“Hello!” “Thank you!” “You’re welcome!” These are all phatic expressions, and people can argue about them. Pull down the description for the references! MORE LANGUAGE FILES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGLDEnHuhD7CTZES3KXFnwm0 Written with Gretchen McCulloch and Molly Ruhl. Gretchen’s new book, BECAUSE INTERNET, is available now: 🇺🇸 US: https://amzn.to/30tLpjT 🇨🇦 CA: https://amzn.to/2JsTYWH 🇬🇧 UK: https://amzn.to/32epYoK (Those are affiliate links

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – In a fjord near Stavanger, in southern Norway, is Preikestolen: Pulpit Rock. It’s known as one of the world’s scariest tourist attractions, for good reason — but despite the millions that visit it, it’s pretty safe. At least, for current human values of safe. Let’s talk about risk, immortality, and what

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – In the abandoned theme park of Pripyat, I have a banana. For scale. Let’s talk about the Banana Equivalent Dose. Thanks to Ashley Shepherd for the drone footage – see the full video on his channel here: http://youtu.be/nhtL2dBrmlI

A decade ago, engineers found the Humber Bridge had the same problem as many of the world’s suspension bridges: unexpectedly fast corrosion. Here’s how they fixed it, and how they’re checking that it’s staying fixed. Thanks to all the team at the Humber Bridge board, at Cleveland Bridge, and Visit Hull and East Yorkshire, all

Language changes over time, and that’s fine. Time for a dose of descriptivism, as the Language Files return. Pull down the description for the references! MORE LANGUAGE FILES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGLDEnHuhD7CTZES3KXFnwm0 Written with Gretchen McCulloch and Molly Ruhl. Gretchen’s new book, BECAUSE INTERNET, is available soon: 🇺🇸 US: https://amzn.to/30tLpjT 🇨🇦 CA: https://amzn.to/2JsTYWH 🇬🇧 UK: https://amzn.to/32epYoK (Those are

If you believe the hype, then the Metropolitan Area Underground Discharge Channel stops Tokyo flooding. It doesn’t. But it is one colossal part of a huge network of flood defences that protect a city that would otherwise be… well, very wet. MORE ABOUT THE DISCHARGE CHANNEL: The Discharge Channel’s site (in Japanese): http://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/edogawa/gaikaku/ Advice for

JOIN OUR LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE! MAYBE! http://techdif.co.uk/live/ — From East Asia to West Yorkshire, today we’re taking on the world’s culinary delights and some odd governmental manipulations. BONUS MATERIAL: https://youtu.be/Wv_NcNXwGRw FULL PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGIo2odDuuPeYtb7BtQ1kBhp OFFICIAL ALL-NEW WEB SITE and MORE AUDIO EPISODES: http://techdif.co.uk Thanks again to our anonymous subtitler, and all the people who’ve helped translate

Olds Engineering, a traditional workshop and foundry, sits in Maryborough, Australia. It’s not the sort of place you’d expect to find a new industrial invention in the 21st century: and yet the Olds Elevator, patented by Peter Olds, is just that. More about Olds Engineering: https://www.olds.com.au/ and the Olds Elevator: https://www.oldselevator.com/ Edited by Michelle Martin

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – Under the Elbe river in Hamburg, Germany, lies the Old Elbe Tunnel in St Pauli. Like early 20th century tunnels around the world, it has lifts or stairs to take you down and under the river. But this is on a whole different scale to those you might have seen elsewhere…

Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, has the Guinness World Record for “steepest paved road over a continuous distance of more than ten metres”. Which is enough to bring in quite a few tourists. What’s the history? And what counts as “steepest street”? Thanks to Mayor Dave Cull and to Gary Blackman. You can see

If you invent a new theme park or amusement ride, how do you test it to make sure it’s safe? There’s no Federal Bureau of Zip Lines. I visited one of the companies that does just that sort of testing – and, now, inventing. More about Holmes Solutions: https://holmessolutions.com/ And their adventure recreation division: https://holmessolutions.com/case-study/adventure-recreation

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – On the winter solstice, I trekked out to a cold and muddy Avebury Henge, out in Wiltshire, to talk about two things: first, the peculiar and mostly-British belief of ley lines, and second, the fact that it’s basically a hipster version of Stonehenge: bigger, cooler, and you’ve probably never heard of

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – Thanks to Ashley Shepherd for the drone footage – see the full video on his channel here: http://youtu.be/nhtL2dBrmlI This is the Duga-3 array, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It’s an incredible piece of Soviet engineering, capable of sending radar pulses so powerful they could see over the horizon. Which, when you

Mount Taranaki, on the North Island of New Zealand, is a large-scale circle that’s visible from space: a stratovolcano with six miles of forest around it. But that didn’t happen naturally. Oh, and there’s a good chance that, in the next fifty years or so, it might explode. GOOD VIDEOS ON NATURAL PERSONHOOD: Law professor

http://tomscott.com – http://twitter.com/tomscott – The Delta Works, to the west of the Netherlands, are one of the modern wonders of the world. But there’s other, lesser-known infrastructure there too: including the Rozenburg Wind Wall, on the Caland Canal, which turns a dangerous, windy stretch of canal into a much more navigable bit of water. It’s

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.

A quick and dirty video from Tom (http://tomscott.com – @tomscott) and Matt (http://mattg.co.uk – @unnamedculprit) – ten illegal things to do in London. Yes, these are all properly illegal: you can see our references at http://tomscott.com/law/

Kerosene Creek is a natural hot spring near Rotorua, on the North Island of New Zealand. And there have been official warnings for years: don’t put your head under water. It turns out that “brain-eating amoebas”, naegleria fowleri, are a real, if rare, thing. Thank you to Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles! Here are some of

The Ports of Auckland are automating their straddle carriers, which might not seem like much: until you phrase it as “hundred-tonne autonomous robots guided by nanosecond-precision tracking”. More about the Ports of Auckland: http://www.poal.co.nz/ Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) I’m at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tomscott and on Instagram as tomscottgo

In Sanlúcar de Guadiana, in Spain, there’s a zip line called Límite Zero: the only cross-border zip wire in the world, landing in Alcoutim, Portugal. You land about an hour before you set off. It seemed like a good time to talk about programming. Thanks to all the team at Limite Zero! Tickets and info:

On the river Rhine in Switzerland, there are reaction ferries: boats with no engine, no paddles, no onboard motive power at all. Here’s how they work — and a question about what other simple ideas are out there. 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

Gibbs Farm, in New Zealand, is an enormous private sculpture collection. Its most famous piece is Horizons, by Neil Dawson – and it looks like a cartoon tissue somehow painted onto the landscape. To see it in person, though, will take a bit of effort. Gibbs Farm: http://www.gibbsfarm.org.nz/ I’m at http://tomscott.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomscott

http://tomscott.com – @tomscott – Out in the countryside near Canterbury, on the London to Ramsgate line, there’s a strange level crossing – one that requires human effort. It’s strange what railway history leaves us with. (Thanks to @quixoticgeek on camera duty!)

http://tomscott.com – @tomscott – The corporate behind-the-scenes workings of Walt Disney World are interesting, to say the least. They’ve got their own private city.