Normally, the answer would be no. But in these very limited circumstances, at Iceland's Blue Lagoon, you can swim in geothermal power plant wastewater, and it's even healthy: although the marketing material doesn't usually mention it. Here's a story about geothermal energy, cheap heat, and how to keep some ducks warm.
The Roadmachines Mono-Rail may have been the only truly useful, fit-for-purpose monorail in the world. Of the hundreds that were built, most were never meant for passengers. But they did carry a couple of famous people in their time, including a certain secret agent...
If you want to sell alcohol in England, you need a license. But the Licensing Act 2003 has some unusual exceptions.
There's an urban legend that poppy seeds can make you fail a drug test. Is it true? And if so: why? I ate a few bagels, and set out to flunk an opioid test.
Torpenhow Hill, in the Lake District in the north-west of England, is the only place in the world whose name has the same word four different times. That's the story, anyway. The truth is a bit more complex.
We take it for granted in the UK that if a fire breaks out, you can call firefighters, and they will try to put it out and save lives. In the 18th century, that wasn't guaranteed. If your building didn't have a fire mark, they might just let it burn. The reason: fire insurance, and fire insurance companies.
Explosions on film are made to look good: fireballs and flame. In reality, though, they're a bit disappointing. Here's how Hollywood does it. • Produced with an experienced, professional pyrotechnician. Do not attempt.
I didn't even realise that "low explosives" were a thing; let's talk about deflagration, detonation, and how high explosives can actually be safer.
Decades before NASA's Apollo program, the British Interplanetary Society wanted to go to the moon: in a spacesuit that looked like a suit of armour.
In Glenelg, on the west coast of Scotland, there's the Skye Ferry: the last turntable ferry in the world. And the reason for that turntable is a lot more clever than I initially thought.
Around the old mining areas of North Wales, you can find rock cannon: old Welsh firework sites. Most of the world has never heard of them, so we recreated them on a test range.
What do you do with a disused phone box? And can they help save lives?
he Orkney Islands, off the northern tip of Scotland, have so much electricity that it's actually a problem. Here's why: and here's what they're doing about it. • This video has a correction: Hornsdale Power Reserve didn't catch fire! It was the newer Victorian Big Battery, near Geelong. Complete blunder on my part, apologies to the Hornsdale team. See all corrections on this channel: https://www.tomscott.com/corrections/
The 1933 British penny is one of the most famous coins in the world. I'm not saying this is definitely a heist movie waiting to happen... but I do think someone should write it. I Thanks to the team at Baldwin's, and the penny's owner, for letting me film
In the 1960s, America was running "Operation Plowshare": the idea that perhaps nuclear bombs could be used for peace, not war. At least some British scientists had similar ambitions, and it involved setting off a nuclear bomb under Wheeldale, in the North York Moors National Park.
On Sunday, the South Terminal at London's Gatwick Airport will reopen for the first time since 2020. It turns out that mothballing an entire terminal isn't quite as easy as turning out the lights. Thanks to all the team at Gatwick Airport! (To be clear, this isn't a sponsored video: I approached them about filming this, and I'm grateful for the access. I did not expect to get out on the airfield.) Bonus fact for pulling down the description: this was filmed on Wednesday, when the cloud of Saharan dust was in the atmosphere. I had to do a lot of colour-correction to make the outside scenes look normal!
Did I need to get a radio controlled clock and travel to Anthorn to film this video? Absolutely not. But for a few minutes, that clock was really, really accurate.
In southern France, there's a man called Christian who flies a microlight aircraft, alongside flocks of birds. And he takes passengers
The "accelerated pavement testing facility" in Nantes can simulate decades of road traffic in a few months. Here's how.
Royal FloraHolland's flower auction in Aalsmeer had a famous clock: a literal Dutch auction where the first person to press their button would win. But it's no more, and that's down to the internet.
At the Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City, keyers process 1.2 billion images of mail every year. It's a more difficult job than I thought.
The "T-Rex" is the University of Texas' large mobile shaker, and I got to see it in action.
It's about synchronisation, right? Well, not exactly...
The Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland is 57km long: and I think its greatest piece of safety equipment is nowhere near the tunnel itself.
The Headington Shark, in Oxford, UK, is a local icon: but it was protest art, put up without permission. Now, the local government wants to protect it
There's a lot of articles written about how tap water in Warsaw is constantly tested by a small team of clams. It felt like a hoax to me: so I went to find out.
The brown marmorated stink bug is an invasive pest. To help deal with its numbers, the Oregon Department of Agriculture is releasing its natural enemy: the tiny samurai wasp. There's a lot of work that goes into it
The Great Scenic Railway, at Luna Park in Melbourne, Australia, is the second oldest rollercoaster in the world: and it's one of only a few which still uses a manual brake.
"Sentinel chickens" are an early-warning system against some nasty mosquito-borne diseases. I visited a flock in New South Wales, Australia.
The common wisdom is that, once an invasive species is truly established, it can't be eradicated — but I talked to the team from Predator Free Wellington, who think they can do just that
Hideyasu Ito runs the Micro Hovercraft Laboratory, and I got to meet him and ride his incredible four-bubble hovercraft.
Agroscope is a Swiss government-backed agricultural research lab. It's got a lot of other resarch projects too, but it also keeps a backup of the Swiss cheese bacterial cultures... just in käse
At the University of California San Diego, there's the Shake Table: an earthquake simulator with the heaviest payload capacity in the world.
The Catesby Tunnel, in the UK, is an old Victorian railway tunnel that has a new use: a secretive car testing facility, like a wind tunnel but in reverse. So rather than just show it to the world, I thought l'd answer a question: if you stick a camera on the outside of your car, how much does the drag cost you?
The first few moments of an explosion can't be simulated yet. But there's a team at the University of Sheffield working on it.
Well before the first climbing frame was patented as "jungle gym", mathematician Charles Hinton thought they might be able to teach kids four-dimensional thinking.
Near Dayton, Ohio there's a lookalike of the Wright Brothers' Model B: a 1910 aircraft with no cockpit. It's a modern plane with a very old design, and I went for a ride.
At the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana, you can get a product certified as bear-resistant... by actual bears.
An unexpected update to the Bear test video
This was so much more complex than I thought.
The British Library is one of the six legal deposit libraries for the UK - and the only one that doesn't pick and choose, or have to ask for copies. That's a lot of books to store, and the internet's only making it worse. This video has a correction: it turns out the formal interview requirement for a reader pass has been dropped. However, you'll still need to get a pass, and you're not allowed to take books out of the reading rooms!
AMZ Racing's "mythen" holds the world record for electric vehicle acceleration: 0-100km/h in 0.956 seconds. And they let me drive it.
There's a world in which everyone boards planes with "mobile lounges", PTVs, or Plane-Mates... but this is not that world.
The moonlight towers of Austin, Texas, are the last urban municipal lighting towers in the world: because before every street was wired to the grid, how else would you light up a city?
There's a good reason for it.
Britain's power grid is turning inside-out, which means pylons are about to become a lot more controversial in Britain. At the National Grid Training Centre, I climbed one.