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4:02Only Two Countries Can Still Claim Antarctica
7.9M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains the history and legal status of territorial claims on Antarctica. It covers the overlapping national claims and the Antarctic Treaty that freezes them.
18:31Fourier Optics used for Optical Pattern Recognition
103K views • 6 years ago
Huygens Optics
Huygens Optics explains the Fourier transform and shows how a lens performs one optically. A DLP projector is used as a Fourier filter to do simple pattern recognition on lithographic character patterns.
8:45Plastic Recycling is an Actual Scam | Climate Town
1.9M views • 5 years ago
Climate Town
Climate Town gives a comedic, fast-paced account of how the plastics industry promoted recycling, including the resin-code recycling symbol, while knowing most plastic could not be economically recycled. It points viewers to the Frontline documentary Plastic Wars for a deeper treatment.
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 The video was later superseded by an updated version.
2:16Andreas Antonopoulos - 51% Bitcoin Attack
72K views • 11 years ago
Rodolfo Díaz
A two-minute clip of Andreas Antonopoulos explaining why a 51% attack on Bitcoin would not destroy it and what such an attack would cost. It is a succinct take on mining security.
24:30Is It Really Impossible To Cool A Datacenter In Space?
1.1M views • 7 months ago
Scott Manley
Scott Manley explains the thermal balance of spacecraft and how a satellite could be configured to radiate away the heat from datacenter-scale computing in space. His rough numbers suggest it is feasible.
42:02How to Surface a Submarine in the Arctic Ocean - Smarter Every Day 260
6.4M views • 5 years ago
SmarterEveryDay
Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day explains how a US Navy nuclear submarine surfaces through Arctic ice, filmed during the ICEx exercise. It shows ballast and control systems and the physics involved.
10:18How to Stop a Riot
5.2M views • 9 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains counterintuitive riot control techniques based on research, showing that effective tactics tend to avoid violence.
Topic match · Law, policing & justice
45:55Turning Waves Into Particles
194K views • 1 year ago
Huygens Optics
Huygens Optics explores the idea that space is a non-linear elastic medium, and uses simulations to show how wave energy might be confined locally into particle-like objects. It touches on inertia, the Schwinger limit and the vacuum as a medium.
11:06The Map of Mathematics
16.3M views • 9 years ago
Domain of Science
An animated 11-minute tour of the whole field of mathematics as a single map, showing how pure and applied math and their sub-fields relate to each other.
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.
11:10Why Japan's Conviction Rate is 99% (Actually Explained)
82K views • 6 years ago
That Japanese Man Yuta
Yuta explains what Japan's 99% conviction rate actually means, noting that prosecutors drop cases unless confidence is very high. He argues that the number is widely misunderstood and cites his sources.
Topic match · Law, policing & justice
48:59Why France is Actually Preparing for War With Russia
3.4M views • 2 years ago
RealLifeLore
RealLifeLore explains France's military posture towards Russia, including French involvement in Africa and Russian influence in the Sahel. It covers the geopolitics behind current tensions.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
7:38How We’re Fooled By Statistics
3.8M views • 12 years ago
Veritasium
A short Veritasium video explaining regression to the mean and how ignoring it leads to wrong conclusions about punishment versus reward, medical treatments and sports streaks. It uses the example of flight instructors who believed criticism works better than praise.
10:29Vertical Landing Rockets Before SpaceX
785K views • 8 years ago
Curious Droid
Curious Droid surveys vertical take-off and landing rockets that predate SpaceX and Blue Origin, including the McDonnell Douglas DC-X of the 1990s. It shows that propulsive landing has about 60 years of history.
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.
Topic match · Law, policing & justice
14:24Why Japan Arrests Foreigners
8.6M views • 7 years ago
Paolo fromTOKYO
Paolo fromTOKYO explains why foreign tourists get arrested in Japan, covering strict laws and the justice system's very high conviction rate.
Topic match · Law, policing & justice
18:14The US Military’s Massive Global Transportation System
3.2M views • 4 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains how the US military moves people and materiel worldwide, including prepositioned equipment, sealift and airlift. It shows the scale of the logistics system behind US force projection.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
11:33Light Waves Visualized using Photon Sieves.
69K views • 6 years ago
Huygens Optics
Huygens Optics shows how DIY photon sieves shape a laser's wave front, explaining how they differ from zone plates and how aperture count affects the focal point, with time-resolved visualizations of the diffraction.
