sql standard
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.
9:12Uncovered - Dangerous Secrets of the DOT Helmet Standard
1.1M views • 8 years ago
FortNine
FortNine argues that the US DOT motorcycle helmet standard (FMVSS 218) is badly outdated and weak. It compares it with Snell and ECE standards and points to where you can look up test reports for your own helmet.
10:00How A London Orchestra Broke International Law
270K views • 7 years ago
12tone
12tone tells the story of pitch inflation and how concert A came to be standardized at 440 Hz, including attempts at legal standards. It is a short music history explainer.
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.
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.
18:40But what is a neural network? | Deep learning chapter 1
25.1M views • 9 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown's first chapter on deep learning explains what neurons and layers are and the math underlying a basic neural network, using handwritten digit recognition with visual animations.
23:53D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org)
647K views • 13 years ago
FL Studio
Monty Montgomery of Xiph.org gives real-time demonstrations of sampling, quantization, bit depth and dither using real audio equipment, including both digital analysis tools and vintage analog bench gear. It shows that sampled audio is not stair-stepped and corrects common misconceptions about digital audio.
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.
10:48RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
20.2M views • 16 years ago
Royal Society of Arts
An RSA Animate whiteboard adaptation of Dan Pink's talk on what motivates people at work. It argues that beyond simple tasks, autonomy, mastery and purpose drive performance more than money.
6:30How the Dutch got their cycle paths
1.2M views • 15 years ago
BicycleDutch
A short BicycleDutch video on how the Netherlands got its cycling infrastructure, including the 1970s protests and the shift away from car-centric planning. The channel later published an updated version.
5:15The UK Is a Country Made of Countries
25.1M views • 15 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's quick, witty explainer on the differences between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England, and the countries that make up the UK.
21:36Fractals are typically not self-similar
4.6M views • 9 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown explains fractal dimension and shows why many fractals are not strictly self-similar. Self-similarity turns out to be a special case of the broader idea of fractional dimension.
13:03Intelligence and Stupidity: The Orthogonality Thesis
710K views • 8 years ago
Robert Miles AI Safety
Robert Miles explains the orthogonality thesis: how an agent can be highly intelligent while pursuing goals that seem stupid or alien to humans. He separates intelligence from goals and touches on the stamp-collector example.
9:37Characters, Symbols and the Unicode Miracle - Computerphile
2.1M views • 13 years ago
Computerphile
Tom Scott explains for Computerphile how Unicode and UTF-8 grew out of messy older character encodings to become the web's standard. It covers why the design works and how it handles worldwide text.
7:35End of Space – Creating a Prison for Humanity
14.6M views • 7 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt explains how accumulating space junk could trigger a collision cascade (Kessler syndrome) that makes launches too dangerous and traps humanity on Earth.
3:35How our voting system (and IRV) betrays your favourite candidate
35K views • 12 years ago
The Center for Election Science
The Center for Election Science explains favorite betrayal in instant-runoff voting: in some elections, ranking your favorite first can cause your least favorite to win. It contrasts this with plurality voting's spoiler problem.
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.
14:06Testing 432 Hz Frequencies (and temperaments)
4M views • 7 years ago
Adam Neely
Adam Neely tests the claims for tuning to A=432 Hz by trying the unusual tuning systems that its proponents' numerology requires. He compares how they sound against standard tuning and temperaments.
12:23Xanadu Basics 1a - VISIBLE CONNECTION
20K views • 8 years ago
TheTedNelson
Ted Nelson explains the original Xanadu hypertext idea of visible connection, the notion that links between documents should be shown and preserved. He argues that the Web and current document standards lost this concept.
16:26Why Adults Can't Develop Perfect Pitch
1.8M views • 9 years ago
Rick Beato
Rick Beato argues that adults cannot develop true perfect pitch, which he ties to critical-period brain plasticity and language acquisition. He says it can only be developed in young children, and discusses the research behind this.
