Tom Scott

Glaciologists will find this video obvious. Everyone else… well, maybe I slept through a bit of sixth-grade geography, but I didn’t know this, and I reckon I should have done. Pull down the description for more! I’m here because of Chris Hadfield’s Generator Arctic – go check out everyone else who was on the trip,

This may be the most British video I’ve done in a while! But I saw the news story and immediately wanted to film it: the volunteer-run, narrow-gauge Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway, in the south of Scotland, has stepped in to replace buses while a road is being resurfaced — avoiding a 45-mile diversion and meaning

In Weldon Spring, Missouri, there is a strange, grey, windblasted seven-storey pile of rocks. It’s the Weldon Spring Site: a nuclear and toxic waste dump on the site of an old uranium processing factory. And you can walk on it: it’s technically a tourist attraction. That was going to be the whole of my video…

The final episode in this run of the Game Garage gives us a Proper Quiz: complete with all-or-nothing questions and a prize of FIVE THOUSAND PENCE. That’s pence. It’s £50. We didn’t have that big a budget. Edited by Elliot Gough Audio mix by Graham Haerther Directed by Grant Stevens Produced by David Bodycombe and

Made with BBC Brit Lab! See my video with Greg Foot over on their channel: https://youtu.be/KZ2GE2CLo34 — I’m at http://tomscott.com/ and http://twitter.com/tomscott • This video has a correction: “ground burst” and “air burst” were reversed in the script. Ground bursts produce significantly more, and wider, fallout. Deep in the Essex countryside lies Kelvedon Hatch, and

In Crystal Palace Park, in South London, are 150-year-old dinosaur models: the first ever full-size replicas of extinct animals. But they’re… well, they’re a bit wrong, and they likely always will be. Here’s why. The opening line’s a reference to Jay Foreman and Bec Hill’s “Dinosaurs”, https://youtu.be/ywqpf1Nge3k — and I was told about these many

http://tomscott.com – @tomscott – There’s a hidden pattern on banknotes, all around the world, that means photocopiers refuse to copy them.

Los Angeles needed water, and lots of it. It still does. And that water comes from the LA Aqueduct, masterplanned by William Mulholland. The end of his career, though, wasn’t such a triumph. This is the story of the St Francis Dam, and the collapse that stopped Los Angeles from taking over an entire valley.

One comma can make a lot of difference. Language is ambiguous — but in some very specific ways. Here’s how. Written with GRETCHEN MCCULLOCH: http://gretchenmcculloch.com – http://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC [Update: her book BECAUSE INTERNET is out July 2019! https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/ ] More from Gretchen at ALL THINGS LINGUISTIC: http://allthingslinguistic.com – http://twitter.com/AllThingsLing BONUS LINK: Garden Path Sentence Shirts: http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/118396390957/garden-path-sentence-shirts-a-story

http://tomscott.com – @tomscott – It’s not that Hawaiian has a completely different word for Christmas — it’s just that Kalikimaka is the closest that Hawaiian can possibly get to the word Christmas. Videos linked: Mele Kalikimaka by Bing Crosby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEvGKUXW0iI Skwerl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY

In Calipatria, California, the town is below sea level — but their flag pole isn’t. But what does “sea level” mean? Is it just theory, or is there more behind it? I’m at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott and on Snapchat and Instagram as tomscottgo

http://tomscott.com – @tomscott – The order of adjectives is one of those wonderful linguistic things that no-one really notices until it’s pointed out to them. Filmed at YouTube Space, London, and directed by Matt Gray (http://mattg.co.uk – @unnamedculprit)

Nyan Cat, delivered to your fax machine! For details and the number to dial: http://tomscott.com/nyanfax – Made by Tom Scott http://tomscott.com / @tomscott Original Nyan Cat music from daniwellP, used with permission.

