I saw the Chocolate Protectors, and got an electric shock.

24th January 2022

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Hello!

In this week's video, I tour the British laboratory that protects the world's chocolate. Over on Tom Scott plus, I play Operation against an actual doctor... with electric shocks when we mess up. And we mess up a lot.

If you enjoyed the Money game show I put out back in December, you might be interested in this behind-the-scenes chat I had with games producer David Bodycombe, on the excellent TV Show and Tell podcast that he co-hosts.

I also appeared on a podcast called Follow Friday, where I got to gush about some folks whose work I admire!

And from around the rest of YouTube this week, here's a selection of videos that I've liked — starting very serious, but ending as ridiculous as can be.

Neuro Transmissions' "Why I Stopped Watching Football" (American football, to be clear) is an exceptionally well-narrated and well-edited video essay, written and presented by a PhD neuroscientist and football fan who played rugby in high school. It's sobering and covers some heavy topics, but it's worth the watch.
I didn't expect a tour of a nine-figure mansion in Los Angeles to be my sort of video, but interspersed amongst the "homes of the rich and famous" schtick is interesting discussion of the art and legacy of architecture, and the upkeep it requires. Even if you don't watch the full tour, I'd recommend at least skimming through if you've got any interest in that sort of thing.
I don't expect anyone to watch the full half-hour highlights reel of Sirencon either, but it's the best "of course that's a thing" moment I've had in a long while. And at least online, it's possible to turn down your speakers a bit.
This clip of surreal British panel show Shooting Stars — Jack Dee feels the force of opera — probably needs context, and I'm deliberately not going to provide any. Except to say that, for some reason, it never fails to make me laugh.

Most of my links this week are out of the world of video, though:

Why Galesburg Has No Money is an incredible piece that neatly sums up what's wrong with American suburban development. (Not Just Bikes, who I've mentioned before, also provides a YouTube version of a similar argument.)
Spurious Correlations are ridiculous-but-true graphs found by testing enough data. For example: the Maine divorce rate correlates with per capita consumption of margarine. (thanks to Charlie for suggesting this)
Inside WWE's massive video vault: how robots, archivists, and sagging shelves store, categorise, digitize and preserve more than 130,000 hours of footage.
If you've seen the movie Titanic, you'll remember the shot of the guy falling from the deck and hitting the propeller on the way down. This is the story of Propeller Guy.
And finally, a stranded dog was saved from drowning after rescuers attached a sausage to a drone.

Much as I love that "and finally" story, I can't help being skeptical. It's a lovely bit of fluff news, but in the 2020s... how is there no footage of it?

Perhaps I'm just too used to filming things.

All the best,

— Tom

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