Awesome Learning

When the U.S. started creating highways connecting the nation, interstates were identified with a logical numbering scheme. CGP Grey looks back at the rationale behind the numbers which have since become cluttered with intrastate interstates, bypasses, beltways, spurs, and exception cases to confuse matters.

Narrow-minded people often call others out for not being normal. But is anyone really normal or typical? This TED-Ed lesson by Yana Buhrer Tavanier explores the history of the term and how its misuse has had a tremendously negative impact on society. Animated by Eoin Duffy.

Videos and film images aren’t moving at all. They’re just a collection of back-to-back frames that our brains stitch together to create the illusion of movement. Joe Hanson of the PBS series Be Smart takes a deep dive into the way that our eyes and minds process images and how motion picture devices work.

Learn how to better manage money for yourself and at work with this bundle of eight online courses. Classes include personal finance, goal setting, budgeting, cost management, forecasting, decision making, and more. Another great e-learning deal from The Awesomer Shop.

Want to create a podcast that actually gets listened to? This series of online courses will help you create engaging content, learn the technologies and tools you need to record and distribute your program, and tips on how to market, build an audience, keep them coming back, and eventually secure sponsors.

An essential reference guide for setting up your own blacksmith workshop and working with metal. The first half of author Nicholas Wicks’ book covers shop safety, equipment, and techniques, while the second half offers 55 simple projects like tools, hardware, utensils, and decorative objects you can create.

After watching one of Smarter Every Days‘ videos about the unique beauty of laminar flow, Derek Muller of Veritasium wanted to explore a much trickier kind of physics. When air, fluids, and gases experience turbulence, their chaos may be hard to explain and model, but it’s pretty amazing stuff when you dive in deep.

After receiving an e-mail purporting to show off the fireworks intended for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, minutephysics thought something seemed off. This video is less about the fireworks and more about doing what all good scientists and skeptics do by pausing to think about things before accepting them as the truth.

The Enigma Machine was a cipher device used by Germany during WWII to encrypt and decrypt top-secret communications. Animator and educator Jared Owen provides a detailed look at its ingenious design and how it scrambled and unscrambled letters. Given its complexity, we’re amazed that it was cracked.

Many intercontinental flights fly over the North Pole to save fuel and decrease flight times. So why is it that airplanes don’t do the same over the South Pole? Half as Interesting explains the challenges that keep flights from routing over Antarctica, and why it really doesn’t have much impact.

Part of DK’s Big Ideas Simply Explained series, The Astronomy Book is a great way to learn about a typically dense subject. The book explores the history of astronomy, space exploration, and the concepts surrounding astrophysics in terms that anyone can understand.

For years, 35mm film was the dominant format for big-screen moviemaking. The first movies had a boxy shape but eventually expanded to wider formats. Team 2 Films looks at the history of film shapes, how various aspect ratios have come in and out of favor, and how they affect movie composition.

We’re grateful to have lower case letters, if only to limit people typing in ALL CAPS. The Generalist Papers digs into the history of letterforms in the English language on a quest to explain why we have two different versions of every character in the alphabet.

Odds are, if you live near other people, you’ve had a bad neighbor or two. LegalEagle delves into a few of the worst neighbor disputes ever, from people building structures out of spite, to throwing garbage at each other, to cutting down half of a neighbor’s garage.

Learn to confidently speak languages with Speakly’s smart training app. It automatically focuses on the most statistically-relevant words in order of importance, and its app lets you practice communicating in real-life situations from your phone or computer. Save 82% on a lifetime subscription.

TED-Ed’s Andrew Zimmerman Jones provides a brief overview of the different ways in which physicists theorize how time and space relate, and ponders the question that time may not be a fundamental property of the universe, and only exists in our collective minds.

Ready to learn a new language? Babbel will help you go from zero to language hero with access to over 10,000 bite-sized lessons, covering real-life conversational topics in 14 different languages. Grab a lifetime subscription for 40% off the regular price.

Spanning 23 miles, the English Channel Tunnel has the longest undersea section of any tunnel. TED-Ed’s Alex Gendler takes a look at the political and logistical challenges and engineering feats that led to the construction of the tunnel between 1988 and 1994.

UsefulCharts takes a look back at the 4000+ year history of Modern Latin Script, the letterforms and alphabet used today in English and many other languages. Along the way, you’ll learn about other forms of written communication which don’t use an alphabet. The chart is also available as a 24″ x 36″ poster print.

We’ve all heard the expression “dead as a doornail,” but we certainly didn’t know its origin. History and weapon enthusiast Malcolm P.L. explains the true meaning of the phrase while demonstrating the building technique that inspired it.

Kurzgesagt explores the complex systems at work to help keep our 40 trillion cells alive and well, adapting and facing off countless times each day against foreign organisms teeming inside of our bodies. For a deeper dive, grab a copy of Kurzgesagt founder Phil Dettmer’s new book IMMUNE.

Most of us know tumbleweed from its appearance in old Westerns, or maybe we’ve seen a couple along the side of the road in the desert Southwest. But as CGP Grey explains, these seemingly innocuous plants are anything but harmless, with their nasty thorns, incredible flammability, and propensity to multiply like, uh, weeds.

Conquer your home bar and impress your friends with this series of six online courses about bartending and mixology. Along the way, you’ll learn all about gin, rum, vodka, whiskey, and tequila, along with the best ways to make cocktails from each spirit. Another great deal from The Awesomer Shop.