Potentially painful benches, and the best possible Boggle board.

2nd June 2025

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Hello!

There was meant to be a big thing in the introduction here but I didn't quite get it ready in time. Hopefully next week!

This week's Lateral episode is ready, though: Mary Spender, Jarvis Johnson and Jordan Adika face questions about social sixes, safety signs and sales setbacks.

Here's the good stuff I've found on YouTube this week:

The genre of excellent deep-dive research holes continues! "I recently became obsessed", says Kirsten Drysdale of The Internet Reviewed in her video description, "with trying to work out whether China really does have coin-operated park benches that stab you in the butt when your sitting time is up ... This fixation cost me $55, several days, and a significant chunk of my sanity." Spoiler: this does not, unfortunately, include a trip to the park in question, although given the debunked story is 15 years old, I don't think that'd actually prove anything.
Off the back of last week's Blue Peter video: watch as "a reunited team of veteran camera operators, directors and engineers" produce TV on location as it used to be done in the 1970s. (Occasional high-frequency tones.) This is how television used to be made! This entire setup could be replicated with a couple of phones and a couple of peripherals today. There's a huge amount of footage on the channel, all Creative Commons-licensed, and a web site if you'd prefer to read the details. I am so, so glad that someone documented How It Used To Be Done.
Several years ago, I found Global Effects, the Hollywood warehouse for spacesuits, while I was researching. Filming there didn't work out -- but Adam Savage has got a full tour of their replicas, and their science fiction original designs from shows like Firefly. His expertise in propmaking and special effects mean that these are far better videos than anything I could have made!

Around the rest of the web:

Science fiction headlines that are now real: CERN gears up to ship antimatter across Europe?!
Dolly Parton has a train with a higher ridership than 27 US states.
Good news! After 20 years, the best possible Boggle board has been definitively found.

And finally, thank you to the many people who sent me Owls in Towels. You're all correct, it's exactly the sort of thing I'd put here. And it's worth scrolling all the way to the copyright notice at the bottom.

All the best,

— Tom

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