Archaeology, polling, and a very big cable tie.

• Milo, from the channel Miniminuteman, explains the Great Hopewell Road, Ohio's greatest archaeological mystery, with passion, occasional jokes, impeccable research, and an interview with the world's foremost expert on the subject. If you're in the mood for a fun historical deep-dive, this is for you. (Thanks to Alessia for the suggestion!)
   
• If you'd prefer something more pseudoscientific: "I love a weird historical crackpot," says Kaz Lowe, telling the story of the Victorian mystic who 'travelled to other planets'. Kaz's channel has a lot of well-researched dives into history, and this is a good one.
   
• And a fascinating design video from boutique "fancy practical stuff" brand Craighill: four years designing the perfect lid. (Occasional strong language.) To be clear, this is a PR piece from them, but I found myself swept up in the story and the storytelling. Here's an odd thing, though: in terms of information density, this video's fairly low. It could have been half the length; there are lots of diversions and asides along the way. But it also feels like the right information density and length for the content. There are countless video creators out there who would have decided to optimize this, cutting every wasted shot -- but I find myself getting increasingly tired of the hyperactive MrBeast-style editing that's finding its way into so many videos in so many genres. It's still very fast by television standards, it's still clearly built for the modern web... but this, to me, has a really nice balance. (Thanks to Sai for the suggestion!)

• "Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China’s wind and solar buildout."
   
• The world's longest and strongest cable tie may be a gimmick, but if the manufacturer's claims are to be believed, it'll hold almost a tonne. I wouldn't want to be near it when it snaps, though.
   
• There's a famous sketch from sitcom Yes, Prime Minster, where civil servant Sir Humphrey explains how any poll result can be manipulated by the questions asked. Well, turns out actual polling company Ipsos did the research, with the original questions from the sketch, and asked: does that really work? (They've embedded the YouTube video of the sketch in that article, so you'll have context if you don't know it!)

Also, thanks to Yerik, a Brazilian reader, for providing some context on last week's "and finally", the spectacular drone shot; that email gave me enough clues to find this Portuguese-language article explaining what was going on. It's worth reading and translating, but in short: the drone shot is from the Bravilian favelas, one of the most dangerous places in the country... so, of course, tourists are romanticising the favelas, locals are offering tours, and one of the stops on those tours involves the tourist getting that Big Favela Drone Shot for their Instagram. Exploitative? Just good business? No idea, I am incredibly unqualified to comment on any of that.

This week's "and finally", though, is very different. By Anthony Vincent: Can't Help Falling In Love, in the style of Queen.

All the best,

— Tom