Levers! quicksand! and a game about sound.

1st June 2026

Hello!

I'm happy to report that filming the new season of Jet Lag: The Game went really well! Exhausting, frustrating, wonderful, ridiculous. It won't be out for a long while -- they've got a whole other season to broadcast yet -- but I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

What about this week's new videos? Well, first, on Nebula: I find out why trains usually don't crash into each other, and it turns out that pulling the lever is the easy part.

On YouTube, it's time for a long walk on a beach, as this man stops people drowning in quicksand.

And in this week's Lateral: some lesser-spotted players, and a new one too! Rosalie Minnitt, Verity Babbs and Bob Hagh face questions about topsy-turvy tipples, reclaimed roads and baseball busts.

What about other people's good stuff on YouTube? Having spent a lot of this week rushing around Japan, I haven't had much time to watch things, so thank you to the many folks who hit reply and sent things that might fit in here. This week:

Thank you to the many, many people who sent in Emily Zhang's deep-dive into Lorem Ipsum. You were all right: it's great, it includes heavy research and a conversation with an expert, and it helps to correct the historical record!
A CBC investigation reveals the fake Canadians pushing to join the US. You may need to skip past the slightly over-dramatised first 30 seconds -- there's an unironic "the answer is gonna surprise you" in there -- but there's solid journalism here. From what they find, there's no great conspiracy: just unfortunate incentives.
AeroKoi makes 3D-printed train whistles. There's a lot of assumed knowledge here: I didn't know what a 4-chime or 6-chime was, or even how train whistles work... but I could work it out from context, and I appreciate that this video has broken outside its target audience!

And around the rest of the web:

Years ago, back when the Technical Difficulties were doing adventures, I became the Mayor of Hell, a purely ceremonial thing at a roadside attraction in Michigan. If you'd like something more real, then good news: Hell is up for sale! (Thanks to Aidan for sending this over.)
Related to last week's "and finally" about being confused in parts of China: thanks to Kurt for sending this fascinating article on baihouzi, non-Chinese people who are hired slightly off-the-books to provide prestige to Chinese businesses.
A really interesting web game: ~~can you match the pitch of the tone~~? The first time I played this, I found it baffling, and sometimes matched the note but not the octave, ending up with about half the frequency. The second time, I got 99%. However, I think the visual display makes it a bit too easy to find the general area, so if you want a real challenge, play it with your eyes closed.

And finally, on TikTok: It looks like a magic trick. It's actually a slapstick routine. Then it's a magic trick. (Alternate link for desktop.) I've watched this three times and there's still a gag in here that makes me laugh.

All the best,

— Tom

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