Three anti-social skills to improve your writing - Nadia Kalman
Adults EducationYou need social skills to have a conversation in real life -- but they're quite different from the skills you need to write good dialogue. Educator Nadia Kalman suggests a few "anti-social skills," like eavesdropping and muttering to yourself, that can help you write an effective dialogue for your next story.
A brief history of banned numbers - Alessandra King
Adults EducationThey say the pen is mightier than the sword, and authorities have often agreed. From outlawed religious tracts and revolutionary manifestos to censored and burned books, we know the potential power of words to overturn the social order. But as strange as it may seem, some numbers have also been considered dangerous enough to ban. Alessandra King details the history behind illegal numbers.
How to use a semicolon - Emma Bryce
Adults EducationIt may seem like the semicolon is struggling with an identity crisis. It looks like a comma crossed with a period. Maybe that's why we toss these punctuation marks around like grammatical confetti; we're confused about how to use them properly. Emma Bryce clarifies best practices for the semi-confusing semicolon.
Grammar's great divide: The Oxford comma - TED-Ed
Adults EducationIf 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.
How misused modifiers can hurt your writing - Emma Bryce
Adults EducationModifiers 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.
Monster Trucker | Driver Rosalee Ramer // 60 Second Docs
Adults EducationWhen 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.
Intimidated by a College Bully
Adults EducationWhen 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.
Where do new words come from? - Marcel Danesi
Adults EducationThere are over 170,000 words currently in use in the English language. Yet every year, about a thousand new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Where do they come from, and how do they make it into our everyday lives? Marcel Danesi explains how new words enter a language.
These College Students Built a Hyperloop Pod... Here's What Happened
Adults EducationCollege can be stressful with all the classes, exams and social events to balance. Now, imagine doing all that while building a Hyperloop pod that will be judged by Elon Musk... no pressure. A scrappy group of students from Wisconsin boldly took on that challenge, and they learned that no matter how many all-nighters you pull, there's always more work to be done.
What makes muscles grow? - Jeffrey Siegel
Adults EducationWe have over 600 muscles in our bodies that help bind us together, hold us up, and help us move. Your muscles also need your constant attention, because the way you treat them on a daily basis determines whether they will wither or grow. Jeffrey Siegel illustrates how a good mix of sleep, nutrition and exercise keep your muscles as big and strong as possible.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Adults EducationMany of humanity's greatest problems stem not from a shortfall of technical or financial intelligence, but what we term emotional intelligence. It is through the acquisition of Emotional Intelligence that we stand to become better lovers, workers, friends and citizens. We are rarely systematically taught Emotional Intelligence and pay a heavy price for this gap in learning. The School of Life is dedicated to fostering Emotional Intelligence.
How does impeachment work? - Alex Gendler
Adults EducationFor most jobs, it's understood that you can be fired - whether for crime, incompetence, or just poor performance. But what if your job happens to be the most powerful position in the country - or the world? That's where impeachment comes in. But how does it work? Alex Gendler details the process of impeachment.
How To Be A Genius
Adults Education"We hear a lot about genius. We are taught to admire the minds of those infinite, baffling but astonishing geniuses like Einstein, Tolstoy or Picasso. Quite what genius might actually be is left a little vague. It's a codeword for 'brilliant but perhaps too other-worldly ever really to fathom.' We are invited to stand in awe at the achievements of geniuses but also to feel that their thought processes might be quasi-magical and that it is ultimately simply mysterious how they were ever able to come up with the ideas they have had..."
How to practice effectively...for just about anything - Annie Bosler and Don Greene
Adults EducationMastering any physical skill takes practice. Practice is the repetition of an action with the goal of improvement, and it helps us perform with more ease, speed, and confidence. But what does practice actually do to make us better at things? Annie Bosler and Don Greene explain how practice affects the inner workings of our brains.
Can you find the next number in this sequence? - Alex Gendler
Adults Education1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221. These are the first five elements of a number sequence. Can you figure out what comes next? Alex Gendler reveals the answer and explains how beyond just being a neat puzzle, this type of sequence has practical applications as well.
Why We Only Learn When We Repeat
Adults EducationOur education system is based on the idea that we can learn things once, and that they'll then stay in our minds throughout our lives. That's far too optimistic. Our brains are like sieves. If anything is going to remain in them, we need regular reminders of what really matters. Fascinatingly, religions always understood that.