nd:yag
9:41MindSpring Presents: "Greatness" by David Marquet
2.7M views • 13 years ago
MindSpring
An animated adaptation of Captain David Marquet's talk on greatness, based on his book Turn the Ship Around!. It argues for pushing decision-making down to the people doing the work instead of controlling everything from the top.
18:13Try to Rule Fairly and You'll Be Overthrown
26M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's animated adaptation of The Dictator's Handbook, explaining how rulers stay in power by keeping a small group of key supporters happy rather than ruling fairly. It lays out selectorate theory and how resources shape regimes.
4:48London Swallowed a City but Couldn't Digest It.
8.6M views • 14 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains that the City of London is a tiny, separate entity with its own governance, history and privileges, distinct from the city called London. He covers its financial role and how it is run.
18:14Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) [ST05]
8.3M views • 5 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes introduces the "stroad", a street-road hybrid common in the US and Canada that fails at both jobs. He contrasts it with Dutch design, where each road has a single purpose, and covers cost, danger and ugliness.
28:34But why would light "slow down"? | Visualizing Feynman's lecture on the refractive index
2.9M views • 2 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown visualizes Feynman's lecture on the refractive index, explaining why light appears to slow down in glass and why the effect depends on color. It builds the idea from waves produced by oscillating charges in the material.
16:39Portable Air Conditioners - Why you shouldn't like them
10.4M views • 7 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains why single-hose portable air conditioners are inefficient and often a poor choice compared with window units. It details how the single hose pulls in warm outside air and wastes energy.
18:58How The Auto Industry Carjacked The American Dream | Climate Town
922K views • 5 years ago
Climate Town
A Climate Town video on how the auto industry reshaped American cities and culture through advertising, lobbying and campaigns like the 1939 World's Fair. It is snarky in tone but backed by a published source document.
5:077 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover's Risky Mars Landing | Video
1.2M views • 14 years ago
VideoFromSpace
NASA's animated explanation of the Curiosity rover's Mars landing, which relied on a complex automated sequence taking about seven minutes. It features NASA engineers discussing the risks before the 2012 landing.
7:56Pi and the Mandelbrot Set - Numberphile
881K views • 11 years ago
Numberphile
Numberphile with Dr Holly Krieger shows how the digits of pi surprisingly emerge from the Mandelbrot set. A short, accessible math explainer.
10:09Dominic Frisby. A simple guide to land value tax
25K views • 11 years ago
Dominic Frisby Comedy Videos
Comedian Dominic Frisby gives a ten-minute explanation of land value tax. He argues it would fix problems of rent-seeking and the economics of land ownership.
3:01Why I Cook With Induction
383K views • 5 years ago
Jon Kung
Chef Jon Kung explains why he cooks almost exclusively on induction, citing fast heating, cleanliness and precise temperature control. He shows a rounded induction wok burner.
14:54Induced Demand & Roadway Widening: Everything You Always Wanted to Know (and Weren't Afraid to Ask)
120K views • 4 years ago
Ray Delahanty | CityNerd
CityNerd Ray Delahanty explains induced demand and what happens when freeways are widened. He walks through the economics of supply and demand applied to traffic and asks how much new traffic appears and whether congestion returns.
17:13India's Semiconductor Failure
1.6M views • 5 years ago
Asianometry
Asianometry explains why India, a chip design powerhouse, cannot fabricate chips, tracing the 1980s government attempt to build a national semiconductor champion and how it collapsed. It includes the sabotage at the SCL fab.
6:06Strong Towns: Property Tax vs. Land Value "Tax" (LVT)
61K views • 10 years ago
John Snow
Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns explains how a land value tax differs from an ordinary property tax, why it makes economic sense, and why it is rarely used. It is a short six-minute explainer.
5:17Mitochondria: the cell's powerhouse
1.1M views • 9 years ago
Harvard Online
A short Harvard animation narrated by Professor Rob Lue introducing mitochondria as the cell's powerhouses and how cells turn food and oxygen into energy.
10:20STOP Buying ANDROID TV Boxes!
4.6M views • 3 years ago
Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips warns against cheap Android TV boxes, many of which ship with preinstalled malware. It looks at several boxes and suggests safer alternatives such as Chromecast and Nvidia Shield.
3:34Making an international standard cup of tea
2.7M views • 8 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott follows the ISO 3103 / BS 6008 standard to make an international standard cup of tea, using specialist tasting equipment. The video shows how precisely the standard is specified.
5:36Why all solar panels are secretly LEDs (and all LEDs are secretly solar panels)
2.5M views • 7 years ago
Steve Mould
Steve Mould shows that LEDs and solar panels are both diodes made from semiconductors, so a solar panel can emit light and an LED can generate electricity. He demonstrates a small solar panel lighting up.
2:28Lies on the London Underground
4.6M views • 13 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott and Matt Parker investigate some of the small deceptions and oddities of the London Underground, such as misleading signage and map distortions.
1:14Sound of the dialup modem explained
512K views • 13 years ago
bialasiczek
A short animation that pairs the sound of a dialup modem handshake with a graphic explaining what each phase of the sound means.
8:03Why You Can't Name A File CON In Windows
7.8M views • 6 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why Windows does not let you name a file CON, tracing the reserved device names back to backwards compatibility with DOS.
