Awesome Learning

Kurzgesagt introduces us to the oecophylla weaver ant. These long-legged insects dwell in tropical jungles, building incredible colonies that spread upwards and sideways between trees. They’re not only incredibly industrious, they’re fierce warriors and defenders of their kingdoms.

Captain Disillusion is back with another one of his great educational videos about imaging technology and terminology. This time, he explains how our brains and eyes perceive color, and how computers can be used to manipulate hue, saturation, and brightness to our every whim.

(PG-13: Language) Those videos they show you at the beginning of commercial flights cover a few basic things about safety, but avoid the nitty gritty details. This clip from tourism expert Doug Lansky offers some much more practical advice for surviving an airplane emergency, based on details from an active commercial pilot.

Riding a bicycle down stairs isn’t that difficult as long as you watch your weight transfer. But Mike Boyd wanted to figure out how to get his mountain bike UP a flight of stairs without getting off. Like most things Mike sets his mind to, he eventually figured it out, though we’re sure his legs were burning after this lesson.

2020 has been quite the year, forcing many of us to avoid the office and attempt to work from home. This series of online courses is designed to help you boost your productivity and focus, with training on time management, communication skills, and other techniques that can help you work wherever life takes you.

Despite its two tragic missions, with 135 launches to its credit, the Space Shuttle was arguably the most successful space program of all time. 3D animator Jared Owen explains how shuttle missions worked, along with an in-depth look at the orbiter, where astronauts spent their time throughout their journeys.

We’ve pulled our share of all-nighters over the years, but have drawn the line somewhere around 36 hours without sleep. But the What If channel explores what life might be like if sleep weren’t a necessity for our brains and bodies. It turns out having all that extra time would have sweeping implications, both good and bad.

Want to publish your creative writing? This series of online courses will help you take your craft to another level, with training in good writing habits, story structure, software tools for writers, and how to get your books distributed onto Amazon’s popular Kindle eBook reader. Another great deal from The Awesomer Shop.

Millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, septillions… these kind of large numbers are really hard to wrap your mind around. The guys at Riddle attempt to put some of these numbers in perspective using real world examples of things that occur in such quantities.

China has spent billions of dollars building the Kangbashi District of Ordos City. The city has housing for a million people, a modern infrastructure, and everything you could ask for. Half as Interesting explains why the giant city in the desert is still only at 1/5th of its planned population, 10 years after completion.

Ketchup and mustard go hand-in-hand, but they both have very different origins, separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles. Mental Floss provides a brief history of the popular condiments. While early mustards were similar to today’s, the first ketchups had more in common with fish sauce.

After years of piling up garbage and other nasty waste in London, England, the city was overwhelmed with a horrific stench. Weird History looks back at this terribly nasty part of the 19th century, and how it led to major improvements in the city’s hygiene and waste disposal infrastructure.

While humans might make some really stupid decisions, we’re still considered intelligent beings. Kurzgesagt explores what attributes make a living creature intelligent. While some basic organisms demonstrate capabilities that appear to be thoughtful, more complex brains are required for complex problem solving.

We all learned the positions of the planets from some chart on the wall in grade school. But as CGP Grey reminds us, planets rotate in elliptical orbits at varying speeds around the sun, meaning that the answer isn’t quite as simple as you thought – depending on the question you’re actually asking.

Even when you’re sound asleep, there are billions of processes going on inside of your body. Kurzgesagt explores the forces, energy sources, and organic compounds at work that keep us alive and ticking, despite the universe’s tendency towards entropy.

“How can we prevent ourselves from getting lost in the funhouse?” Filmmaker and speaker Kirby Ferguson looks at how the barrage of social media and other information sources can affect our perception of what is real, and how you can use your instincts and critical thinking to reduce your chances of being manipulated.