Grammar's great divide: The Oxford comma - TED-Ed
AdultsEducationLanguageGrammarIf you read "Bob, a DJ and a clown" on a guest list, are three people coming to the party, or only one? That depends on whether you're for or against the Oxford comma -- perhaps the most hotly contested punctuation mark of all time. When do we use one? Can it really be optional, or is there a universal rule? TED-Ed explores both sides of this comma conundrum.
Why China is putting robots in nursing homes
AdultsTechnologyWorldHealthChina has more than 230 million senior citizens. To keep them company, it's encouraging nursing homes to buy companionship robots.
How misused modifiers can hurt your writing - Emma Bryce
AdultsEducationLanguageWritingModifiers are words, phrases, and clauses that add information about other parts of a sentence-which is usually helpful. But when modifiers aren't linked clearly enough to the words they're actually referring to, they can create unintentional ambiguity. Emma Bryce navigates the sticky world of misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers.
The story of Replika, the AI app that becomes you
AdultsArtificial IntelligenceCreativitySoftware EngineeringTechnologyCultureReplika is a chatbot that creates a digital representation of you. It's strange and fascinating -- but the story behind it is even better.
What makes a poem ... a poem? - Melissa Kovacs
AdultsArtCreativityLanguageWhat exactly makes a poem ... a poem? Poets themselves have struggled with this question, often using metaphors to approximate a definition. Is a poem a little machine? A firework? An echo? A dream? Melissa Kovacs shares three recognizable characteristics of most poetry.
World's 10 Most Prosperous Countries
AdultsEconomyWellnessWorldThe top ten countries on the prosperity index, determined by rankings across nine key categories: Economic Quality, Natural Environment, Health, Social Capital, Personal Freedom, Safety and Security, Education, Governance, and Business Environment.
Tiny Foods | Tiny Kitchen // 60 Second Docs
AdultsCreativityFoodArtPerformance artist and unlikely chef Tom Brown is bringing strangers together around the tiny kitchen, where he's serving up tiny foods and words of wisdom. Along with his fully functional portable kitchen, Tom has made more than 300 utensils and tools that he uses to cook up real, edible miniature foods. He may be passing out free lunches, but the gifts he gets from his customers are worth all the work.
Monster Trucker | Driver Rosalee Ramer // 60 Second Docs
AdultsSportsTransportationWomenEducationWhen Rosalee Ramer isn't busy studying for her mechanical engineering degree at Georgia Tech, she's behind the wheel of her own monster truck, Wild Flower, competing against drivers twice her age. At 19 she is the youngest professional female monster truck driver, winning last year's Monster Jam Rookie of the Year. Next up - she'll be putting that degree into action when she builds her own monster truck.
How do executive orders work? - Christina Greer
AdultsEqualityHistorySocietyPoliticsOn January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln legally changed the status of over 3 million people from "slave" to "free." But his emancipation proclamation wasn't a law - it was an executive order. The framers of the American Constitution made this power available to the executive branch. But what exactly is this tool, how does it work, and what's the extent of its power? Christina Greer explains.
Intimidated by a College Bully
AdultsRelationshipsSocietyEducationWhen you leave middle school and high school behind, you expect that bullying, fear and intimidation are in the past. When you get to college, you expect that people will be open-minded, compassionate and mature. Unfortunately this in not always the case. It certainly wasn't for Omar.
Binging with Babish: Szechuan Sauce Revisited (From Real Sample!)
AdultsCreativityFoodEntertainmentLast round, my efforts to recreate the fabled McDonald's Szechuan Sauce were wild, flailing shots in the dark, pathetic and meager attempts to recreate a long-lost condiment out of scanty information and back-alley sources.
Why We Eat Too Much
AdultsFoodHealthPsychologyWe're hugely invested in the idea that the cause of obesity lies with diet - and that we should therefore solve the problem with kale and apple soup (and other such products). But the real cause of obesity has nothing to do with food. It lies in our emotional under-nourishment. We will start to eat less when we feel more connected, more understood and more in touch with our feelings.
Is it possible to create a perfect vacuum? - Rolf Landua and Anais Rassat
AdultsScienceTechnologyPhysicsThe universe is bustling with matter and energy. Even in the vast, apparent emptiness of intergalactic space, there's one hydrogen atom per cubic meter. But is there such thing as a total absence of everything? Is it possible to make a completely empty space? Rolf Landua and Anais Rassat explain the science behind vacuums.
Myths and Facts About Superintelligent AI
AdultsArtificial IntelligenceScienceTechnologyWe live in an era of self driving cars, autonomous drones, deep learning algorithms, computers that beat humans at chess and go, and so on. So it's natural to ask, will artificial superintelligence replace humans, take our jobs, and destroy human civilization? Or will AI just become tools like regular computers. AI researcher Max Tegmark helps explain the myths and facts about superintelligence, the impending machine takeover, etc.
The Problem With Our Phones
AdultsAddictionTechnologyMental HealthSelfThey are hugely useful of course but in many ways, we buy the advantages our phones give us at a subtly high price we don't entirely recognise. Some reflections on how to live well around phones.
This Biomimetic Tech Could Mean Fewer Trips to the Dentist (You're Welcome)
AdultsBiotechnologyHealthScienceA new material inspired by mussels may be the key to fillings and crowns that never break or fall out.
Chocolate's newest color
AdultsCreativityFoodScienceThere's milk, dark, white, and now, ruby chocolate. It's made naturally from ruby cocoa beans and tastes sour.
The Plane of the Future
AdultsFutureTechnologyTransportationWhat's Actually the Plane of the Future looks like?