Awesome Learning

It’s easy to make fun of T-Rex’s comically short arms, but clearly there must have been some reason this killer dino was saddled with such awkward appendages. MinuteEarth explores this seemingly odd trait, and some possible evolutionary explanations.

Whether you love the flat-plane V8 grunt of a Shelby GT350, the snaps and crackles of a Jaguar F-Type, the whirr of a Porsche 911, or the brapp of a Mazda RX-7, every car makes a different sound. But as Donut Media explains, it’s way more than the pipes and mufflers that make a car’s exhaust note sound the way it does.

If you’ve ever found your bare feet on the wrong side of a LEGO brick, you know how painful the feeling can be. Today I Found Out explores one of life’s many imponderables, and explores how something so small and innocuous can be so distressing.

(PG-13: Language) British expat Chris Broad has been living in Japan for a while now, and has some pointers for things you never should do while in the country. It’s a humorous, but very useful look at Japanese manners and decorum. TL;DW: Don’t play with your chopsticks.

You’d think it would be impossible to fit over 285,000 businesses into a single building, but you’d be wrong. In order to reduce their tax burden, tons of US companies are incorporated in Delaware. Half as Interesting explains this giant tax loophole and how so many businesses share the same address.

This new channel is a collaboration by SciShow host Hank Green, musician Andrew Huang, and microorganism enthusiast James Weiss. It delves deep into the world of the trillions of microscopic organisms that surround us. We recommend starting off with Meet the Microcosmos for a primer to this fascinating universe.

Given the tremendous diversity of their shapes, sizes, and abilities, it’s no wonder that TierZoo’s in-depth evaluation of dinosaurs clocks in at over 15 minutes. While you’d think that T. Rex was the absolute king of the heap, you’d be wrong.

Spam has always been a big problem on the Internet. Tom Scott looks back at the history of CAPTCHA and other solutions attempted over the years to weed out bots from humans submitting forms, and the endless game of cat and mouse which is being fought on the digital battlefield.

If you ever had to explain the Earth’s timekeeping method to an alien civilization, you might find it challenging. As Minute Physics explains, what we call a day isn’t exactly what most of us think. For a more detailed explanation, the What Is a Day interactive lab is worth checking out.

Sugar is a drug. It satisfies cravings, is addictive, and bad for you. But what would happen if you lost your mind and the only thing you drank for the rest of your life was sugary (er, high fructose corn sweenter-y) soda pop? The Infographics Show digs into what is sure to be a terrible idea.

Kurzgesagt asks some of the most difficult questions that will become exponentially more relevant in the years to come. Do robots deserve rights? Would they even need or want the same rights that humans have?

Get the most out of your small business with this series of eight online courses, covering everything from business development, to raising capital, to leveraging Amazon’s powerful fulfillment channels, to maximizing value should you ever sell. Another great E-Learning deal in The Awesomer Shop.

You would think that if you fell 30,000 feet out of the sky without a parachute, you’d be toast. But it turns out that on one occasion, somebody actually survived such an accident. What If explains what happened in that very lucky case, and the far more likely outcome.

Think that humans fight and kill a lot? Kurzgesagt aims its magnifying glass at the tiny world of ant colonies, where billions of the bugs violently battle against other kinds of ants and insects every single day of their lives. From decapitations to cannibalism, life as an ant can be brutal.

With its intuitive, immersive training method, Rosetta Stone will have you reading, writing, and speaking a new language in no time. Choose from Spanish, French, Italian, German, Mandarin, or Japanese, and save 33% in on a lifetime subscription in The Awesomer Shop.

After explaining how we might just have a chance of surviving a dip in a swimming pool filled with sharks, the guys from What If are back to tell us if it’s safe to go back in the water, only the water has been replaced with the venom of hundreds of thousands of snakes.

(PG-13: Language) The Ordinary Guy provides an snarky, yet educational look at humanity’s ever-increasing production of trash, our struggle to dispose of all the waste we produce, and a few of the sillier attempts to convince us not to litter via public service announcements.

(PG-13: Language) From the window-mounted baby cage to the beauty micrometer, our old pals Sam O’Nella Academy are here to school us on a variety of strange and not very useful inventions which found their place in society for brief periods of time, and thankfully are no longer in use.

No, we don’t actually have the capability (yet). But here are the major things that would happen if we somehow destroyed or lost the Moon, courtesy of RealLifeLore. Good news, we’d see more stars at night. Bad news, the polar ice caps would eventually melt.

Kurzgesagt once again dives deep within our bodies, this time to explore the complement system, a part of our immune system which can activate to help defend us from disease, but that also needs to be kept in check to keep from destroying us from the inside.

In some cultures, and even more so in certain households, it’s drilled into our heads that in order to be successful in life, that you MUST be the absolute best. The School of Life is here to remind us that living life well isn’t equated with such lofty goals, and how the pressures of achievement often make our lives worse.

The Pursuit of Wonder presents a fictitious story about a man who loses his dog, and how that event triggered a sequence of events that shape the course of his life. It’s a fascinating exploration at the nature of random occurrences, and whether they could alternatively be looked at as fate.

Shmoxd shows us how to make recycled paper using readily available materials. He then adds texture and color to the new paper by adding different bits like plants, food and even shredded electronics. But will it blend?