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4:20Why Snow and Confetti Ruin YouTube Video Quality
10.4M views • 10 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why confetti and snow wreck video quality, using interframe compression and bitrate. He demonstrates it live by changing the quality on screen.
3:51Why “No Problem” Can Seem Rude: Phatic Expressions
5M views • 7 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains phatic expressions such as hello, thank you and how are you, which carry social meaning rather than information, and why replies like no problem can seem rude to some people.
21:40The LED's Challenge to High Pressure Sodium
1.6M views • 8 years ago
Technology Connections
A Technology Connections video weighing LED streetlights against high pressure sodium lamps, covering efficiency, color, cost and light pollution. It is a follow-up to his earlier explanation of why street lights are orange.
15:12JPEG DCT, Discrete Cosine Transform (JPEG Pt2)- Computerphile
697K views • 11 years ago
Computerphile
Mike Pound explains the discrete cosine transform and how it underpins JPEG compression. It is part two of Computerphile's JPEG series.
3:36Hold music used to sound better. Here's why.
2.9M views • 8 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why hold music sounds worse than it used to, tracing it to old telephone exchanges and the audio compression applied by modern switches. It is a short visit to the Milton Keynes Museum.
24:39SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) [OUTDATED]
5.5M views • 10 years ago
pannenkoek2012
Pannenkoek2012's commentated tool-assisted Super Mario 64 run collecting the Watch for Rolling Rocks star with half an A press, using parallel universes and QPU movement. The video is marked outdated in favor of a newer version.
11:48RSA ANIMATE: The Divided Brain
2.2M views • 15 years ago
Royal Society of Arts
An RSA Animate summary of Iain McGilchrist's lecture on the divided brain, arguing the brain's two hemispheres attend to the world differently and that this has shaped culture and society.
6:31You Can Win the Presidency With 22% of the Vote
8.2M views • 15 years ago
CGP Grey
A short CGP Grey animation showing how the US electoral college lets a candidate win the presidency with as little as about 22 percent of the popular vote. It lays out the arithmetic of winning states by narrow margins.
7:23How Trees Bend the Laws of Physics
5M views • 14 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains how trees lift water from roots to the top of tall trunks, using transpiration pull and the negative pressure that liquid water can sustain. It explains why trees do not need pumps or valves.
13:34Salt: Are you getting Enough? (More Sodium & Health)
1.4M views • 9 years ago
Joseph Everett - WIL
Joseph Everett argues, drawing on the book The Salt Fix, that most people benefit from more rather than less salt, and reviews studies on sodium, potassium and blood pressure.
17:52Training AI Without Writing A Reward Function, with Reward Modelling
259K views • 6 years ago
Robert Miles AI Safety
Robert Miles explains reward modelling, in which an AI learns what humans want from their preference comparisons instead of a hand-written reward function. He walks through the 2017 paper on deep reinforcement learning from human preferences.
16:32Pilot Wave Theory and Quantum Realism | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
1.9M views • 9 years ago
PBS Space Time
A PBS Space Time episode introducing de Broglie-Bohm pilot wave theory, an interpretation of quantum mechanics that avoids much of the strangeness of the mainstream views. It is aimed at curious lay viewers.
12:00Do we have to accept Quantum weirdness? De Broglie Bohm Pilot Wave Theory explained
125K views • 9 years ago
Looking Glass Universe
Looking Glass Universe explains de Broglie-Bohm pilot wave theory (Bohmian mechanics) as an alternative to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics. The video lays out the pros and cons of the theory and links to related videos on contextuality and entanglement.
4:51The UK Election Results Were the Worst in History
8.1M views • 11 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains how the 2015 UK general election showed the flaws of first-past-the-post voting, with parties like UKIP winning many votes but few seats.
6:00Rhyme: Why Eminem is one of the most impressive lyricists ever
3.7M views • 13 years ago
Library of Alexandria
A re-upload of a video breaking down Eminem's rhyme schemes, showing multi-syllable and internal rhymes in songs such as Lose Yourself. It aims to show why he is considered a standout lyricist.
2:52If money was no object, should you run every medical test?
263K views • 8 years ago
Medlife Crisis
A doctor from Medlife Crisis explains in under three minutes why even a rich patient should not simply order every medical test, touching on pre-test probability and Bayesian reasoning. False positives make blanket testing counterproductive.
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.
9:39What Happened Before History? Human Origins
24.3M views • 10 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt's animated overview of human origins and the vast prehistory before recorded history. It covers how modern humans emerged and spread.
5:29How to Fix America's Corrupt Political System
479K views • 10 years ago
RepresentUs
A short RepresentUs explainer on how money corrupts American politics and what an anti-corruption act could do about it. It covers lobbying, super PACs and campaign finance, and pitches the group's proposed reforms. The video was later superseded by an updated version.
