You came here to read one thing. You left knowing something you didn't know before.THE INTERNET'S MOST UNNECESSARILY INTERESTING DAILY READING MATERIAL
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The Screening Room
Vintage documentaries, modern documentaries, old cartoons and TV, and video essays worth an evening.
Hand-picked video essays about strange, big and beautiful ideas, played through YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
Mysteries & Cold Cases
▶The Search for D. B. CooperLEMMiNOThe only unsolved airline hijacking in American history, examined piece by piece. Pairs perfectly with our cold case file.▶Cicada 3301: An Internet MysteryLEMMiNOA series of fiendish online puzzles appeared in 2012, apparently recruiting… someone. Who made them is still unknown.▶The Vanishing of Flight 370LEMMiNOIn 2014 a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board disappeared. A careful, respectful walk through what is known.
Space & Physics
▶The Fermi Paradox — Where Are All the Aliens?KurzgesagtThe universe is vast and old. So why is it so quiet? The companion to our Fermi article.▶The Largest Star in the UniverseKurzgesagtA size comparison that starts with Earth and keeps going until your sense of scale gives up.▶What Everyone Gets Wrong About GravityVeritasiumWhy, according to general relativity, you are accelerating upwards right now.▶The Most Misunderstood Concept in PhysicsVeritasiumEntropy — and why the Earth doesn’t really run on energy from the Sun the way you think.▶Why No One Has Measured the Speed of LightVeritasiumWe only know the round-trip speed. The one-way speed might be different, and there’s no way to check.▶The Most Radioactive Places on EarthVeritasiumA tour of notorious radioactive sites with a Geiger counter, measuring what the numbers really mean.▶The Surprising Secret of SynchronizationVeritasiumFireflies, metronomes and a wobbling bridge: why things spontaneously fall into step.
Mind & Meaning
▶The EggKurzgesagtAn animated version of Andy Weir’s short story about death, life and who you really are.▶Optimistic NihilismKurzgesagtIf nothing ultimately matters, that might be the best news you’ll hear all day.▶LonelinessKurzgesagtWhy loneliness evolved, what it does to the body, and what helps.▶What Are You?KurzgesagtYour cells are replaced constantly. So what, exactly, is "you"? (See also: the Ship of Theseus.)▶Is Your Red the Same as My Red?VsauceThe impossible question of whether anyone else sees colour the way you do.▶The Zipf MysteryVsauceThe most common word appears about twice as often as the second. Why do languages behave like this?
Maths & Simulations
▶How to Count Past InfinityVsauceOrdinals, omega and a mathematically sound way to keep going after "forever".▶The Riddle That Seems Impossible Even If You Know the AnswerVeritasiumThe 100 prisoners problem: a strategy that should not work as well as it does.▶The Hardest Problem on the Hardest Test3Blue1BrownA notorious Putnam exam problem, solved with one beautiful idea.▶But What Is a Neural Network?3Blue1BrownThe clearest visual introduction to how machine learning actually works.▶Simulating Natural SelectionPrimerAdorable blobs evolve speed, size and senses before your eyes.▶Simulating the Evolution of AggressionPrimerHawks, doves and game theory, played out by the same blobs.
Film, Art & History
▶Jackie Chan — How to Do Action ComedyEvery Frame a PaintingWhy Jackie Chan’s fights are funnier and clearer than almost anyone else’s, shot by shot.▶Satoshi Kon — Editing Space & TimeEvery Frame a PaintingThe anime director who cut between dream and reality like nobody else.▶History of the Entire World, I Guessbill wurtzAll of history in about twenty minutes, with songs. Strangely accurate. Extremely fast.▶What Happened to Horses Is Happening to Us (Humans Need Not Apply)CGP GreyA 2014 warning about automation and jobs that has aged in interesting ways.
