The JDM phenomenon, giant tube TVs and why all steel is radioactive.

Quick update: I've decided to switch the publishing day for Five Finds to Monday. My birthday prevented me from writing this issue last Friday, but Monday seems like a more reasonable option anyway: much calmer and easier. Hope you don't mind!

What Happened to the World's Largest Tube TV?

While we're at the topic of Japan, here's a fascinating video by a person obsessed with a simple idea of obtaining the world's largest tube TV. He was able to locate the last(?) surviving one in a 300-year old restaurant in Osaka just three days before the building was scheduled to be demolished. Thankfully, a stranger answered a Twitter DM from him and verified the set just in time. And then managed the process of sending this 200kg TV from Japan to the United States.

The Story of the JDM Car’s Popularity in the U.S.

I'm writing this with my new Citizen watch on my hand. It's JDM, meaning it was originally intended for the Japanese domestic market only. But it's a very interesting watch for the prices, like many such models, so thankfully there are resellers willing to ship them worldwide.

JDM is unique phenomenon of the Japanese people keeping their best staff for themselves. It's the most known for cars but applies to watches from the likes of Seiko and Citizen and a few other areas.

The 'Toy Story' You Remember

Toy Story was digitally in 1995 but transferred to 35 mm film because theaters couldn’t project digital back then. The artists graded with film in mind, and the process added grain, softness, and warmer, muted colors. It is now impossible to watch Toy Story in this original version as it was envisioned. Similar shifts affect other Disney’s ’90s titles (Aladdin, Lion King, Mulan).

Low-background steel

If you're building a particle detector, you need a very specific kind of steel to make it work. It's called low-background steel — any steel produced prior to the detonation of the first nuclear bombs. Typically obtained from shipwrecks and other steel artifacts of this era, it is used for particle detectors because it's not contaminated with traces of nuclear fallout. Because when steel is produced, air or pure oxygen is is forced into converters, and our air carries radionuclides like cobalt-60, giving the steel a weak radioactive signature (which would affect the readings on devices like LHC).

Should you take a jacket?

You put in your city. This website tells if you need a jacket today. That's it, that's the pitch.