2006

S4.E1 ∙ There Are Special Crossings For Horses In Britain

Tue, Dec 31, 2013

If you wander the footpaths and bridleways of Britain, you might stumble across a special crossing for horses.

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S4.E2 ∙ Why Aren't There More Helicopter Crashes In London?

Wed, Jan 01, 2014

Helicopters in London have a simple rule that means they're safer for everyone in the city. I stand on something a bit too high in order to explain it.

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S4.E3 ∙ How To Make An Orange Peel Flamethrower

Thu, Jan 02, 2014

I'm joined by Felix Cohen to learn how to make orange oil go up in flames. Add flavour, aroma, and a touch of danger to your cocktails. Personally, I don't drink, but that doesn't mean I can't learn to mix 'em. Please drink responsibly.

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S4.E4 ∙ The Secret Pattern That Stops You Copying Bank Notes

Fri, Jan 03, 2014

There's a hidden pattern on banknotes, all around the world, that means photocopiers refuse to copy them.

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S4.E5 ∙ The 134-Hour Television Show from the Arctic Circle

Sat, Jan 04, 2014

I'm up in the Arctic Circle, by a large ship on the Hurtigruten line, to talk about the longest TV program in the world, and why Norway excels at something called "slow television".

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S4.E6 ∙ The Underground Roundabouts of Tromsø

Sun, Jan 05, 2014

In the Norwegian city of Tromsø, there's a bit of city planning straight out of science fiction: an underground road network, complete with junctions and roundabouts, bored into the mountains around the city.

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S4.E7 ∙ Why Does Nighttime Smartphone Footage Look All Flickery in Europe?

Mon, Jan 06, 2014

When you film with an iPhone or other smartphone in Europe at night, there's often a weird rolling banding effect over your footage. The reason has to do with power grids, frequencies, and some rather American-centric smartphone makers.

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S4.E8 ∙ Danger: Humans

Tue, Jan 07, 2014

A message from the Interstellar Safety Council. What if the rest of the universe wasn't built on "survival of the fittest"?

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S4.E9 ∙ Members of Parliament Aren't Allowed To Resign

Wed, Jan 08, 2014

Since 1624, Members of Parliament haven't been allowed to resign. And yet, they do: how do they manage it?

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S4.E10 ∙ The Thames Still Has Some 19th Century Stink In It

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

Joseph Bazalgette moved most of the Thames stink away, but there's still some 19th-century dodginess in the river now and again.

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S4.E11 ∙ The Secret Button on Pedestrian Crossings

Sat, Jan 11, 2014

There's a hidden nodule on some British pedestrian crossings that provides a vital clue for folks who might otherwise not be able to cross the road safely.

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S4.E12 ∙ You Can Gold Plate Your Tongue For About $2

Sun, Jan 12, 2014

Using edible gold leaf, gold that's been rolled out to a fraction of a micron in thickness, you can have a gold plated tongue, at least for a few seconds. File this one under 'stupid human tricks'.

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S4.E13 ∙ A Zeppelin, A Cat, and The World's First In-Flight Radio Message

Mon, Jan 13, 2014

Zeppelin trivia expert Simon Willison explains why the world's first in-flight radio message was "Roy, come and get this goddamn cat".

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S4.E14 ∙ Platform 9¾ Is In The Wrong Place

Tue, Jan 14, 2014

I was walking through Kings Cross, spotted Platform 9¾, and thought I'd share something you might not know: thanks to redevelopment of the station, right now it's in the wrong place. It won't be for long, though.

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S4.E15 ∙ Single Point of Failure: The (Fictional) Day Google Forgot To Check Passwords

Wed, Jan 15, 2014

I spin a (fictional) tale of the day that Google accidentally opened everything.

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S4.E16 ∙ How To (Appear To) Strangle Someone (On Stage)

Thu, Jan 16, 2014

In the first of two videos filmed rough-and-ready in an alley behind a pub, all-round lovely person Norm teaches me how to safely strangle someone on stage.

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S4.E17 ∙ How To (Appear To) Slap Someone Across The Face (On Stage)

Fri, Jan 17, 2014

In the second of two videos filmed rough-and-ready in an alley behind a pub, all-round lovely person Norm teaches me how to safely slap someone across the face on stage.

