THE BEST Learning

Freelance illustrator Gavin Aung Than turns inspirational quotes into comic strips or panels. Gavin’s choice of quotes combined with his diverse art style makes each piece compelling.

Excerpts from a 2011 BAFTA Screenwriter’s Lecture session of writer Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine…, Adaptation), urging us to be sincere and look for sincerity.

YouTuber ASAPScience shares scientific evidence that taking 20-30 min. naps when one is sleepy really does improve productivity, but snooze beyond that and the positive effects are negated.

CGP Grey’s best lesson yet: a look at the fascinating and strange City of London, also known as the Square Mile, a small area within London, England (the London we’re all familiar with).

The excellent PBS Off Book series takes a look at logos and interviews experts about its history, purpose, the criteria for a good logo and the stories behind some of the most famous logos.

Appearing on a 1964 episode of the BBC show Horizon, author, inventor and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke predicts the rise of the Internet and telecommuting. Watch the complete episode here.

Pain relievers are one of modern society’s marvels. TedEd and George Zaidan explain how popular pain relievers ibuprofen and aspirin work, with the help of animation by Augenblick Studios.

Tanishq Abraham is a real life Fred Tate. The 8-year old already studies astrophysics and has even discovered a supernova, but he still loves Buzz Lightyear and hanging out with kids his age.

AsapScience dishes out practical tips to prevent or lessen the effects of hangovers. To wit: fatty food and carbs before drinking, eggs, bananas and fruit juice after, and lots of water all the time.

Online math show Numberphile talked with YouTube to find out why the view count of videos on the site often freezes at 301. It turns out they have different criteria for what counts as a view.

Don’t get bored or sleepy while Vsauce shares some facts and theories about yawning. The leading theory why humans yawn maybe more intense than you think, but it actually makes sense.

With the right locks, you can easily open a locked car door using only a shoelace. You need to know how to tie a slipknot, but that’s easy as well. View the instructions as a comic here.

The iFixit for cars. It has tons of videos with step-by-step guides for repairs on specific vehicle models. Their YouTube channel has sample clips; check out their site for more videos. Still in Beta.

Don’t let the kids see this video – it’s knowledge dropper CGPGrey’s informative compilation of the various origins of the modern Santa Claus. A little elf Santa does make more sense.

Destin of Smarter Every Day traveled to Germany to meet master slingshot maker Jörg Sprave and discuss the numbers behind one of his creations. It feels wrong calling that huge ass cannon a slingshot.

An animated version of Iain McGilchrist’s lecture on the brain – how the popular left- and right- brain dichotomy is misinformed and why he thinks the US is living in a left-brained society today.

YouTube knowledge-dropper vsauce gives us a brief primer on dreams. Find out why sometimes we can’t move our bodies even when we’re awake, the possible explanations for dreaming and more.

Whether you’re on a budget, eager to learn something new or just plain bored, here’s a quick way to make mayo. Don’t know what “neutral oil” means? Check out Serious Eats for more info.

NPR’s Adam Cole and Robert Krulwich take us on a literary and historical tour as they sing a song about eponyms and whether or not it is a good or bad thing to become a noun. Go forth and Google.

Peeling garlic is a messy and tedious process. Or is it? Let the food and travel magazine Saveur and their editor Todd Coleman show you a much better and manlier way to do the job.

One of YouTube’s resident knowledge droppers C.G.P. Grey reminds us of how language and other arbitrary distinctions made by other people shapes how the rest of us view – or divide – the world.

A brief and entertaining primer on how TV ratings are made. Courtesy of ESPN Research & Analytics and JESS3, who used puppets to capture the attention of to – oh, so that’s what ESPN stands for!

Learn how to make a website (that doesn’t suck) with Don’t Fear the Internet, a series of informal and noob-friendly Web Design 101 videos by Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer.

While not as awesome as The Typing of the Dead, Key Hero does a good job of making typing tests fun. It uses interesting quotes, gives concrete feedback of mistakes and even has rankings.