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7:49Your Post Code Is the Directions, Not the Destination
3.9M views • 1 year ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains that postal codes are routing instructions for mail rather than geographic regions. He looks at the quirks and problems this causes.
16:37Does It Make Sense To Put Data Centers In Space? Can They Really Cost Less To Operate?
502K views • 2 years ago
Scott Manley
Scott Manley analyzes the idea of putting data centers in orbit, prompted by Lumen Orbit's funding. He examines the claimed advantage of constant solar power against launch cost, cooling and mass.
17:52Holy Post - Race in America
1.7M views • 6 years ago
Holy Post Media
Phil Vischer of VeggieTales and Holy Post gives an 18-minute history of racial injustice in America, covering why anger persists despite civil rights laws. It is told from an evangelical Christian perspective and adapted from a class he co-taught.
12:25This Invention Made Disney MILLIONS, but Then They LOST It!
7.3M views • 2 years ago
Corridor Crew
Corridor Crew tracks down Disney's lost sodium vapor prism process, used for Mary Poppins-era transparency mattes. They explain how a narrow sodium wavelength and a beam splitter enabled better compositing than green screen.
7:19The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America
2M views • 6 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes explains how small pockets of shops and restaurants inside residential Dutch neighbourhoods create liveliness and help reduce traffic. It argues this kind of mixed-use design has been illegal in most of the US and Canada for a century because of zoning, and should be brought back.
27:15The Most Misunderstood Concept in Physics
31.5M views • 3 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium's explainer on entropy, presented as one of physics' most important and least understood concepts. It uses examples such as heat engines and the sun's energy flowing through the Earth.
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.
20:28The Most COMPLEX Pop Song of All Time
8.3M views • 5 years ago
Rick Beato
Rick Beato analyzes a pop song he argues is among the most harmonically complex ever, breaking down its chords and key changes. It is a music theory deep dive aimed at general music fans.
9:29The Most Extreme Explosion in the Universe
11.6M views • 3 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animation on supernovae, the most powerful explosions in the universe. It explains their role in creating elements and what would happen to Earth if one occurred nearby.
28:23The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT): Most Ingenious Algorithm Ever?
2.3M views • 5 years ago
Reducible
Reducible's visual walkthrough of the Fast Fourier Transform, motivated by polynomial multiplication. It shows how the FFT's key ideas can be discovered by asking the right questions.
24:57The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History
43.5M views • 4 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium tells the story of Thomas Midgley Jr., who introduced leaded gasoline and CFCs, and covers the science behind lead exposure and ozone damage. It also touches on isotope geochemistry used to uncover the history.
20:13The Most Powerful Computers You've Never Heard Of
13.7M views • 4 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium traces analog computers from the Antikythera mechanism and Kelvin's tide-predicting machines to fire control and modern analog approaches. It explains how these machines computed continuously rather than digitally.
11:22Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work
24.9M views • 4 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains why bicycles are stable, arguing that gyroscopic effects are not the answer. The video shows countersteering and an experiment where riders blocked from steering the opposite way cannot turn.
26:33The Most Underrated Algorithm
10.8M views • 4 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium tells the story of the Fast Fourier Transform, from its use in detecting nuclear tests to Cold War politics, and how it could have changed the arms race. It includes a short, intuitive explanation of what the Fourier transform does.
24:52AlphaFold - The Most Useful Thing AI Has Ever Done
11M views • 1 year ago
Veritasium
A Veritasium video on AlphaFold, DeepMind's protein structure prediction system, and the protein design work it enabled. It features interviews with John Jumper and with David Baker's protein design group and explains why predicting protein folding matters.
23:03The Universe is Hostile to Computers
26.5M views • 5 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains how cosmic rays and other particles flip bits in computer memory, with examples including a Belgian election count error, plane incidents and game glitches. It is inspired by a RadioLab episode on bit flips.
15:14The most deadly project on the Internet
6.8M views • 4 years ago
bigclivedotcom
BigClive explains why microwave oven transformer projects are extremely dangerous, since the high voltage and high current can kill. He contrasts them with spot welder builds where the secondary is replaced by low-voltage heavy wire.
10:29Are There Lost Alien Civilizations in Our Past?
14.2M views • 4 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt asks whether advanced civilizations could have existed on Earth in the deep past and left little evidence. It looks at time as a dimension for searching for alien civilizations and the limits of the geological record.
32:32The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything
13.1M views • 1 year ago
Veritasium
A Veritasium video on how a feud between Russian mathematicians led to Markov chains and the modern prediction algorithms built on them. It covers the history and the math behind them.
14:32Orbital Data Centers Yes or No
18K views • 1 year ago
Eager Space
Eager Space examines the practicality of putting data centers in orbit, walking through three scenarios with cost calculations and the launch cost reductions that would be required.
Topic match · Cloud, DevOps & reliability
18:08What Eating the Rich Did For Japan
2.8M views • 5 years ago
Asianometry
Asianometry traces how the Japanese zaibatsu families grew into vast industrial combines and how postwar reforms abruptly broke up their wealth and control.
Topic match · Labor, work & inequality
14:44Cars Are A Disaster For Society -- Here Are the Numbers
414K views • 2 years ago
Ray Delahanty | CityNerd
CityNerd's Ray Delahanty tallies the personal costs of driving and then the externalities that car dependency imposes on everyone else, with numbers for each. It is an urbanist case that driving is heavily subsidized and costs society far more than drivers pay.
