Antlers, dangerous ties, and a tugboat!

22nd June 2026

Hello! Right, I'm still in a four-videos-a week rush here, even if one of them will have gone out on Nebula the week before, so once again we're straight into it! First up, here's what I've posted this week:

On Nebula, it's time for a visit to a mysterious centuries-old ritual, where I got hit in the teeth with 900-year-old antlers. And over on YouTube, you can find out why we can't invent a robot better than these ferrets!

The Technical Difficulties continues: is wearing a tie bad for your health? You'll have to watch to find out, because One Of These People Is Lying.

And then, in this week's Lateral: the Answer in Progress team return! Sabrina Cruz, Melissa Fernandes and Taha Khan face questions about Stuttgart spheres, bruising bodies and ornamental opposites.

That's everything I've been up to. What good stuff have I found on the rest of the web?

The tugboat, for its size, is the most powerful craft afloat. And here, the owner of the channel Hey Tugboat takes you on a tour of her tugboat. This is charming! The viewer is just being taken round the boat, unrehearsed, as if someone had just turned up and asked for a tour. (Thanks to Kasper for the suggestion!)
Blackle Mori -- previously in this newsletter for an incredible all-CSS puzzle box that's since moved to this different site -- talks about "The Reason I have 12 Birthdays". Blackle's performance here is so perfectly naturalistic -- and apparently effortlessly so -- that this feels like a YouTube video that's just transited over from an alternate reality. These days, when one person's comedy hoax is another person's despised misinformation, and there's always someone who'll believe even obvious jokes, this feels like a breath of fresh air: it's obviously fake, while being interesting, clever and weirdly-realistic. Bonus points for most of the comments, who are in on the gag without trying to one-up it too much. (Thanks to Job for sending this over!)
And another great video from Grady over at Practical Engineering: how to demolish a bridge. "And don't worry," he says, "there are explosions at the end."

And around the rest of the web:

A deep-dive into a specific type of sign that I recognised, but had never really noticed or named before: Beth Mathews talks about vacuum-form signage on American Main Streets. Once you see a picture, you'll probably recognise what this article is about. (Thanks Alex for sending this over!)
Arabic typography is very, very difficult for computers, and this is an interesting, interactive explanation of why.
Click, or type, to drop some cars. This would be a simple, throwaway gag that I wouldn't have put in the newsletter... if it wasn't for the surprising design style. Don't worry (or, perhaps, alas): you can't hit the cows.

And finally, over on TikTok: cleaning up the wreckage of a hot air balloon that's collided with a broadcast tower. (Alternate link for desktop.)

All the best,

— Tom

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