What counts as the world's shortest river? 

The climate thanks you

I love it when your videos include clips from vastly separated locations like this one. That's a lot of forwards planning for a video, to make sure your talking points run together smoothly.

That almost makes it MORE impressive! I was absolutely howling with laughter when you suddenly were in Finland (and NOT in a major metropolitain area, either - Juväskylä is definately a bit out of the way!) for FIFTEEN seconds!!! :D :D :D

Didn't you got to Slough just for a joke...

I mean. You say that now, but how about You show some proof (my desperate attempt at getting another video out of You this week) Thanks for the great video as always.

Plato, sobbing: "WHY MUST I BE PLAGUED BY THIS DEMON!" Diogenes, grin growing wider: "So... how would you define a demon?"

Underrated comment lmao

Plato: Fine. A river starts at a NATURAL source.

@@HolyKhaaaaan diogenes, bursting through the door with a manmade waterslide powered by a natural source: YOU ARENT GONNA BELIEVE WHAT I FOUND

@Quinten 's comment deserves more likes, you cowards

Imagine Tom with a surprised Pikachu face.

Marconius But then just add the “naturally generated” part

Your comment has 777 likes… 😳 I’m not gonna break your spell of luck :)

2:16

that definition has another flaw: not every river "flows in a consistent direction", at least not all the time.

ah yes, Sir Gary Brannan of the Yorkshire Brannans

I thought it was discovered by Judith Kebakko

@@addexiaohao8364 No, it was the arena where Hurcon of Wigan fought in the finals!

@@Derf1OO I thought he fought the finals down a bit from Tromsø.

@@TheAbyssalStorm Wasn’t that where Marcel and Judith performed their last routine before they retired?

Maybe

Underhyped comment

nice

Yes?

But that would include a full bathtub

idk if you meant country or actually meant county but I believe it either way

They say that wherever you are, you are never more than 10ft away from the nearest Tom. Or.. was that spiders? I can never remember.

neburiveS what’s that from!! I know it from somewhere .

@@namelastname796 Originally that is a viral saying about spiders. Though I think I've read that it is actually not true somewhere.

@@chewcodes Both.

Smallest lake/ocean?

@@glass4600 A tiny drop of water in my garden, called Lake H. Technically, that's a lake, right? :)

I see your bathtub and raise you the clogged storm drain on my street!

I declare a water molecule in the middle of nowhere the shortest river in the world!

Technically you can drown in anything so long your head fits in it.

just because has bacteria in it doesn't mean is not drinkble

@@PcGames88 Water collected from waterways is not safe to drink unless you boil it, use filters or purification agents. This is camping 101. You can literally see fish and vegetation in the shallow water, this means a high quantity of plankton and insect larvae are also present. If you drink that untreated, you have high chances of suffering diarrhea. Of course, if you're willing to take the bet or enjoy the taste of rotting plants and milt, then more power to you. But I rather just bring a thermos from home and have a nice day.

@Anifco67 For the same reason the fish in an aquarium don't die, or the reason a vulture doesn't die when it eats dead meat: It has immunities to the bacteria that we don't. Humans have our own immunities, and there are many bacteria we can safely consume. The air I'm breathing right now is full of bacteria, but it is in such tiny amounts that my body can defend against it, mostly in the form of mucus that then gets sent to an acid bath in my stomach. If the air had more bacteria in it though, (and it wouldn't take much) the bacteria might get past the mucus and set up a colony in my lungs. At minimum, that might cause flu-like sypmtoms, but to be honest, of all the places you don't want bacteria, lungs are high on the list. For the fish, they have their own ways of protecting against bacteria in water, much like we have mucus in our airways. Even then, though, many fish are found to have a large collection of bacteria in them when dissected, of the parasitic variety. (If you want to know more, one common infection in the fish world is Mycobacteria - and yes, that's spelled right - particularly M. Marinum. It's related to the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, and causes similar symptoms in fish.) And even then, many times fish due die because of bacteria. Just like how if there were too much bacteria in the air, I might get sick, if there's too much bacteria in the water, fish might get sick. Also, many bacteria that would harm or kill us can live symbiotically - or just non-harmfully, there's a word for when one creature benefits and the other isn't impacted in any way, but I always forget it - in other creatures. If you remember, COVID 19 was transmitted to humans from animals. While there's no symbiotic relationship anywhere for COVID 19, (which isn't even bacteria - it's a virus. Very different.) many diseases that have decimated human populations are entirely harmless to the animal that humans caught it from. I know it's called 'carrier' immunity when talking about infections in the same species, but I can't remember if it has the same name when talking about different species. (i.e. *intra*-species disease vs *inter*-species disease.) Bacteria really is fascinating, and so are the various immunities creatures can have to them.

