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Awesome Tom Scott

The House in a Chainmail Box

The House in a Chainmail Box

Located in Scotland, The Hill House was created by architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Unfortunately, the damp climate has been unkind to the home’s experimental construction. Tom Scott shows us how conservationists are working to save the house by surrounding it with a box made from 34 million chain links.

Checking Tom Scott’s 2022 Predictions

Checking Tom Scott’s 2022 Predictions

Back in 2012, vlogger Tom Scott made some predictions about what technology might be like 10 years later. Now, he’s revisited that video to see what he got right and wrong and then offers up some new guesses for the year 2032.

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A Mountain of Mannequins

A Mountain of Mannequins

More and more, manufacturers are thinking about ways to reuse and recycle their products once their useful life is over. But mannequins are made from fiberglass, which makes them difficult to recycle. Tom Scott visited Mannakin, a UK outfit who refurbishes and reuse these figures instead of letting them clog up landfills.

Electric Truck Highway

Electric Truck Highway

There’s little question that EVs reduce carbon emissions, but they’re not as convenient to fill up as gas-powered vehicles. Tom Scott headed to Germany to check out an power solution that sends electricity to trucks via overhead wires like a tram. A hybrid powertrain takes over when changing lanes or exiting highways.

The Schmid Peoplemover

The Schmid Peoplemover

A while back, Tom Scott checked out an elevator that can move both horizontally and vertically. At the time, he thought there was no way to smoothly change angles without stopping, but he was wrong. The Schmid Peoplemover can do just that, transporting passengers up, across a bridge, and back down on the other side.

The Most Useful Model Railway

The Most Useful Model Railway

Railroad operators in Darmstadt, Germany have a unique way to learn how to operate signals without risking real trains. Tom Scott shows off this special model railroad which is operated by real railway controls, including different kinds of switch consoles installed in various eras.

The World’s Shortest Flight

The World’s Shortest Flight

The flight between Scotland’s Papa Westray and Westray islands is incredibly short, covering a distance of 2 kilometers in less than 90 seconds. But it does actually serve a purpose. Tom Scott took flight, and let San Denby from Wendover Productions narrate instead of annoying people on the flight with his own explanation.

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Aerial Ropeway Ride-Along

Aerial Ropeway Ride-Along

Tom Scott recently showed us the UK’s last remaining gravity-fed aerial ropeway. While he was at the facility, he strapped a GoPro to one of its buckets, which captured the perspective of the shale on its rainy 19-minute journey from the quarry to the Forterra brickworks. It’s basically the world’s slowest and muddiest ski lift.

Gravity-Powered Ropeway

Gravity-Powered Ropeway

While it’s not as fancy as modern mining conveyors, this vintage ropeway transports shale from a quarry to a brickworks without using electricity or fuel. It uses the weight of materials coming downhill to pull empty buckets uphill. Tom Scott shows off the 100+ year-old system that moves 300 tons of shale per day.

Robot Grocery Warehouse

Robot Grocery Warehouse

Robots are increasingly being used in factories and warehouses, performing the menial and repetitive tasks that humans no longer need to do. Tom Scott takes us inside a UK warehouse filled with robots from the Ocado Group, each working in harmony to select and prep groceries for delivery to customers.

Replicating a Rock Cannon

Replicating a Rock Cannon

Back in the 19th century in Wales, one of the common ways of celebrating was with something called a rock cannon. Tom Scott reminisces about these forgotten gunpowder displays and works with a professional pyrotechnician to reproduce their explosive effect.

Basically Another Tom Scott Video

Basically Another Tom Scott Video

Tom Scott loves to visit interesting places, share fascinating stories, and speak about them with authority. After amusing us with his spot-on impression of the vlogger, comedian Matt Colbo is back with multiple Tom Scotts, envisioning what might happen they cloned the YouTube celeb.

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The Truth About LEGO Beach

The Truth About LEGO Beach

Tom Scott takes us to a spot in Cornwall, UK known as “LEGO Beach,” because countless LEGO pieces have washed up on its shore since 1997. Tom digs into the true story of the toys and the crazy amount of junk that has found its way into the sea. LEGO Lost at Sea has been documenting some of the many plastics they’ve found on beaches.

Movie Explosions vs. Real-world Explosions

Movie Explosions vs. Real-world Explosions

Just watch any Michael Bay movie, and you know that movie explosions can be quite spectacular. While real-world explosions can be powerful and downright terrifying, they don’t look as cool. Tom Scott teamed up with pyrotechnician Stephen Miller to explain the differences between military explosives and movie magic.

Why Progress Bars are Inaccurate

Why Progress Bars are Inaccurate

We look forward to the day when everything on every device just happens instantly. But until then, we will continue to see progress bars and spinning beachballs. Tom Scott digs into these First World annoyances and their most irritating properties – an inconsistent rate of movement and inability to predict completion time.

AI Suggests Video Ideas

AI Suggests Video Ideas

After multiple lockdowns in the UK, vlogger Tom Scott is starting to run out of ideas of things he can make videos about. So he turned to an artificial intelligence to see if it could come up with any. OpenAI’s GPT-3 tech came up with a mix of mundane, ridiculous, and surprisingly legitimate-sounding ideas, depending on its tuning.

It’s Pronounced GIF

It’s Pronounced GIF

It’s a debate that’s been raging since the first file was produced in CompuServe’s Graphical Interchange Format back in 1987. With the help of podcasters Molly Ruhl and Gretchen McCulloch, YouTube personality Tom Scott takes a couple of minutes to set us straight on the proper pronunciation of the popular “.GIF” file extension.

Nuclear Plant Amusement Park

Nuclear Plant Amusement Park

Around the globe, there are numerous decommissioned nuclear power plants. In the case of this plant that never opened along the German-Dutch border, it’s now home to an amusement park that includes a vertical swing ride inside of its cooling tower. A scenic mural on its outside helps it blend into its surroundings.

Basically a Tom Scott Video

Basically a Tom Scott Video

We’ve featured a number of Tom Scott’s videos over the years, and for the most part we’ve found them to be fascinating and informative. On the other hand, this parody video from comedian Matt Colbo has nothing useful to show or tell us at all.

Why Green Screen Is Tricky

Why Green Screen Is Tricky

TV news channels, YouTubers, and even blockbuster movies us green screens to place people in alternative locations by removing their background and replacing it with another. Tom Scott explains why it’s challenging to get a really convincing background swap, and how the effect is really easy to spot when done badly.

The Worst Computer Typo

The Worst Computer Typo

If you work with computers regularly, you probably have a story about a time when you lost a bunch of work due to either a crash or a mistake. Tom Scott recounts a time that he made an irreversible rookie mistake that cost countless hours of work, and talks a bit about the importance of backups and undo/redo systems.

The AI That Deleted a Century

The AI That Deleted a Century

It’s the year 2028, and while the world goes about its business, a system basically eradicates all knowledge of 20th century pop culture. Tom Scott explores one of the negative possibilities of artificial intelligence run amok in his own 6-minute episode of Black Mirror.

How The ’90s VHS Look Works

How The ’90s VHS Look Works

Anyone who lived through the 1990s can tell you that watching movies on videotape was a decidedly lower quality experience than today’s HD and UHD technologies enable. Tom Scott met up with the team from Red Giant to learn how their software can make modern footage look like it was recorded on VHS.

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