A rescue! a challenge! and a wonderful debunk.

13th April 2026

Hello!

"Film all the videos in one road trip," I thought. "Get all the work out of the way in advance," I thought. "I can just upload them all and it'll be calm." Wrong. Suffice it to say, there's been a lot of work to do this week!

But the new videos are out! On Nebula: these people walk towards mining disasters, in which I join a mines rescue team for an exercise that could have been so much worse.

And on YouTube: I missed the evidence. Can you spot it? Also, I wouldn't normally call out a video's ad read in this newsletter, but I think the midroll spot in here might be the best ad read I've ever done. Hopefully it comes across as charming rather than awkward!

Then, in this week's Lateral: Lizzy Skrzypiec, Sophie Ward and Katie Steckles face questions about work watches, record-breaking runs and alarming altitudes.

Thanks to everyone who hit reply on last week's newsletter and sent in suggestions! This week, I'd recommend:

An air powered seven-segment display from soiboi soft. An incredible follow-up to the soft squishy robots I've linked to before from this channel: translating electrical circuitry to use microfluidics, air pressure and silicone molding. There's a huge amount of information density, it's like the antithesis of all those overly-padded-for-length videos, but it's all explained so clearly, and it ends with a lovely demonstration. Great video from a great channel. (Thanks to many viewers for the suggestion!)
What's at the end of Zzyzx Road? asks Sidetrack Adventures. I've driven past the sign on Interstate 15 a couple of times, and I've wondered the answer to that question: I didn't expect the answer to include quackery and near-extinct fish.
The editing here is far too dramatic for my taste, and the thumbnail too much of a fabrication, but this is still a brilliant highlight-reel of footage: Devon Massyn films the underwater volcano eruptions of Kavachi with a drone. Not too long ago, shots like this would have required a professional film crew with a helicopter and an incredible amount of money. They're now possible for... well, anyone with a large, but not incredible, amount of money.

And around the rest of the web:

Can astrologers truly gain insights from people from their astrological charts? The answer, of course, is no: but this is a no that's so definitive, so repeated, that it's worth reading. Every possible objection has been covered, and every graph's response is, statistically speaking, exactly what you'd expect from chance.
A while back, I linked to a drone video from a Brazilian rooftop: here's the longer context I was hoping for, as a reporter interviews the folks on the ground there.
1D chess is an old logic puzzle, here well-presented. I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I did have to cheat and look at the solution, rather than working it out myself; perhaps you'll be better at exploring the possibilities than I was.

And finally: that's why I'll always be lost in Queens.

All the best,

— Tom

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