@@jem5636 You really like to write dont you?

@@ardenorcrush649 I've been drinking unfiltered water from streams and rivers all my life. No ill effects. Ever. We are evolved to live only this planet. All that filter crap is only necessary if you are downstream from high population density areas (human or animal), if the water is stagnant, or if you are in a location where the local bacteria is different from what you are used to. And in the third case, if you are going to be there for a while, drink the water anyway, get the shits, and get over it. Your body will adapt.

How do you know he is actually in Finland and not some backwater hole of SoCal?

@@SmallGuyonTop how do i know you arent fun at parties?

@@SmallGuyonTop Im from Jyväskylä, Finland and can confirm that clip is a bit north of here in Finland and not backwater socal Also furthermore as an avid geoguessr itd be easy to tell the difference even if I wasnt from here

toanoradian Tom Scott 2081: “What counts as being dead?”

What counts as "what"?

Tom "Beep Boop" Scott 2.0 2061: "What counts as a robot?"

Tom Scott October 2019: "What counts as Brexit?"

"What is a Kaioken?"

There isn't anywhere in Yorkshire called Batlow. I've seen this factoid elsewhere but I don't know where it came from. I don't think there is even anywhere in England called Batlow. The only one I can find any reference to is in NSW in Aus.

@@joshuarosen6242 It's a reference to one of Tom's other shows, Two of These People Are Lying. In it, an article from Wikipedia is chosen at random from three people, and the other two need to pretend it's their article as they're quizzed on it. In it, the article was Batlow and one person claimed that it was a river in Yorkshire which was only three feet long. Unfortunately, Tom had already filmed this video so was immediately called out. Very entertaining, give it a watch.

@@HyperionHarry Thank you very much. That solves that mystery.

@@joshuarosen6242 NSW, you sure?

Trust Yorkshire to try and claim it 🙄

I'm here in Great Falls, the city where Giant Springs state park is.

Ah yes, Tom Scott and Finland, two things with... a complicated relationship

Kind of inefficient on resources though, taking a break from filming, flying to finland, then flying straight back to finish the video.

@@pluto8404 check his comment on this video

He's even wearing the same clothes

There is only 3 reasons to visit Finland. 1) To invade it. 2) To get to Sweden, Norway or Russia. 3) 15 second RU-vid segments

@@sshep86 Not to get to Estonia?

Mood

YOU'RE breathtaking!

👏

_Litterally_ breathtaking!

some of the most toxic water in the world is crystal clear!

Great country

Torille 2 metrin päässä toisista

PERKELE

torilla tavataan!

@@allu717 kyllä

Him and Matt live on a park bench. Haven't you seen their videos?

​@@IanTester I thought they blew it up.

@@tomuhawk96 they did. One hell of a morning alarm

Hotel? Trivago.

Home is where the heart is

Aww 🤗

In what manner does water flow through you

@@DROPKICK500gaming through his kidneys ofc

@@DROPKICK500gaming by drinking?

still not as short as Batlow

lovely

THAT DOESN'T WORK FOR EVERYTHING

Underrated reply

Soviet womble refrence, nice

@@HolyKhaaaaan it absolutely does

Carriage of No Return. I still envy his organisation skills though. Bloody amazing!

I like your username.

His life is a neverending B roll.

Just commenting about how awesome your account name is 😂

literally looking for this comment.

Jack Henry totally

Eggsistential.

Bruh wtf is a river?

But how would you define a crisis, and where would you put the line between a regular crisis and an existential one?

Hey same it is weird seeing such a familiar place behind Tom.

And hopefully it went to the Sip & Dip! Why have all that water around and not see any mermaids!

