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Some close up shots of A380s flying across the Pacific from LouB747, a 747-8 pilot. They look incredible.

A video by Luther Clayton that gives a behind the scenes look at how donated blood is used in emergency sitautaions and a non-profit blood biker service, Freewheelers EVS, that is responsible for keeping the blood in circulation.

The YouTube algorithm has done it again, another great recommendation. This time it's from a Singaporean "guerilla wayfinder" designing and installing signs for the benefit of others. The act is noble, and the storytelling is great.

I saw the Metroboard Kickstart from design rules go around earlier this year. It's an LED board that displays the real-time location of trains at stations for several cities in the US. Through Tom Scott's newsletter, I discovered that they released a video showing the manufacturing process, including circuit board assembly, aluminium CNC machining, woodworking, and certifications.

YouTube provided me with a solid recommendation, Cursed Controls is a YouTube channel run by an electrician. In their video series, Home PLC, they go about setting up a control cabinet to be able to do home automation with... a PLC. I'm out of my depth to comment on the technicalities of the setup but it's definitely interesting to watch, and I've picked-up a fair bit of information throughout the series. So far there's four episodes:

1. The Enclosure
2. Components
3. Wiring and Power
4. Getting Online

On May 18, 2025, the OTUS [Observations of Tornadoes by UAV Systems] project used specially designed drones to collect scientific data inside of a tornado near Arnett, OK. This was our second drone intercept of the day. OTUS has an FAA-approved waiver to fly drones in tornadoes.

This is the first of four videos currently uploaded to their YouTube channel, all of which are impressive. Their Bluesky has a few more posts.

This was discovered through Tom Scott's Newsletter.

Jeff Geerling talks about timing and synchronization for broadcasts while visiting NAB 2025. The video was sponsered by Meinberg, but the content is still solid.

For the viewers at home to have a good time, all the equipment and producers in the stadium have to have a good time.

As the title suggests, Jeija demonstrates how WiFi signals travel through our surroundings by capturing them through an ESP32 antenna array. The video dives further into the physics behind the signals through WiFi signal captures, visuals and easy to understand explanations.

Discovered via Tom Scott's Newsletter.

Yesterday we saw the new ICE-L from Talgo enter the Netherlands being pulled by a RailAdventure operated Siemens Vectron. They've entered the Netherlands for testing and approval. This is to be the new Intercity Berlin passenger carriages as early as December 2025, but I don't have my hopes up. Treinreizigers.nl reports that we may see ICE 3 Neo temporarily used if the ICE L is not admitted by then. There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix, at least it would be fun to see the ICE 3 Neo service this route.

Back to the ICE-L, the video from Dylans Depot shows 21 carriages being pulled by the Vectron. We know the ICE-L is usually used with 17 carriages, that's 21 carriages * 13.8m = 290m long! That makes this longer than the current IC Berlin (9 carriages * 26.4m = 238m). I don't expect them to use 21 carriages in normal passenger service and have seen it mentioned online that using 21 carriages is potentially to test at the maximum possible length. If 17 carriages are used it would be closer to the length of the current IC Berlijn rijtuigstam at 235m (17 carriages * 13.8m = 235m).

Microsoft seems to pushing Copilot to its Microsoft 365 users for an additional $3 per month unless the users switch to the "classic" plan before the next billing cycle. Leonard French, in his YouTube video, comments on the implications this could have for confidentiality in healthcare, legal and other similar industries. This was prompted after Kathryn Tewson started a thread on Bluesky on the issue after speaking to Microsoft support. She writes:

1. It is impossible to disable Copilot in OneNote, Excel, PowerPoint, or Windows itself.
2. It will not become possible to do so for another month AT THE EARLIEST.
3. While they couldn't be sure, they think it's likely that Copilot ingests organizational data via the systems and applications it's embedded into even when not invoked.
4. They were unable to determine if such ingested data would "bleed over" into files other than those it was sourced from
5. They were very clear that organizational data would not be used to "train foundational models," but couldn't rule out the possibility that it could leave our organization in some way and pass beyond our custody and control.