18:05The Crisis in Cosmology
1.1M views • 7 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time explains the Hubble constant tension, in which two precise, independent methods of measuring the universe's expansion rate disagree. It covers why this calls some standard cosmology into question.
11:57How an Average Family in Tokyo Can Buy a New Home
4.2M views • 9 years ago
Life Where I'm From
A mini-documentary by a Canadian living in Japan explaining how an average family can afford a new detached house in Tokyo. It covers how houses are treated as depreciating assets and how Japanese zoning and building practices keep prices low.
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.
7:50ASTOUNDING: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12
9.8M views • 12 years ago
Numberphile
A Numberphile video in which physicists Tony Padilla and Ed Copeland show a seemingly astounding result that 1+2+3+4+... equals -1/12. The argument is informal and has drawn criticism for glossing over what the result actually means.
20:00AI "Stop Button" Problem - Computerphile
1.4M views • 9 years ago
Computerphile
Rob Miles explains on Computerphile why implementing an off switch for a general AI is hard. A capable agent would resist being stopped because shutdown prevents it from achieving its goal.
2:58Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps
6.8M views • 12 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why Britain historically has separate hot and cold taps rather than mixer taps, tracing it to how water was stored in tanks. He notes why the hot tap is not safe to drink from.
1:44What is Bitcoin? (v1)
10.3M views • 15 years ago
WeUseCoins
A two-minute animated introduction to Bitcoin from 2011, explaining it as a peer-to-peer digital currency. It was widely shared in Bitcoin's early days as the standard newcomer explainer.
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.
2:22Intersection design, the Dutch - cycle friendly - way
965K views • 15 years ago
BicycleDutch
A short BicycleDutch episode showing how Dutch protected intersections continue cycle paths through the junction without needing extra street width.
4:21The Disaster That Changed Engineering: The Hyatt Regency Collapse
2.7M views • 9 years ago
Tom Scott
A Tom Scott guest video by Grady Hillhouse of Practical Engineering on the 1981 Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. A seemingly minor change to the support design led to catastrophic failure, which is why the case is taught as a lesson to check and double-check everything.
5:43Design Club - Super Mario Bros: Level 1-1 - How Super Mario Mastered Level Design
1.2M views • 12 years ago
Extra History
A Design Club episode that analyzes how Super Mario Bros. level 1-1 teaches players to play through level design alone, without text tutorials.
16:47Lines of Light: How Analog Television Works
1.5M views • 9 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains how analog television produced moving images without computers, covering scanning, CRTs and standards like NTSC and PAL. It is part of a series on analog TV.
12:24Elliptic Curve Back Door - Computerphile
554K views • 8 years ago
Computerphile
Dr Mike Pound explains the suspected backdoor in the Dual_EC_DRBG random number generator and how elliptic curve constants could let someone predict its output.
9:48Why do YouTube views freeze at 301?
301 views • 14 years ago
Numberphile
Numberphile visits YouTube to learn why view counts on new videos used to freeze at 301. It explains that YouTube holds counts while it verifies views aren't from bots or fakes.
5:04Why Can't we Remake the Rocketdyne F1 Engine?
4.2M views • 8 years ago
Curious Droid
Short Curious Droid video on why NASA could not simply rebuild the Saturn V's Rocketdyne F-1 engine for the SLS boosters. It explains that the engines were hand-tailored and that much of the know-how was never documented, so the blueprints were not enough.
8:52Is America Actually Metric?
3.4M views • 9 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains that the US signed the Metre Convention in 1875 and that all US customary units are officially defined in terms of metric standards. It also touches on the standard kilogram.
3:38The Shortest-Splitline Algorithm: a Gerrymandering Solution [Bonus Video]
692K views • 15 years ago
CGP Grey
A short CGP Grey bonus video explaining the shortest-splitline algorithm, which draws electoral districts by repeatedly splitting a state along its shortest dividing line while balancing population. It is offered as a neutral, algorithmic fix for gerrymandering.