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S4.E18 ∙ Can You Cook Bacon Using Hair Curlers?

Sat, Jan 18, 2014

We go back to our old-school YouTube days, and try to cook bacon with a thing that isn't designed to cook bacon. It doesn't go well.

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S4.E19 ∙ Why Wind Farms Don't Always Turn When It's Windy

Sun, Jan 19, 2014

Why don't wind farms always turn, even if there's a lot of wind?

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S4.E20 ∙ British Nuclear War from Beyond the Grave: The Letter of Last Resort

Mon, Jan 20, 2014

We'll hopefully never know what's written in the letters of last resort: top secret, handwritten notes from the British Prime Minister to be opened by submarine captains in the event of nuclear war.

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S4.E21 ∙ Why Is London's Cable Car So Damn High?

Wed, Jan 22, 2014

Ninety metres above the river is really tall for a cable car. Why build it so high, and spend so much? Well, other than the Mayor of London being a bumbling buffoon, there's a reason it's got to be that high.

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S4.E22 ∙ Why Do Reversing Trucks Not Beep Any More?

Thu, Jan 23, 2014

Have you noticed? That reversing beeper you find on trucks has been replaced by a squelch of white noise. Today, standing on a lay-by next to a busy construction site, I explain why -- while trying not to get run over.

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S4.E23 ∙ Einstein Wasn't The First Scientist To Talk About Relativity

Fri, Jan 24, 2014

I'm flying to the US. Ten hours on a plane is a long time, so I'm filming a video in an airplane bathroom, about something that makes sense in an airplane bathroom: relativity. "Galilean invariance" is the idea: centuries before Einstein, someone else had the idea that there's no privileged frame of reference.

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S4.E24 ∙ British Ice Cream Doesn't Have To Contain Milk

Sat, Jan 25, 2014

I honestly thought this was an urban legend until I looked into it, but it's true. (The urban legend is that Margaret Thatcher invented it.)

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S4.E25 ∙ The Image That Can Break Your Brain

Sun, Jan 26, 2014

Things that can hurt you just by looking at them are science fiction and fantasy, right? Well, not quite. Inside Walt Disney World, home of the most terrible earworm known to humanity, I talk about the McCollough Effect.

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S4.E26 ∙ How To Throw A Bucket Of Water At Someone

Mon, Jan 27, 2014

Hitting someone in the chest with a bucket of water looks impressive at close range, sure. But on stage, there's a different technique you need to use to make sure the back row is just as impressed.

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S4.E27 ∙ The Hard Part About Getting To Orbit Isn't The Height

Tue, Jan 28, 2014

From the flame trench of Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Centre, under the pad from which the Apollo astronauts went to the moon, here's the reason that orbit is so damn hard to get to.

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S4.E28 ∙ Your GPS Shuts Down If It Goes Too Fast

Wed, Jan 29, 2014

If a GPS goes over 1200mph or 60,000 feet, it'll shut down. And the reason why is linked to here, at the Kennedy Space Centre, and the Cold War.

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S4.E29 ∙ How To Fall Into A Swimming Pool

Thu, Jan 30, 2014

A few days ago I was pushed into a pool. This is how to get pushed into a pool properly.

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S4.E30 ∙ The Datablast: Experimental Interactive TV From The 1990s

Fri, Jan 31, 2014

There were a lot of embarrassing things on TV in the 1990s, and Andy Crane in a baseball cap was just one of them.

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S4.E31 ∙ How To Tell If You're Dreaming

Sat, Feb 01, 2014

Oneironauts are "dream travellers": folks who say they can become aware of, and control, their dreams. But how do you tell if you're dreaming? Well, there's this one weird trick.

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S4.E32 ∙ The SPF Rating On Sunscreen Is Questionable At Best

Mon, Feb 03, 2014

SPF is meant to be a multiplier, but it's much more complicated than that. And as a Brit in Florida, I have to take care about burning.

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S4.E33 ∙ Disney Could Go Nuclear If They Wanted To

Tue, Feb 04, 2014

The corporate behind-the-scenes workings of Walt Disney World are interesting, to say the least. They've got their own private city.

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S4.E34 ∙ Why Was AllAdvantage.com Popular In Beverly Hills?

