Season finales, and a very loud honk.
26th December 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 Links may be out of date or lead to unexpected places, or the context may have changed.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! It's been the final Big Busy Week of December. If you include the TV appearance, then there are five things I've been part of this week:
- On the main channel, I got to 3D print my own abdomen for robotic surgery.
- It's the season finale of Plus! The show's
going on break, but I ended it with terrifying my production team by throwing all of us down a bobsleigh track.
- On this week's Lateral, Rowan Ellis, Vanessa Hill and Grady Hillhouse face questions about diehard disease, pill-popping performers, and ridiculous room numbers.
- It's also the season finale of the Technical Difficulties: where Gary makes a very loud noise. This is absolutely joyful.
- Plus, if you haven't seen it: I was on University Challenge! And I think it's been out long enough to say that I'll be back in the semi-final, this Wednesday at 8:30pm! (Links are UK only)
That's a ridiculous amount of stuff. Fortunately, as you read this, I'll be in the middle of my Christmas break!
So what else have I found in the world of video this week?
- You've seen the Mission Impossible stunt, right? It feels like
everyone must have seen it by now. But if not, it's worth the ten minutes: yes, it's a promotional piece, yes, it's part of the Grand Internet Redemption of Tom Cruise... but it's also worth watching both for the skill, and for the way the story's told.
- For the second year in a row, Xyla Foxlin turns a Christmas tree into a rocket. And this time, it sort-of became a missile.
- People can now stop asking me to do a video about the Alignment of Three Norths,
because Matt Parker has covered it better than I ever could.
- I keep linking to the band AJR here, because I keep being impressed by what they create. This stage performance is a masterclass in how to combine visuals, audio cues, and storytelling. It's probably a bit too scripted — being "interrupted" by something that can't possibly be diegetic is a trope that always grates for me — but the payoff makes it worth it.
And away from YouTube:
- Life Universe is Conway's Game of Life implemented in Conway's Game of Life implemented in Conway's Game of Life implemented in Conway's Game of Life implemented in Conway's Game of Life implemented in... (zoom in and out; may not work on all mobile devices)
- A complete radio broadcast day from 1939. This is a time capsule: skipping through is the equivalent of just turning a radio on at random, 83 years ago. (Side note: the Internet Archive has a button that activates Webamp, a copy of the classic Winamp that's completely browser-based! That would have blown my mind twenty years ago.)
And finally: The story of Mr O's Circle. Remember that viral "freehand circle drawing champion" video that went round a while back? The tale's more complicated than I thought.
Right! That's been a lot. Next week: just one video from me. I think.
All the best,
— Tom
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