Normally, the answer would be no. But in these very limited circumstances, at Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, you can swim in geothermal power plant wastewater, and it’s even healthy: although the marketing material doesn’t usually mention it. Here’s a story about geothermal energy, cheap heat, and how to keep some ducks […]
The Roadmachines Mono-Rail may have been the only truly useful, fit-for-purpose monorail in the world. Of the hundreds that were built, most were never meant for passengers. But they did carry a couple of famous people in their time, including a certain secret agent… Thank you to the staff and […]
Featuring binary versus linear search, and non-clustered indexes. Uh, indices. However you want to say it. • MORE BASICS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha Written with Sean Elliott https://twitter.com/SeanMElliott/ • Camera by Tomek • Graphics by William Marler https://wmad.co.uk 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there too) […]
Tim Berners-Lee envisioned a “universal information system”. What went wrong? • MORE BASICS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha Written with Sean Elliott https://twitter.com/SeanMElliott/ • Camera by Tomek • Graphics by William Marler https://wmad.co.uk 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there too) 📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff […]
Check out Trace’s channel! https://www.youtube.com/tracedominguez – start with brain-computer interfaces https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPJDA9t3_m8 or going to space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jndESKr4SpI • There’s an urban legend that poppy seeds can make you fail a drug test. Is it true? And if so: why? I ate a few bagels, and set out to flunk an opioid […]
Check out Atomic Frontier! https://youtube.com/atomicfrontier – start with the video on a country-sized telescope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZVcWJ0pFTc or the world’s deepest scuba dive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s65T7ZHZp14 • Turns out that trying to precisely detect fire from space is more difficult than “point a camera at it”.
Check out Jordan’s channel! https://youtube.com/jordanharrod – or start with her video on AI diagnosis of coughing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqXcLF8vVH4 or how deepfakes have fingerprints: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lnEst2nojA • And, please don’t try this at home. SOURCES: TEXT: Generated by Jordan Harrod using GPT-3 OpenAI, https://openai.com/blog/better-language-models/ AUDIO: https://resemble.ai VIDEO: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.05932.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.05884.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.07634.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.11363.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.08180.pdf https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/samantha-cole […]
4 minutes remaining. Then 15 seconds. Then 5 hours. Why can’t computers just tell you how long something’s going to take? • MORE BASICS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha Written with Sean Elliott https://twitter.com/SeanMElliott/ • Graphics by William Marler https://wmad.co.uk 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there […]
I didn’t even realise that “low explosives” were a thing; let’s talk about deflagration, detonation, and how high explosives can actually be safer. • Thanks to Steve from Live Action FX! Filmed safely: https://www.tomscott.com/safe/ Camera: Simon Temple http://templefreelance.co.uk Edited by Michelle Martin: https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheCrux 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can […]
“Life support system” were the three key words that convinced me to do a video about an aquarium. Because yes: behind the scenes at The Deep, an aquarium in Hull, there’s a life support system, and it deserves that name. Thanks to all the team at The Deep! More about […]