Hotel: trivago

😂😂😂😂

that would explain his video about learning to teleport

@@MikhaelEternal true that

You can't see the whole surface of the earth from one location in space. Starts up a whole new argument...

@@gordonrichardson2972 of course you can, the earth is flat

@@gordonrichardson2972 You can. You just need some mirrors :)

@@gordonrichardson2972 excuse me, i'm a 4 dimensional being and i can see the entire earth at once

What if you had a bunch of satellite camera's with their displays on screens in front of you

Technically "There's an exception to every rule." would be an exception to its own rule if there are no exceptions to it.

@@CollinBuckman thus you have entered an exceptional paradox.

@@mezz09smezzanine It doesn't really matter since there are other rules with no exeptions, like the laws of physics.

@@petervanderhoogte1027 That depends. Newton's law of gravity and the gallilean laws of motion work at every day conditions, but don't work in relativistic environments like orbiting satellites (GPS), the orbit of Mercury, gravitational lensing, and other phenomena -- those need General and Special Relativity to work. Likewise, General Relativity breaks down in a blac hole and doesn't explain phenomena like the bullet cluster.

Even that rule.

Probably because the D River isn't particularly photogenic, as it is mostly covered by the US 101 bridge. And then there's the issue that its measurable length varies greatly -- as in double in length -- whether the tide is in or out.

@@llywrch7116 world's shortest bridge

If I take a whiz off the bank...

We'll appropriately name it the "Evian River" and start WW3 by debating on whether that counts

How long is it?

And when the sun shines it condenses water from the air and the river continues to flow trickle by trickle in its glorious inches of length.

Wanna have fun... research "common place-names", or "place names in Ireland".. it's a fun rabbit hole.

@@infernomunky I appreciate that so many old UK and Irish place names are so straightforward. "What's this place called?" "Newbridge" "And what's that over there?" "That's the new bridge". Just telling it like it is. :)

Or burn, which is a the Scots equivalent of stream.

@M. de k. New Bridge, the Third.

That does rather lead to the question of what led to places such as Sandy Balls, Upper Crapperton, and a few dozen other weirder/ruder names...

Sorry Gary.

What did I miss? Who are the two people?

@@ilmisteriosofranceseradene7548 look up the "Two of These People Are Lying" on the Matt and Tom channel

The Student Official The shortest time machine trip in the world?

I was thinking a female tinkle, that has to be 5 inches or so, but you beat me. XD

Damn you. I was going to.piss into a puddle and call GWR

@@andywright8803 :)

@@andywright8803 XD

Wanna see the worlds smallest violin

Come on you can't leave us there. How long is it?

@@sourisvoleur4854 on average, 6.5 inches

@@Robo0595 - snort.

@@sourisvoleur4854 A bit late for this, but it's about twice the length of the one featured in this video (about 440 feet or 130 m), and did at one time hold the record. It no longer does, but locals don't like to take down any sign that might attract a tourist. They were also annoyed that a student project was deemed to have "beaten" their natural water feature, and the argument is part of what led Guinness to remove the record from contention.

Rwededyet underrated comment

Underwater comment

Good one, dad.

Trying to make a splash with that comment?

*Mystery Biscuits!*

That's rad!

congrats!

Err... Congrats?

If only you had a camera ans s red shirt and an idea with yourself. You might have been the new Tom.

You can drown with a milk jug.

@@MrSvenovitch No. Hypoxic convulsions/seizures will move your face out of the bucket/milk jug before you're done drowning.

I drowned choking on my own tears.

@@neolexiousneolexian6079 not necessarily, nor does that exclude secondary drowning post aspiration.

Are you required to do all of your drowning within the body of water in question, or do you just have to begin or finish drowning before the current carries you to a different body of water?

It always ends in fisticuffs and police sirens.

"Well, _actually_ …"

Excuse me, kind Sir, but which direction is the market place again?

I "studied" (not really) in Jyväskylä for one year as an exchange student. But I'm not sure which bridge that is. I want to know.

@@epajarjestys9981 Kuokanjoki, Äänekosken Sumiaisissa.

Ah, thx, so a bit away from Jyväskylä. I think I have not been there.

