Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gSU2OSLcmSA
If you want to read a complete copy of Protect and Survive you can often find originals and reprints on eBay... but there are also several copies online.
This one, hosted by Atomica, is one of my favourites, as it's formatted in a way that'...
2022-09-16 10:15:59 +0000 UTC View Post
As usual, I want to highlight a couple of sources I used to make this episode. If you're interested in learning more about this disaster, these are definitely great starting points...
The National Archives of Singapore
Singapore maintains an excellent national archive, and many of the resources from it can be freely accessed online. I wasn't able to get permission to use images from the archive in the video, but they're definitely worth a look.
To find them,...
2022-09-13 10:15:59 +0000 UTC View Post
There are two pieces of interesting trivia that I want to share about this disaster, neither of which really fit into the video.
The connection with the band Rammstein
The first is that the heavy metal band Rammstein chose their name because of this disaster. When they first met they didn't really have a name - they'd just get together to play music. One of...
2022-09-06 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Cc4guvt8kGo
Magnetix were a fairly high profile case... but there have been a good number of recalls of magnetic toys over the last few decades.
DigitDots is a recent one - these little m...
2022-09-02 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
While the loss of the Empress of Ireland never attracted as much attention as the loss of the Titanic just two years earlier, it certainly didn't go unnoticed.
National Museums Liverpool (the Empress often sailed from Liverpool) has a very interesting page on the ship and the disaster, including an image ...
2022-08-30 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qEBTlCf862c
Before researching this story, I never realised just how big crocodiles could be. This Snopes article shows one that was killed in Zimbabwe. And, despite the incredible size of this animal, almost all estimates say that Gustave is ...
2022-08-26 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
As an addendum to this story, I wanted to share a link which allowed me to fill in a lot of details in this story, and gave me a bit of an idea what kind of content the KDND Morning Rave tended to put out.
This is the Morning Rave website, as archived by the Internet Archive and accessed via the Wayback Machine. I've chosen a capture that's as c...
2022-08-23 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QG0skE196tc
I came across this story after a recent trip to Ireland, where I noticed something very odd. In some towns and alongside some roads people had tied hundreds and hundreds of soft toys and teddy bears to every available surface.
Af...
2022-08-19 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I was very lucky with the sources for this story, as there are some fantastic, well-organised, well-maintained and thorough archives online relating to the fire.
This one, maintained by Cornell University and the Kheel Center, is my favourite. Among many other things, you can read multiple...
2022-08-16 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4pLb_TvAHMU
One thing I don't mention in this video is the size and scale of a typical anglerfish. Even if you did venture down into the deep ocean and encounter one... it'd most likely be no bigger than your fist. Although, that said, there are reports of some growing to the size of large dogs!
2022-08-12 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
When researching a story about a historic disaster, I often find it interesting to take a look at what remains on the site today, if anything. In this case that's a very easy task, thanks to the wealth of information on the resort's website.
You can take a look at live webcams to see the state of the snow and how busy the slopes are, o...
2022-08-09 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Just in case the video above doesn't play, here's a direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/S4q1Fxgo8G4
Unexploded World War I bombs are a problem across large parts of Europe... and they're a problem that can sometimes manifest in unexpected ways.
There are two pictures that I wanted to share with you that I didn't get a chance to include in the video. Both show a bit of a different side to being part of the space race in the 1960s.
This first one shows the Apollo One astronauts relaxing in a pool after having completed some water egress training...
And this one shows them messing about and laughing before they were due to take som...
2022-08-02 10:15:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Just in case the video above doesn't play, here's a direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KF98V3SRIq4
There are a good few stories in the historical record of people whose death might have been due to their use of ceruse or other poisonous cosmetics. One notable case was the death of the Countess of Coventry, who passed away in 1760 at just 28 years old. Sure...
2022-07-29 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The rescue operation for this accident was incredibly difficult... with lots of unpredictable factors making things more complicated. Here are a few that I couldn't quite fit in the video.
Firstly: the temperature. Not only was it a stiflingly hot scene, but that high temperature made any nick or cut sustained a lot more risky, as infections would incubate much faster. Any cut or graze (no matter how small) had to be reported... and would require tetanus shots or the removal of that res...
2022-07-26 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Just in case the video above doesn't play, here's a direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vmZgQ-DTZSM
There are actually quite a few "torture devices" from bygone eras that may not actually have been used for torture. Another prominent one is the "iron maiden" - a person-shaped cabinet filled with spikes on the inside. Most sources agree that these weren't invented until mu...