Wed, Feb 12, 2014

Remember the "dumbest dot-com", AllAdvantage? They paid you to surf the web, at least for a while. And one day, they announced that they were incredibly popular in rich Beverly Hills, California. The reason connects them to the US Postal Service - and Jason Priestley.

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S4.E35 ∙ The Mississippi River Wants To Move

Thu, Feb 13, 2014

Rivers change course. They leave behind old channels, oxbow lakes, and a dozen other things you learned about in geography class. The trouble is, some rivers can't be allowed to move any more.

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S4.E36 ∙ Moss Is Terrible For Emergency Navigation

Fri, Feb 14, 2014

I'm not saying that you shouldn't trust moss if you have absolutely no other options. I am saying that you shouldn't get lost in the woods in the first place.

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S4.E37 ∙ Let's Talk About Names. In Iceland.

Sun, Feb 16, 2014

If I were in Iceland, I'd have a different name: and not only that, but the Icelandic government would have made my parents pick a name from a list. But there are more lessons to learn about names, particularly for those of us from the English-speaking world.

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S4.E38 ∙ Let's Play: Bar Billiards

Mon, Feb 17, 2014

Bar billiards is a little-known British pub game. And in the tradition of video game "let's plays" -- only in the real world -- I got some folks together for a match.

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S4.E39 ∙ How Does a Geyser Work?

Tue, Feb 18, 2014

There aren't that many places in the world where you can find geysers: even fewer where they blow regularly. Here, amongst the volcanic landscape of Iceland, is one of them. Here you'll find the original Geysir, plus its more regular cousin Strokkur. And a lot of wind.

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S4.E40 ∙ Why Do We Not Have A Cure For The Common Cold Yet?

Wed, Feb 19, 2014

It's a good question: with so many medical advances, how is "a cure for the common cold" still shorthand for "something that'll never exist"? Well, there's a good answer too -- and your body already knows it.

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S4.E41 ∙ Origami In Space

Thu, Feb 20, 2014

I'm joined by Tef who explains the Miura fold, a fancy origami fold that has uses both up in space and down on the ground.

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S4.E42 ∙ Never Call Someone "Tired and Emotional" In England

Fri, Feb 21, 2014

There's a famous British euphemism: "tired and emotional". Which means drunk. But if you're being recorded, or writing down your thoughts, you might want to stay away from it - because the British legal system is terrifying.

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S4.E43 ∙ Britain Has 555 Phone Numbers Too

Sat, Feb 22, 2014

In every Hollywood movie where someone dials a phone number, it starts with 555. Turns out Britain's got a similar system, and it's one of the few good decisions Ofcom's ever made.

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S4.E44 ∙ The London Railway of the Dead

Sun, Feb 23, 2014

When there's no room left to be buried, the dead will - take a train? It's hard to believe, but the London Necropolis Railway has a history.

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S4.E45 ∙ British Tanks are Better Than All Other Tanks, and Here's Why

Mon, Feb 24, 2014

And this particular tank, although it's a Soviet one, is accessible at the corner of Mandela Way and Pages Walk in Bermondsey.

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S4.E46 ∙ The 19th Century Channel Tunnel Wasn't Just A Dream

Sun, Mar 16, 2014

There were lots of Victorian engineering plans that never got off the drawing board - but one attempt at a Channel Tunnel remarkably did.

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S4.E47 ∙ Point Zero: Where All Roads Start

Thu, Mar 20, 2014

At the front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris sits a mostly-ignored marker. Mostly ignored, that is, until one person arrives and takes pictures, at which point everyone crowds round it and ruins the shot.

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S4.E48 ∙ Privacy In France: A Lot Of French People Might Be About To Sue Me

Sun, Mar 23, 2014

As ever, I'm not a lawyer -- but even professional lawyers can't give consistent advice on this. I'm still a bit worried that I'm going to get sued in France.

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S4.E49 ∙ Facebook for Oculus Rift: The Commercial

Tue, Mar 25, 2014

Facebook bought Oculus Rift for $2bn. Yep, two billion dollars. I made them a commercial. They probably won't like it.

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S4.E50 ∙ Is "Paris Syndrome" A Real Thing?

Sun, Mar 30, 2014

A few years ago, there were a lot of news reports about Paris Syndrome, an affliction that hit people whose ideas of Parisian delight were a long way from reality.

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