I flew with birds, and went back to a cave.

16th May 2022

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Hello!

In this week's video, I flew with birds, and you can too. And over on the Plus channel, I went back to the cave that kicked my ass. I'm really proud of both of these videos!

Elsewhere on YouTube:

Who made these circles in the Sahara? is so good. It answers the question in the title, but is also a deep-dive look behind-the-scenes. Just how much research does it take to answer a question when you can't just Google it?
This next video requires a bit of context. The best performance of Eurovision this year, for me, wasn't one of the entries: it was Diodata singing Fai Rumore as an interval act. This was meant to be Italy's song for Eurovision 2020: but that was cancelled. Diodata performed it instead to an empty amphitheatre in a deserted Verona; there's footage of Italians singing it from lockdown balconies. The lyrics include "I can't bear it, this unnatural silence". Watching this performed to a full, vocal crowd, with a full cast of dancers, made me well up just a little.
On a much lighter note, PDQ Bach's performance of Beethoven's Fifth, complete with referee, cheerleaders, and play-by-play announcers. I didn't expect to watch the whole thing, but I did. (Thanks to Patrick for sending this in!)
I have no idea how I missed Ten Meter Tower until now: it's a simple concept, perfectly edited. (Some strong language.)

Outside the world of YouTube this week:

A detailed, well-written explainer of how a mechanical watch works, with interactive diagrams. This feels like exactly what the web was meant for: technical, interesting, and using new technologies for teaching. (Thanks to the many people who sent this in!)
Damn Interesting are one of the stalwarts of the web: they've been producing long-reads about fascinating things since 2005. Their latest is "Devouring the Heart of Portugal", which tells the tale of a 1924 attempted heist: a plain that involved not just counterfeiting money, but convincing an actual money printer to make "real" notes, and then using that to take over the national bank.
This lead-lined locomotive hauled experimental nuclear reactors.
Plagiarism Today was plagiarised... in an apology for plagiary. I'm mostly including this for the title, but this actually raises a lot of questions about what counts as "plagiarism", and where the border lies between referencing, versus rewriting. (Particularly right now, because that Damn Interesting article above doesn't cite its sources...)

And finally, Floxjam dot com lets you put all your steamchain devices into one manageable flash drive.

That's it for this week. I'm in the middle of a lot of very physical filming for the Plus channel right now, but I think it's going to pay off with some spectacular videos soon. Thanks again for being part of the newsletter crew: I'll see you on the internet!

All the best,

— Tom

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