2022-07-22 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
One source I used for this video contained a few little things that I just couldn't verify with any other source. Perhaps someone native to Texas City might have some insight?
In this report by ABC13, they show some colour footage which looks like it could be of the Texas City Disaster. I've not seen colour footage of it anywhere else... and it only plays in the background - they don't actually have a video f...
2022-07-19 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Just in case the video above doesn't play, here's a direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wWVyf9lUvRw.
There's one picture that I found while researching this short that I didn't manage to include in the video, but which I had to share - it's a set of lawn darts from the time before they were banned, but after...
2022-07-15 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
At the end of this video, I touch on how long it has taken to identify and repair buildings that were built using the Pal Kal method. It's quite a complicated task. This article (despite being a few years old now) covers some of the issues surrounding it nicely.
Here's one interesting example: it's natural to think that people who l...
2022-07-12 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
With this story, I wanted to nudge you toward one of my sources. It's this one, which concerns the actions of Pierlucio Tinazzi, who rode into the tunnel on his motorbike and lost his life while helping an unconscious driver.
Immediately after the disaster, it seems, there were some inaccurate reports of what Tinazzi had done - with people saying he'd ferried up ...
2022-07-05 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
There's a lot of material out there about the Camelford Poisoning, much of it conflicting. The accident is held up both as an example of how local authorities can bodge the handling of public health disasters, and of the results of mass hysteria.
One article that I found particularly interesting was this one. It's full of little details that help to illuminate the story. Fo...
2022-06-28 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Patreon may have sorted out the glitch with shorts... but just in case the video above still isn't showing, here's a direct link to it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/81G1HaIFcHE.
One odd little story that I came across while researching this short is told in 2022-06-24 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
While looking for stock footage to accompany this video, I came across this. It's a training film made by Union Carbide (for use in their American plants) about the importance of correctly labelling chemicals. And it's narrated by none other than Leonard Nimoy - AKA Spock from Star Trek.
Safety videos like this were - once upon a time - relatively comm...
2022-06-21 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
One detail that I didn't include in this video concerns the history of the SS Noronic. Interestingly, the day she was due to leave on her maiden voyage was a day of unprecedented storms on the Great Lakes - storms which claimed many other ships.
From this article in the Walkerville Times Magazine:
"Eleven vessels went down with all hands lost; eight others were c... 2022-06-14 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
There should be a video displaying above... but Patreon doesn't seem to like shorts. I've gotten in touch with Patreon support and they say that it's a problem on their end, and that they're working on it, but that they have no idea when it will be fixed. So, in the meantime, here's a link to the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bQGC1h8pzhQ...
2022-06-10 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In this video, I mention Amedeo Pancotti, who saved numerous lives by climbing up an abandoned air shaft and calling rescuers over to where his fellow miners were trapped.
Of course, climbing up an air shaft is never an easy feat... but I found this detailed account of exactly what Pancotti had to do to escape on the Carnegie Medal website, and just had to share it:
"Mo... 2022-06-07 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In case I haven't said so before, the Library of Congress in the US is a fantastic resource. As well as an archive of hundreds of thousands of historical images (many of which are free to use) it also compiles excellent resources like this one, which offer suggested sources relating to a given event or person.
In this case it includes almost a dozen newspap...
2022-05-31 10:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
There should be a video displaying above... but Patreon doesn't seem to like shorts. I've gotten in touch with Patreon support and they say that it's a problem on their end, and that they're working on it, but that they have no idea when it will be fixed. So, in the meantime, here's a link to the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uKr4PJFoU_I...
2022-05-27 10:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Whenever I'm writing a script about an accident that took place on a ride, I always try to find a complete video of the ride in operation, so that I can see what it looks like during a normal run.
Here's a normal showing of America Sings from 1987. One interesting thing to note is that in this video there are no longer any in-person hosts on stage; they've been replaced with a voice over a PA system.&nbs...
2022-05-24 10:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
There should be a video displaying above... but Patreon doesn't seem to like shorts. I've gotten in touch with Patreon support and they say that it's a problem on their end, and that they're working on it, but that they have no idea when it will be fixed. So, in the meantime, here's a link to the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6U74vVKoAw8...
2022-05-20 10:15:59 +0000 UTC View Post