In the Abbey Gardens of Bury St Edmunds, in a quiet corner of a park, sits the World’s First Internet Bench. Well, sort of. It’s been nearly twenty years, and it’s arguable whether it ever did the job in the first place… Edited by Michelle Martin, https://twitter.com/mrsmmartin SOURCES: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1475654.stm https://www.theregister.com/2001/08/10/vandals_and_phreakers_plague_msn/ Archive images courtesy Andrew Parsons

This is the story of one of the best, and also one of the worst, text messages I’ve ever received. It’s about harm, about consequences, and about the responsibilities that designers, coders and hackers have to make sure we treat other people with care. I’m at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott

Until recently, Canada didn’t have a road link to the Arctic Ocean. But last year, the all-weather Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway opened, which meant that finally the country was connected “from sea to sea to sea”. I set out to drive it, but it didn’t quite go how I planned. Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) I’m at

There are a few communities, up in northern Canada, with a dark history and a worrying future. Resolute is one of them, sat at the east of the once-legendary Northwest Passage. In a few years, it might be a tourist destination. Here’s why. [Pull down the description!] Context and history: Broken Promises, the stories of

http://tomscott.com/ – @tomscott – Twitter was set up to support 140 characters. And in the English alphabet, that’s easy to understand: a character is a letter, number, space or punctuation mark. People more or less agree with computers there. And if it was twenty years ago, that’s exactly how the system would work. That far,

Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan is not just the world’s oldest hotel, but the world’s oldest still-operating business. Or at least, that’s one way of looking at it. But things are changing here, just like they always have. ■ The hotel: https://www.keiunkan.co.jp/ Local producer: Yasuharu Matsuno at Mind Architect Camera: Julian Domanski An accessible English dub is

http://tomscott.com – @tomscott – Why do we say “Ye Olde”? Why is “Menzies” pronounced “Mingis”? To find out, we have to go back into history. Filmed at YouTube Space, London, and directed by Matt Gray (http://mattg.co.uk – @unnamedculprit)

Fashion-tech designer Anouk Wipprecht has built a Spider Dress, which reacts based on how close you’re standing and how quickly you approached. It’s based on ‘proxemics’: the study of personal space… although how much of that counts as science is an open question. Let’s talk about Edward T Hall, about what counts as science, and

In Belgium, there’s an underground beer pipeline. Yes, it’s inherently difficult to film something that’s underground, but I headed over to Bruges to investigate anyway. Thank you to the Half Moon Brewery / Brouwerij De Halve Maan! They’re open for tours, and for food and drink: http://www.halvemaan.be/en/home Camera operator: Paul Curry (@cr3) Paul also wrote

The Christmas Number One is a British tradition: but it’s one that’s having to go through some changes — because not many people buy music any more. Here’s how the charts are calculated these days, and why listening to “All I Want For Christmas” on repeat isn’t going to change who wins. Thanks to Martin

http://tomscott.com – @tomscott – A brief introduction to password hashing for the uninitiated — and why you should never trust a site that emails your password back to you!

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – Deep in rural Ukraine sits what was once the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station. Now, it’s the site of the worst nuclear disaster in human history: and one that still needs to be contained, thirty years later. How do you deal with something that’ll be this toxic for so long into

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – For a few weeks every year, the road through the abandoned village of Imber, in the middle of the military firing range of Salisbury Plain, is open to the public. How can the government seize and evacuate an entire village? And would it be possible now? Thanks to Paul (@cr3) for

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – In Svalbard, in the Arctic Circle, there’s a sundial that works 24 hours a day! Sort of. When it’s sunny. Which it wasn’t. Basically, don’t rely on this for telling the time. CORRECTION: “solstice”, not “equinox”.

One woman’s face is all over New York, although you’ve probably never heard of her. This was written with Amor Sciendi: go check it out! https://www.youtube.com/user/AmorSciendi I’m at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott and on Snapchat and Instagram as tomscottgo Thanks also to Vivienne Gucwa for holding the camera: https://www.youtube.com/user/poppiesandviolets

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – There are only a few transporter bridges still working in the world. What are they for? Why weren’t there more of them? And why don’t we build them any more? Those answers and more, from an unsettlingly high position fifty metres above the River Usk. BONUS CLIP: Me, terrified, walking across

On the south-east coast of England sits Covehithe: a little Suffolk village going back at least a thousand years. By the end of the century, it’ll likely have fallen into the sea. Here’s why no-one’s planning to save it. Filmed safely: https://www.tomscott.com/safe/ SOURCES: Shoreline Management Plans: https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/environment/coastal-management/shoreline-management-plans/ http://www.suffolksmp2.org.uk/actionplan/docs/2.%20Kessingland%20to%20Covehithe.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20140221104223/http://www.suffolksmp2.org.uk/publicdocuments/finalsmp/Section%204_Policy%20Development%20Zones/PDZ2v9.pdf Article: https://web.archive.org/web/20160913051551/http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/environment/covehithe_landowner_raises_fears_over_coastal_defence_proposals_1_1111983 I’m at https://tomscott.com on