7:45The 100 Year Flood Is Not What You Think It Is (Maybe)
2.3M views • 10 years ago
Practical Engineering
Practical Engineering explains what a 100-year flood actually means, combining statistics, hydrology and how society treats risk. Grady walks through local drainage infrastructure and the caveats in estimating flood probability.
7:26Optimistic Nihilism
18.9M views • 9 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt's short animated take on optimistic nihilism. It argues the universe has no inherent meaning, so we are free to create our own and enjoy life.
17:59The Expert Myth
16M views • 4 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium examines which experts have real expertise, drawing on chess research and work by Klein and Kahneman. It explains that expertise comes from pattern recognition built through deliberate practice in valid, feedback-rich environments.
22:11But what is the Riemann zeta function? Visualizing analytic continuation
5.4M views • 9 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown visualizes the Riemann zeta function and the analytic continuation that extends it beyond where its series converges, building toward the Riemann hypothesis.
18:39This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)
17.1M views • 6 years ago
Veritasium
A Veritasium video on the logistic map, showing how a simple population equation leads to chaos and bifurcation. It connects the idea to convection, neuron firing and the Mandelbrot set, with interactive animations.
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.
19:59The Future of Humanity's Energy No One Knows About | Terraform
228K views • 2 years ago
S3 | Science, Startups, & Stories
A 20-minute S3 episode touring Terraform Industries, a startup making synthetic natural gas from air and solar power. It walks through the reactor, injection system, direct air capture and electrolyzer, plus the company's cost goals and next milestone.
45:13You've (Likely) Been Playing The Game Of Life Wrong
11.6M views • 11 months ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains why many real-world systems follow power laws rather than normal distributions. It covers self-organized criticality, with simulations of sandpiles, magnetism and forest fires.
6:23The Secret Reason Horses Let Us Ride Them
26.6M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains why horses could be ridden and why other animals like zebras and bears were never domesticated for war or riding. It is a follow-up on the topic of animal domestication.
16:04Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything Forever – CRISPR
30.8M views • 10 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt's animated explainer on CRISPR gene editing, covering how the technology works and what it could mean for curing disease, designer babies and aging. It frames genetic engineering as an irreversible change coming to humanity.
12:49Why do people keep getting this wrong‽
2M views • 6 years ago
Stand-up Maths
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths explains why people keep making the same mistake with millions and billions, using a Bloomberg cash calculator example. He looks at the unit slip behind the repeated arithmetic error.
4:12Correlation CAN Imply Causation! | Statistics Misconceptions
744K views • 9 years ago
minutephysics
A four-minute minutephysics video arguing that causal models and causal networks let statistics infer causation from correlation. It touches on Reichenbach's principle, common causes, feedback and quantum causal discovery.
7:04Genetic Engineering and Diseases – Gene Drive & Malaria
9.9M views • 10 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animation on using gene drives to modify mosquitoes against malaria, and whether we should. It explains the mechanism and the ethical trade-offs.
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.
19:55Why was Biden's win calculated to be ONE IN A QUADRILLION?
1.3M views • 5 years ago
Stand-up Maths
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths examines the Texas Supreme Court filing claiming Biden's 2020 win had a one-in-a-quadrillion chance. He walks through why the statistical argument is flawed.
6:00Super Pointy Sprint Missile - 0 to Mach 10 in 15 Seconds - 100Gs & 6000°F
459K views • 6 years ago
Dark Footage
A short video on the US Sprint anti-ballistic missile, which accelerated to around Mach 10 in seconds under extreme g-forces and heat. It includes striking launch footage and a brief development history.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
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.
Topic match · Law, policing & justice
27:12How They Caught The Golden State Killer
10.1M views • 5 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains how investigators caught the Golden State Killer using forensic genealogy, matching crime scene DNA to distant relatives in public genealogy databases. It also covers the privacy implications of DNA databases.
Topic match · Law, policing & justice
11:05How to Win an Interstellar War
13.3M views • 2 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt video exploring how advanced civilizations might wage war across light years. It looks at weapons such as relativistic beams and what they would do.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
20:34How big is a visible photon?
793K views • 5 years ago
Huygens Optics
Huygens Optics shows through a laser interference experiment that the question of a photon's size is really about coherence length. It argues that photons exist as energy exchanges between radiation and matter, not as little particles in free space.
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.