Awesome Learning

Adam Savage and Tested invited illustrator Marty Cooper – the man behind Aug(De)Mented Reality – to ask him how he makes his viral doodles and stop-motion short films. Then they make one clip, which you can see at 6:45.

Our world is loaded with bacteria, viruses and other organisms. Fortunately, for most of us, our immune systems fend off these nasties. KurzGesagt boils down the complexities of our bodies’ self-defense system for us non-scientists.

Jonathan Bird’s Blue World talks about sponges. At 5:40 Jonathan uses a nontoxic dye to show how sponges suck and expel water. So when a kaiju sponge starts feeding us with dye just to watch us poop rainbows, blame this guy.

Delve talks about mathematician Claude Shannon. In 1948, Shannon figured out that information can be expressed and transmitted using binary digits, paving the way for the digital revolution we enjoy today.

If you loved Egoraptor’s breakdown of the ingenuity found in the first level of Mega Man X, check out Extra Credits’ similar study on Super Mario Bros. It’s just one of the many proofs of Shigeru Miyamoto’s genius. More here.

(NSFW: Language) “Man, wood, flesh. That’s it. America.” Rapper, chef, gourmand and all around lover of life Action Bronson drops by some of his favorite restaurants in the U.S. and makes some guacamole and rib eye steak.

When forced to use a dirty toilet, do you cover the toilet seat with tissue? Or do you just try your best not to make contact with the seat? AsapScience says it doesn’t matter which tactic you choose. So just hold it in til you get home.

Long before the war between digital and physical media, Sony and JVC fought the videotape format war – Betamax vs. VHS. As part of his miniseries about tech failures, Bill Hammack sums up how Sony and its superior tech lost.

Vsauce explains the catastrophes that would occur if our planet suddenly stopped rotating. Then it points out that changes in the Earth’s rotation causes our measurement of time to be defective and in need of constant adjustment.

(NSFW: Language) The Checkout gives a funny and informative primer on gendered marketing. If all this pink and blue dichotomy sounds obvious to you, that only emphasizes how gullible we are because sadly, it works.

In its latest episode, Last Week Tonight reminded us that the beautiful game is governed by a “comically grotesque” organization. If you think EA sucks, wait ’til you hear about FIFA – the 2 Girls, 1 Cup of non-profits.

Depending on your age, You’re Getting Old! will either make you feel better or sad. Or just weird. The website puts your age into perspective in a number of ways, from historical events to the number of heartbeats you’ve had.

Physicist and xkcd creator Randall Munroe spoke at TED about his What If? series. His humorous Q&A articles are one of the reasons why he loves math, even if the accompanying mental adventures have led him to get rickrolled.

Mental Floss offers up numerous quirky and downright strange words and sayings from days gone by. Quick… Use “Pang-Wangle, “A Butter and Egg Man,” “Sauce Box” and “Give Someone the Wind” in a sentence.

To infinity and beyond! Veritasium’s Derek Muller looks at the nature of our ever-expanding universe, how space itself moves faster than the speed of light, and how the universe is dramatically larger in light years than its age.

Wildfires in the United States cost an estimated $3 billion in damages and 4 million acres of wildlife lost yearly. That’s why the Missoula Fire Lab is hard at work trying to understand how wildfires start and spread. More on The Atlantic.