4:00The Netherlands Is Not 'Holland.' It Never Was.
13.9M views • 13 years ago
CGP Grey
A short CGP Grey explainer on why 'Holland' is wrong as a name for the whole country of the Netherlands. It covers the country's provinces and its constituent territories.
14:27Why is TV 29.97 frames per second?
2.2M views • 10 years ago
Stand-up Maths
Matt Parker explains the history behind NTSC television running at 29.97 frames per second rather than 30, tracing it to the backward-compatible addition of color. He walks through the arithmetic behind the odd ratio.
15:07The most mind-blowing concept in music (Harmonic Series)
1.3M views • 6 years ago
ANDREW HUANG
Andrew Huang explains the harmonic series, which he calls the foundation of almost all music. He builds the idea up step by step, with demonstrations of overtones and how harmonies derive from them.
17:51Does "land area" assume a country is perfectly flat?
859K views • 6 years ago
Stand-up Maths
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths asks whether a country's reported land area accounts for hills and mountains, working through how surface area depends on the resolution of elevation data. It follows up on a question from a viewer and work by researchers who measured it.
58:53Pounds, shillings, and pence: a history of English coinage
1.2M views • 5 years ago
Lindybeige
Lindybeige gives an hour-long history of English coinage and the problems of maintaining a trustworthy currency. It ends with an explanation of why the pounds, shillings and pence system worked so well.
17:49How Japan Learned Semiconductors
228K views • 4 years ago
Asianometry
Asianometry traces the 30-year rise and peak of Japan's semiconductor industry from the 1950s to the 1980s, covering how a postwar country gained competence in an emerging technology.
1:33How the 737 MAX 10 landing gear works
1.4M views • 8 years ago
GeekWire
A short Boeing-supplied clip where the 737 MAX program's chief project engineer explains how the lengthened landing gear of the MAX 10 folds up. It shows the gear model in motion.
11:14How Overnight Shipping Works
7.6M views • 8 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains how overnight shipping works, covering the hub-and-spoke logistics of companies like FedEx and UPS and the use of cargo aircraft. It touches on the economics that make next-day delivery possible.
10:15Using ground relays with Starlink
506K views • 6 years ago
Mark Handley
Mark Handley of UCL explains, with simulation visualizations, how early Starlink satellites without inter-satellite links could still give low-latency wide-area communication by hopping via ground relays. He shows it can beat fibre on many long paths.
27:18Vocal Fry: what it is, who does it, and why people hate it!
4.1M views • 3 years ago
Dr Geoff Lindsey
Linguist Geoff Lindsey explores vocal fry: what it is, who uses it, how it relates to glottal stops and accents, and why some people dislike it.
11:54The Most Complex International Borders in the World
7.9M views • 12 years ago
WonderWhy
WonderWhy surveys complex international borders, including enclaves like Vatican City, San Marino and Lesotho, the enclave-within-enclave town of Baarle, and the India-Bangladesh Cooch Behar region.
22:44The Art Market is a Scam (And Rich People Run It)
3.2M views • 5 years ago
Wendover Productions
A Wendover Productions video on how the art market works, arguing that prices are driven by wealth, storage and tax mechanics rather than artistic value.
6:08Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs
6.8M views • 16 years ago
NumbersUSA
Roy Beck's short gumball presentation using World Bank and Census data to argue that letting people immigrate to the US cannot solve world poverty because the numbers are so large. It is made by NumbersUSA, an immigration-restriction advocacy group.
18:31The LED Traffic Light and the Danger of "But Sometimes!"
4.2M views • 8 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains how LED traffic lights, which do not melt snow, drew complaints and were blamed for accidents. He uses it to illustrate the 'but sometimes' fallacy against new technology.
28:04Ground Source / Geothermal Heat Pumps and Other Info
1.2M views • 5 years ago
Technology Connections
A Technology Connections video on how ground-source (geothermal) heat pumps work and why they hold efficiency in winter. It also covers related heat pump information, and the description notes air-source heat pumps have since improved.
11:46Zipline - How Rwanda Built A Drone Delivery Service
1.6M views • 7 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering explains how Zipline built a drone delivery network for medical supplies in Rwanda. It covers the fixed-wing drones, catapult launch, parachute drop and the logistics behind the service.
26:29Watch electricity hit a fork in the road at half a billion frames per second
3M views • 2 years ago
AlphaPhoenix
AlphaPhoenix uses a custom high-speed measurement setup to watch voltage waves travel down wires and split at a fork. It answers how electricity knows where to go and how quickly that process happens.
7:39Propaganda Games: Sesame Credit - The True Danger of Gamification - Extra Credits
2M views • 10 years ago
Extra Credits
An Extra Credits episode on China's Sesame Credit, which gamifies obedient citizenship through a social score. It covers how the system rewards conformity and pressures people through their friends' behavior.
9:09England: South Sea Bubble - The Sharp Mind of John Blunt - Extra History - Part 1
3.5M views • 11 years ago
Extra History
The first part of Extra History's animated miniseries on the South Sea Bubble. It explains how England's government debt led Robert Harley to turn to financier John Blunt, whose schemes began inflating artificial demand for shares.