I read somewhere that the strait of gibraltar flows mostly eastward due to the higher evaporation rate of the mediterranean.

@@wildanfatihg so... The pacific-indian-atantic ocean is the world's longest river

Tema Vero but it doesn’t flow into any one thing, but double constantly in on itself

Water flows into the Mediterranean, the strait of Gibraltar was closed some million years ago (African plate moving north) and the Mediterranean mostly dried out leaving thick salt deposits, kind of like a giant version of the Dead Sea.

Usually rivers are known to be freshwater.

Lakes, spruce, birch, concrete bridge? Finland 100%

That's Tom's secret... He's always in a red shirt. Makes editing so much easier!

@@jamescameron-clarke2560 I don't think I've ever seen him NOT wear that red shirt

@@SamuraiPipotchi He's often in a grey hoodie on top. Sometimes a coat, too

What you are describing is more of a spring fed river. From my understanding, a river can't just be rain fed and be sustainable as a river. Maybe a lot of creeks feed the river or snow melt? Also, the river doesn't need to flow fast for.ocean going vessels to navigate it. It's just needs to be deep enough. It could have been dredged to allow an inland port.

But it's disposable :/

@@tronix2125 Anything is disposable if you think about it

Most springs a safe to drink from, if you drik from the source.

@@holgerchristiansen6012 Some have compounds inside which you definitely don't want to consume in large amounts. However most of these are also not clear.

lukassnakeman now, now Lukas, no need for name calling. Let them discover microbes the hard way.

This is from a spring though, so it'll be fine. You can clearly see there's no source of disease upstream.

Coming from a spring, and immediately moving with little to no stagnation should be fine to drink straight away

@Jamie Foster I've dived it. It's great. Ewans ponds in Australia, also great.

looks like you haven't seen the enchanted river in the Philippines

Yes. "What IS a river? 🤔🤔🤔

Large enough for a baby to drown in or an adult tho?

I keep telling Californians how awful of place this is to live.

@@m0ntheg3rs honestly I see more Texas/Washington plates than California.

Puoleksi minuutiksi :)

If my D was the shortest in the world, I don't think I'd set up any signs to advertise the fact... :P

Love how everyone's returning to this video after that one.

Despite the water not being as clear in Äänekoski, most of Finland's lake water should be drinkable

we have a lot of Springs here in Estonia that are natural and connect to rivers down the line... The water there is often totally clean and drinkable, our ancestors (and people still do) thought that the water from those sources/springs had a healing power, and I don't blame them, it does taste different, and in a good way, almost a really good refreshing and healthy way!

@@MihkelKukk that will be mineral content and just general by products from any life that enters the water or lives in it like any microbes etc.

Mihkel Kukk water springs all around the world have myths of healing properties to them. There is something about unending fresh water gushing from the earth, it just seems magical.

@@draxthewarlocktitan5217 that's true

Lopeta

@@readmore8974 eikö enää vitsaillakkaan saa?

🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮

@@readmore8974 No pitäähän meillä perinteitä olla! Siis myös niitä, jotka ei liity viinaan, saunaan tai molempiin. TLDR: torille.

@@olivertuomola ei toi oo vitsi, se on ylikäytetty yt perinne, jos suomi mainitaan...

I'm guessing that Tom will show more stuff from Finland in the future. 😉

Same here. :)

The fact that Montana's attempt to steal the Guinness title from the D River just ended with Guinness refusing to list any river is a little upsetting. :/ Certainly "world's shortest river" is more educational and more interesting of a title to be included in the Book of World Records than the latest corporate attempt to make the the world's biggest food item or whatever...

Same! So close but yet so far...

Another fun one is "Is breakfast cereal a kind of soup?"

@@WG55 Also fun to mess around with definitions of food, e.g., "is a hotdog a sandwich?" or "is a poptart a kind of ravioli?

@@littlesnowflakepunk855 Pop-tart ravioli. That is a good one. 🤔

Portland Oregon has the smallest state park

Wut?

Montana is full of wonder!

This is why we can't have nice things.

I want to snorkel in it.

I appreciate your use of plus codes

Potty-trained toddlers or preschoolers. And given global populations, statistically there will always be a peeing little child somewhere in the world.

And technically that is indeed a natural stream.