Tom Scott

Season 3

A series of educational web videos across a range of topics.

Where to Watch Tom Scott • Season 3

23 Episodes

  • When Facebook Resurrected the Dead
    E1
    When Facebook Resurrected the DeadWhen Facebook claimed they could resurrect the dead, the world laughed. But Facebook were entirely serious.
  • Facebook Graph Search: a more realistic commercial
    E2
    Facebook Graph Search: a more realistic commercialI made Facebook a new commercial for Graph Search. I don't think they'll like it.
  • Ten Illegal Things To Do In London
    E3
    Ten Illegal Things To Do In LondonTen illegal things to do in London. Yes, these are all properly illegal.
  • A Brief History of Lyric Videos
    E4
    A Brief History of Lyric VideosThere's a good argument that lyric videos count as a whole new genre. Here's that genre's history, presented in its own style.
  • Yorkshire Yoga
    E5
    Yorkshire YogaAre you tired? Stiff? Feeling a bit peaky? Try Yorkshire Yoga.
  • A Spaceship Simulator in a Caravan: the LHS Bikeshed
    E6
    A Spaceship Simulator in a Caravan: the LHS BikeshedChris Paton, Tom Wyatt and Charles Yarnold made a starship simulator out of an old caravan, using Unity, Processing, Arduino, and two and a half months of hard work.
  • Lies on the London Underground
    E7
    Lies on the London UndergroundTom and Matt investigate some of the London Underground's greatest lies.
  • Instant Whey
    E8
    Instant WheyI found some instant whey. I'm sorry.
  • Why Jonathan Ross Can't Pronounce His Rs
    E9
    Why Jonathan Ross Can't Pronounce His RsJonathan Ross is known as "Wossy". He can't say his Rs. But there's a good chance that you've got the same speech defect he does, and you don't even know it.
  • Fantastic Features We Don't Have in the English Language
    E10
    Fantastic Features We Don't Have in the English LanguageEnglish is a biggest language - if you're talking about vocabulary. But it is still missing some really useful features.
  • All the Colours, Including Grue: How Languages See Colours Differently
    E11
    All the Colours, Including Grue: How Languages See Colours DifferentlyThe different languages name colors in different ways. And linguists can't figure out why.
  • Whatever Happened to Tom's Hoodie?: Tom Scott at Thinking Digital 2013
    E12
    Whatever Happened to Tom's Hoodie?: Tom Scott at Thinking Digital 2013I give Thinking Digital 2013's health and safety crew a massive headache, while talking about sentimental value, physical objects and digital data.
  • Why You Swear in Anglo-Saxon and Order Fancy Food in French: Registers
    E13
    Why You Swear in Anglo-Saxon and Order Fancy Food in French: RegistersWhy is an "odour" classier than a "smell"? Why is a "beverage" fancier than a "drink"? The answer lies in English history - and in the way we automatically know which 'register' of language to use. Includes bonus medieval advice for constipation.
  • There's Nothing Wrong With Saying "10 Items or Less": Descriptivism vs Prescriptivism
    E14
    There's Nothing Wrong With Saying "10 Items or Less": Descriptivism vs PrescriptivismIf you see the phrase "10 items or less" in a supermarket and immediately cringe and complain that it should be "10 items or fewer" - well, you are not going to like this week's video.
  • Ghoti and the Ministry of Helth: Spelling Reform
    E15
    Ghoti and the Ministry of Helth: Spelling ReformEvery so often, someone has a brilliant idea to reform English spelling. And you're probably thinking that I'm about to go off on a rant about how spelling reform never works. The trouble is, sometimes, just sometimes, it does work.
  • Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them
    E16
    Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To ThemGrammatical gender is a silly concept. So I'm about to go against my vow of descriptivism, and risk being run over by the Linguistic Mafia's bus, and say this: it's a silly idea.
  • Mele Kalikimaka: Why You Can't Say "Christmas" in Hawaiian
    E17
    Mele Kalikimaka: Why You Can't Say "Christmas" in HawaiianIt'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.
  • Oversight: Thank you for volunteering, citizen.
    E18
    Oversight: Thank you for volunteering, citizen.Or: what happens when you privatise Big Brother.
  • How Many Gs Do You Pull in an Elevator?
    E19
    How Many Gs Do You Pull in an Elevator?In one of the tallest buildings in London, Tom answers the question of how many Gs you pull in a lift, with the help of some sugar and a very dirty kitchen scale.
  • Why Do We Have "Ye Olde"? Obsolete Letters, and the Mysteries of Ye Olde Ming
    E20
    Why Do We Have "Ye Olde"? Obsolete Letters, and the Mysteries of Ye Olde MingWhy do we say "Ye Olde"? Why is "Menzies" pronounced "Mingis"? To find out, we have to go back into history.
  • Adjectival Order: Why A "Big Red Balloon", not a "Red Big Balloon"?
    E21
    Adjectival Order: Why A "Big Red Balloon", not a "Red Big Balloon"?The order of adjectives is one of those wonderful linguistic things that no-one really notices until it's pointed out to them.
  • Why You Can Tweet More In Japanese: What Counts As A Character?
    E22
    Why You Can Tweet More In Japanese: What Counts As A Character?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, no further. But now, we have Unicode.
  • Making Flaps Vibrate In Your Throat: Voicing
    E23
    Making Flaps Vibrate In Your Throat: VoicingThere's an interesting thing about English that hardly anyone thinks about. There are two "th" sounds. And if you want to know why it took me twenty-one takes to record this intro, you try switching them round.

 

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