A video showing the amount wind turbines bend as visible from the inside. Originally discovered through Tom Scott's Newsletter.

YouTuber MegaLag investigates Honey, the browser extension that supposedly finds you deals right before checkout. The video shows evidence of Honey overriding affiliate codes with their own biting the same influencers that promote them, specifically avoiding higher discount codes for some partnered stores, and repeatedly trying to inject themselves at every checkout even if there are no savings to offer so they can get a commission of the sale. The video has a lot more information and is only the first part of a series, some good investigative journalism from MegaLag.

Video description: A stock fireplace illustration frames looping archival video of the blasting RS-25 engines that launched the Artemis I rocket to the Moon on Nov. 16, 2022 (source: https://go.nasa.gov/4g6LnWc ). The illustration includes stone tiling, a pillow, a basket of firewood, and contains elements generated with AI. NASA added two framed pictures to the illustration. One shows an archival image of the Orion capsule flying through space. The other shows the Artemis logo. The audio features the roar of the rockets at a low level, with the addition of the sounds of a crackling wood fire.

Discovered via kottke.org.

A look into the mash-up of Slovak train design by Dalibor Itze and their proposal to fix some of its flaws.

I try not to be negative in what I post online, for this reason, this will stay out of the main blog, and my Mastodon account, but I wanted to comment in some way so it will be a link post. Linked is a YouTube video from Mutahar on the incident with MKBHD, if you prefer reading here's a Verge article. I don't care to comment much on the ethicality of a full length sponsored video that seemingly positions itself as a review but what I don't have any tolerance or respect for is the egregious speeding especially in a residential area. The main speedometer was blurred out to cover the crime but the car had a passenger-side speedometer as well that showed Marquees drove up to 95 mph which converts to 152 kmh where the limit is 56kmh! Completely reckless to drive at those speeds at all, even more so in a residential area where a children playing sign was visible in the video. The video was quickly edited with a comment that said "Cut out the unnecessary driving clip that obviously added nothing to the video. I hear all your feedback on sponsored videos too." Good cover-up...

The linked video from Mutahar covers my views on the event.

Wes Bos inspects McMaster-Carr a tools and parts shop with a website that's buttery smooth. No seriously try it.

The developers seemed to have pulled out all the stops to accomplish this. There are some simple methods like using CDN caching, client caching through ServiceWorkers and preloading assets in <head> including dns-prefetch but also lesser known, or more obscure ones like using sprites to load images to reduce the number of HTTP requests. The videos covers some more, but I'll be using some of these in my site builds in the future.

A tour of what was once a secret NATO Joint Operations Center during the cold war that was built in a quarry in Maastricht. The tour is delivered by Gerard Smeets a volunteer and previously an officer that worked at the center. The YouTube channel covers other interesting stories from the Netherlands.

NS train driver Stefan uploaded a new video of the 'Airport Sprinter' equipped with cameras and software that enable the driver to close the doors before the train departure. A task that is typically done by the train conductor during the departure procedure. Each carriage is equipped with external cameras allowing the driver to see passengers during the departure procedure visible at 8:20 in the video. This system, according to the video description, saves 10-15 seconds on average at each stop.

I've written about tests that were conducted back in 2022 on these sprinters, it seems the timed saved will be worked into the 2025 timetable to improve reliability.

An interesting side effect since the train conductor is no longer in charge of beginning the departure procedure if they move between trainsets at a stop they must notify the driver so as to not be left behind. This is seen at 16:18 in the video.

An detailed view of various tapes, their adhesive and conforming properties along with examples of their uses.

A look at everyday dialogue in 1586 England as documented by French refugee Jacques Bellot. In the video, Simon Roper explores the writing providing some interesting insights into the development of English at the time and today.