Wargames, vapes, and fighting stick figures.
10th November 2025
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Hello!
The most difficult part of writing this newsletter most weeks is the introduction, so let's get straight to the links. First, in this week's Lateral: the team from Let's Learn Everything have returned to the show! Caroline Roper, Ella Hubber and Tom Lum face questions about new names, convenient coins and purchasable possessions.
The most difficult part of writing this newsletter most weeks is the introduction, so let's get straight to the links. First, in this week's Lateral: the team from Let's Learn Everything have returned to the show! Caroline Roper, Ella Hubber and Tom Lum face questions about new names, convenient coins and purchasable possessions.
The three YouTube videos I've linked to this week are all reasonably long and involved, but I think I can trust this audience's attention span.
- "I Wargamed With NATO" is a fascinating presentation from Perun, who normally makes military analysis videos, about being invited to observe an actual NATO wargame. I say "presentation" because this is just a (clearly-human) voiceover along with slides -- watching it feels like attending a really good talk at a conference. This is a look behind-the-scenes at why the military plays actual,
physical wargames, and what they might learn from it.
- An incredible build video which has clocked up two million views in a week: Chris Doel powers his house using 500 disposable vapes! As a sign of how weak my electrical
engineering knowledge is: there was more than one time in this video where Chris was protecting himself against a dangerous failure state that I hadn't even thought of.
- I've known Evan Edinger for years, he's been on Lateral, I'm in one of his upcoming videos, we've hung out plenty of times: and I had absolutely no idea that, for a lot of the time I've known him, he was struggling with an addiction to a drug that's sold in a lot of US gas stations. (Occasional strong language.) This is a personal, heartfelt story that's told with laser-like precision in word choice, and I'd recommend it -- if only to learn what this stuff is so you stay away from it.
And around the rest of the web:
- "When stick figures fought" is the history of the Flash-based
stick-fight animations that I remember from 20+ years ago. And I never knew this history! They were just a thing on the internet, an artifact passed by email or instant messenger.
- Paris had a moving
sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it in action.
- I don't know how "Australian bird news" became a regular thing in this newsletter, but: a cassowary wandering 150km from home baffles residents.
And finally, over on TikTok: how to holler at your crush.
All the best,
— Tom
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