18:40Drone Delivery Was Supposed to be the Future. What Went Wrong?
2.8M views • 4 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains why drone delivery has not become the future once promised. It covers no-fly zones, costs and the difficulty of the final drop-off.
Topic match · Robotics
42:42Why Are Emulators Legal? Dolphin vs. Nintendo, and the Fate of Emulation [Great Emu War Pt. 1]
410K views • 3 years ago
Moon Channel
Moon Channel, run by a lawyer, explains the legal basis for emulation, including the history of emulation case law and Nintendo's takedown of Dolphin's Steam release. It argues the legality of emulators is more fragile than most people assume.
Topic match · Game history & retro gaming
38:26Racing the Beam Explained - Atari 2600 CPU vs. CRT Television
400K views • 5 years ago
Retro Game Mechanics Explained
Retro Game Mechanics Explained shows how the Atari 2600 draws images with almost no video memory, by having the CPU race the CRT beam line by line. It walks through the techniques in detail.
Topic match · Game history & retro gaming
12:31The Last Human – A Glimpse Into The Far Future
15.2M views • 4 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animation on longtermism, arguing that because the future could hold trillions of people, our actions' effect on future generations may be what matters most.
Topic match · AI safety, AGI & impact
9:39Why American Cities Are Broke - The Growth Ponzi Scheme [ST03]
3.8M views • 5 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes explains the Strong Towns argument that car-dependent American suburbs cost more to maintain than they generate in taxes. It describes the growth Ponzi scheme that props up municipal finances.
57:50A Complete Beginner's Guide to Electric Vehicles
2.1M views • 4 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections' hour-long guide to electric vehicles, covering costs, trade-offs and especially how little home charging power most drivers need.
20:59The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. @NotJustBikes)
3.3M views • 4 years ago
Climate Town
A snarky, comedic video essay from Climate Town, with a guest appearance by Not Just Bikes, arguing that American suburban sprawl and single-family zoning are financially and environmentally unsustainable. It covers how zoning rules shape housing and what viewers can do locally, such as attending zoning meetings.
14:03Simulating alternate voting systems
4.5M views • 6 years ago
Primer
Primer uses simulations to compare voting systems such as first-past-the-post, approval, ranked choice and others. It shows how each system behaves and can be manipulated, with links to further voting theory resources.
8:13How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer [ST02]
1.2M views • 5 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes contrasts traditional and suburban development in North America. It looks at the financials behind each pattern and argues that suburban development leaves cities unable to pay for their own infrastructure.
10:40This Ponzi Scheme Might END Suburban Prosperity
324K views • 3 years ago
Strong Towns
Strong Towns explains the Growth Ponzi Scheme, in which post-war suburban growth takes on infrastructure costs that new development must keep funding. It describes why municipal finances become insolvent.
24:26Batteries aren't the only way to store energy. Here's another.
1.5M views • 5 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains how a home can act as a thermal battery by pre-cooling or pre-heating when electricity is cheap or abundant. He shows how this shifts load off-peak and eases strain on the grid.
17:39The EV Detroit is Dying to Benchmark - BYD Seagull
319K views • 2 years ago
Autoline Network
Autoline's John McElroy and Caresoft president Terry Woychowski look at the BYD Seagull, an electric hatchback that sells in China for about $11,500. Woychowski points out the cost-saving design and manufacturing choices, and McElroy takes it for a short test drive.
14:35How Much Is a Human Worth? (according to engineers)
647K views • 3 years ago
Practical Engineering
Practical Engineering explains how engineers and agencies put a dollar value on a human life to weigh cost against safety. It covers the legal and regulatory basis for these calculations.
42:29YouTube's copyright system isn't broken. The world's is.
9M views • 6 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott's long explainer on YouTube's copyright system, Content ID and the DMCA. He argues the platform's system is a workaround for a broader copyright system that does not fit the modern world.
Topic match · Internet culture & memes
18:20FIXING the ENTIRE SM64 Source Code (INSANE N64 performance)
3.2M views • 4 years ago
Kaze Emanuar
Kaze Emanuar explains how he rewrote and optimized the Super Mario 64 source code so it runs far faster on real N64 hardware. He covers performance bottlenecks and fixes in detail for his ROM hacks.
Topic match · Game history & retro gaming
50:09Old pinball machines are amazingly complex
3.5M views • 3 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections takes a long, detailed look at how a 1970s electromechanical pinball machine works, from relays to stepper motors and mechanical logic. It is the first part of a series.
Topic match · Game history & retro gaming
29:05Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons
1.8M views • 8 months ago
Benn Jordan
Benn Jordan investigates infrasound and low-frequency noise from data centers, including xAI's Colossus and a crypto mine, and reports his own experiments on the effects. The video covers the health and community impacts on nearby residents.
Topic match · Cloud, DevOps & reliability
20:57Atari's Quadrascan Explained
239K views • 5 years ago
Retro Game Mechanics Explained
Retro Game Mechanics Explained dissects how Atari's Quadrascan vector displays and vector generator hardware drew games like Asteroids and Tempest.
Topic match · Game history & retro gaming