Awesome Learning

(Gore) YouTuber Ahoy provides a brief history and primer on the double-barreled shotgun. He then explains how it became a staple weapon in many first-person shooters, from Doom II and up until today’s recent releases.

It’s been a while since ZeFrank brought us one of his nature films, but he’s back to teach us about these unusual creatures who seem like normal mammals, but from a parallel universe. NOTE: Don’t eat lunch before watching the baby koala.

Let Mental Floss amuse you with trivia about amusement parks, including an establishment that missed the point of bumper cars, the crazy cost of the Jurassic Park ride and more. Also the infamous Action Park is back in business.

Hank Green gives a highly simplified definition of intellectual property rights before focusing on one of its types: copyright. He then goes on to explain how YouTube is trying to empower copyright holders.

Why? Because it’s great at real life. Anthony Carboni explains how the brain’s limitations, coping mechanisms and other tricks that help us stay alive and sane could also be the reason why we make mistakes in video games.

Vsauce didn’t bother pretending it had a central topic this time, launching straight into a semester’s worth of English and language trivia. The funny thing is, Michael still manages to ramble completely off-topic at the end.

Discovery Channel’s Shark Week used to be enlightening, but now the most we can expect out of it is a funny commercial. Vox summarizes how Discovery has been airing fake viral videos, news and documentaries to attract audiences.

Photographer Michael Sutton used high-speed cameras to capture honey bees at work. For some reason he shot the video without using a protective outfit or sunscreen. Perhaps he was empathizing with the hardworking animals.

When you forget your password, some websites ask you to make a new one instead of just telling you what your current one is. Why? Because they don’t actually know what your password is. Tom Scott explains why that’s a good thing.

Veritasium challenges you to explain five physics-related phenomena, including water bending, magnetic cereal and a flying tea bag. You can check out the discussions on YouTube or wait until the next episode for the answers.

Did you know that Mr. Potato Head used to be a more useful Pet Rock? Speaking of which, the Pet Rock made its “inventor” a millionaire, even though rocks are, you know, free. All that and more in Mental Floss’ list of toy facts.

If you didn’t have the time to watch COSMOS, animated infographic experts Kurzgesagt created this short film which does its best to condense everything need to know about the composition of the Earth in just 7 minutes.

Once again, Vsauce alternately blows and deflates our minds with really-but-not-really scenarios as he discusses shadows, nighttime and darkness made by light, then somehow ends up talking about intellectual darkness.

(NSFW: Language) Bronsolino travels to England to sample the Barry Bonds of pork buns, the Michael Jackson of lamb grilling, the white trash bruschetta and Nigerian home cooking. Then he makes chicken wings and coleslaw.

CollegeHumor reminds us that keeping a dog’s breed pure often causes their descendants to be more prone to health problems, all so that we could keep or exaggerate the traits that we like about that breed.

Film critic Tony Zhou looks at the editing style of the late Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Millennium Actress). His obsession with our multiple realities – social circles, memories, the Internet – led to his disorientating cuts and transitions.

Munchies’ new series Fuel looks at the food that athletes eat. For its first episode, they enlisted the help of former Sumo World champion Byamba Ulambayar to talk about Chankonabe, a high protein Japanese stew.

Currently in beta, Riffstation Play is a free web-based app that figures out a song’s chords by analyzing its YouTube video. The chords can be laid out for a guitar, ukelele or piano. The desktop version lets you load any song.

Vsauce and Veritasium teamed up to look at the concept of randomness. For his part, Derek explains that perhaps everything that’s not pure information is not random, but ultimately, we live in an unpredictable universe.

Vsauce and Veritasium teamed up to look at the concept of randomness. Michael explains how most of the things we describe as random are in fact predictable, but at the same time true randomness could actually be everywhere.

Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Get your mind out of the gutter. These four simple terms are an easy way to understand how jet engines work. Learn more in GE’s Masterclass series, which breaks down complex tech into layman’s terms.

Mental Floss fills us in on some unusual factoids about man’s best friend, including how an airedale terrier once sat on the U.S. Cabinet, and how crazy people leave money to their dogs. Also, we want dog-powered appliances.

CineFix debuts its Film School’d series with a brief history of American filmmaking. From the ancient Romans to Netflix and YouTube, this fascinating tale is propelled by technology, accidents, greed and creativity.