Hail Cannons and Operation Popeye: Citation Needed 8×04
No, a hail cannon isn’t for if you just want to accelerate a lot of hail really quickly. This week: pseudoscience and real science!
BONUS MATERIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgerCSpxSWo
FULL PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGIo2odDuuPeYtb7BtQ1kBhp
WEB SITE and MORE AUDIO EPISODES: http://techdif.co.uk
Featuring:
Matt Gray: http://mattg.co.uk – @unnamedculprit
Gary Brannan: @garybrannan
and Chris Joel, who doesn’t do this social media nonsense
More from us: http://techdif.co.uk
Directed by Grant Stevens
Edited by Elliot Gough: http://www.youtube.com/ElliotExplicit
Audio mix by Haerther Productions: https://haerther.net
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ https://youtube.com/lateralcast/
➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: https://youtube.com/tomscottplus
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: https://youtube.com/techdif
@TomScottGo
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Those who were in the audience for this may remember a large diversion on "orgone energy" that will never, ever be shown to the world…
@motalux
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
7:11 No, 'Call Me' is Blondie
@TKBarnes
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
13:45 Mine's a bit on the bigger side, thus it is a "plump plumb plum plumbum bum." 😁
@JJsbizarreadveyJ
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
0:13 when you kill someone who was given a position of power only because of their important relatives
@LunaAlphaKretin
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
7 years later the concept of "making friends with the storm" just makes me think of Do No Harm
@saber1epee0
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
The Weather-abuggery-abouty-treatry is VITAL to global stability <3
@Ian-Jackson8172
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Operation popeye should have the same motto as the dam busters après nous le déluge
@KaiCalimatinus
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Just as an interesting note the Russians dod this as well over Chernobyl to prevent the worse radioactive rainfall falling on more people on Moscow but, it did cause it then to dump the radiation load over the villages mucb closer to the reactor, worse on the radiation poisonings and defects. The only air force pilots to receive the Chernobyl award flew the sorties. Just thought that was an internal note in the cloud manipulation saga where, for better or worse, it absolutely had a drastic impact on the outcome of events.
@steverman2312
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
im going to be completely honest, part of me saw the lean towards eachother at 1:56 and seriously though they were gonna kiss or something lmao
@Aromantic_alien
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Lmao the thing i love the most about "why would you want that" is the 3-4 seconds of shocked silence from the group with applause
@BGDMusic
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
4:57 Wrong Kate Bush but that song is good
@what.why.where.when.waterhole
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
11:41 – mentions date of event 13:31 – gives point for saying extremely vague date of event despite the fact tom gave the exact date at the start of the article.
@JonesNate
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
6:15 — in Star wars, Princess Leia's full name is Princess Leia Organa. (Or-gah-nah)
@agoogleuser8219
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Lead iodide and silver iodide are, in fact, yellow in color. Facts kill humor indeed
@BGDMusic
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
1:49
@musewolfman
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
I will not stand for this P3 Orion slander! Those were tough bastards, and the only thing that could replace them was the WC-130 Hercules.
@thequeenofspades
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
The cut to Chris at 5:38 with his head in his hands is chefs kiss
@JonesNate
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
1:45 — You might actually want that in order to prevent the hail from falling elsewhere. For example, if you see a storm coming off of the coast, you might be able to get it to dump out all of its hail/rain before it reaches land. It wasn't actually mentioned in the episode, but when they talked about cloud seeding later, it reminded me of what I learned in high school. They actually did this for this reason; trying to make a hurricane dump all of its wind and rain prior to hitting Florida.
Unfortunately, they were not successful. All of the wind and rain stayed in the storm until it hit the coast. The storm that they seated was actually one of the worst ones in that particular year.
@Aromantic_alien
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
4:23 well probably a headache from hailstone impacts.
@toddverbeek5113
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
The phrase “purple rain” came from the lyrics of “Ventura Highway” by the band America.
@yugimotobutjacked3231
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
The USA only respects treaties and global laws in regards to other powerful countries. And even then.
@TransSappho
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
I’ve seen this episode like a dozen times and I still don’t get Matt’s “shamanist message” joke
@brysonlambes7175
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Oooooooh, it's bollocks
@glossaria2
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Oh, HAIL no!
@pixelhavoc4950
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
'IS IT A METEOROLOGICAL EVENT?!?!?!' dumbledore asked calmly
@XaleManix
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
I think my favorite part of this episode is everyone's favorite Garry Brannon, Garry Brannon going 'that's a Kate Bush song' and then quoting the wrong Kate Bush song repeatedly.
@jolenethiessen357
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Ooooooooh…. it's bullocks!
@FiXato
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
I miss this show 🙁
@bardsamok9221
March 18, 2026 at 3:52 pm
More of these please Tom Scott
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