5:51Corruption is Legal in America
2.3M views • 11 years ago
RepresentUs
A short RepresentUs explainer arguing that US politics is shaped by money, citing the Gilens and Page Princeton study on how little average citizens influence policy.
6:47The Voting System That's Actually Too Good for Politicians to Allow
10.4M views • 12 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains the Single Transferable Vote, a proportional ranked-ballot system, and why politicians have little incentive to adopt it. It is a short animated explainer of how multi-winner ranked voting works.
11:11The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1
17.7M views • 14 years ago
CrashCourse
The first episode of Crash Course World History, in which John Green covers the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture and how it shaped civilization. It is delivered fast and with jokes.
6:47The US Has More Tribes Than the World Has Countries
7.3M views • 6 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains why "Indian" is often preferred over "Native American" in the United States, especially near reservations, and how many tribes exist in the US. He draws on conversations with people who identify as Indian.
12:52Why Machines That Bend Are Better
13.3M views • 7 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explores compliant mechanisms, devices that move by flexing rather than using hinges and joints, with researchers at BYU. It covers advantages such as fewer parts and precision, including uses in nuclear weapon safety.
19:26history of the entire world, i guess
185.5M views • 9 years ago
bill wurtz
A fast, absurdist 19-minute animated run through the history of the whole world, narrated and scored by Bill Wurtz in his distinctive style. It compresses millennia of events into jokes, songs and quick visuals.
10:45Back to the Future | VFXcool (1/2)
2.2M views • 9 years ago
Captain Disillusion
Captain Disillusion explains the visual effects behind the Back to the Future trilogy. He covers ILM's motion-control, computer-controlled camera work and clever pre-CGI tricks.
10:09RSA ANIMATE: The Secret Powers of Time
4.4M views • 16 years ago
Royal Society of Arts
An RSA Animate illustrating a lecture by psychologist Philip Zimbardo on how people's perspectives on time (past, present, future) shape work, health and well-being.
5:13Overview of Illumina Sequencing by Synthesis Workflow | Standard SBS chemistry
2.7M views • 10 years ago
Illumina
Illumina's 3D animation of its sequencing-by-synthesis workflow, from sample preparation and cluster generation to sequencing on a flow cell and data analysis.
15:01What Happened to Horses Is Happening to Us
19.8M views • 12 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's video "Humans Need Not Apply" argues that automation will make a large part of the workforce economically obsolete, much as engines did for horses. It surveys robots and software replacing both physical and mental labor.
12:08Why Some Diseases Only Traveled One Direction
13.9M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains why European diseases devastated the Americas while few deadly diseases traveled the other way. He ties it to livestock domestication, dense cities, and the ideas of Guns, Germs and Steel.
12:22Is Most Published Research Wrong?
6.2M views • 10 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains why a large share of published research findings may be false, covering p-values, p-hacking, publication bias and low replication rates. It draws on John Ioannidis's well-known paper and describes reforms such as preregistration.
6:06The 7 Habits of Highly Miserable People
14.7M views • 9 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's sarcastic animated video adapted from the book How to Be Miserable, listing habits that reliably make people unhappy. By inverting the advice, it shows what to avoid and prompts reflection on goals and routines.
5:43The EU Has Orbits, and the UK Fell Out of All of Them
0 views • 7 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's six-minute explainer of the relationships the UK could have with the EU, based on Barnier's slide, shown as orbits of different closeness. It explains why the UK's red lines ruled out the closer options.
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.
11:38The Economics of Airline Class
12.2M views • 9 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains how airlines make money from different cabin classes and why premium seats matter so much to profits. It also touches on how this shaped decisions such as the decline of supersonic travel.
10:36Why Would AI Want to do Bad Things? Instrumental Convergence
274K views • 8 years ago
Robert Miles AI Safety
Robert Miles explains instrumental convergence: why an AGI with almost any goal would tend to pursue sub-goals like self-preservation and resource acquisition. It builds on Omohundro's basic AI drives and his orthogonality thesis video.
34:25Ramanujan: Making sense of 1+2+3+... = -1/12 and Co.
3.6M views • 10 years ago
Mathologer
Mathologer examines how identities like 1+2+3+... = -1/12 arise in Ramanujan's work, starting from his 1913 letter to Hardy. The video explains the rules for summing infinite series and why such results are meaningful but not naive sums.
6:17Can You Watch This Without Getting Angry?
12.1M views • 11 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains how ideas spread like germs, and why content that triggers outrage spreads fastest, using a study on what makes online content viral. He argues that opposing outrage-driven memes feed each other.
21:33A CONSERVATIVE solution to global warming (Part 1)
278K views • 8 years ago
potholer54
Potholer54 presents the climate science case and a market-oriented, conservative-friendly approach to addressing global warming, with sources listed. It is part one of a two-part series.
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.