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If you only have time for one video today, absolutely make it Is spider silk really stronger than steel? from Veritasium. Host Derek Muller takes a brilliant deep dive into the biochemistry of spider silk’s immense tensile strength and toughness, and culminates in a genuinely thrilling experiment where they use CRISPR-edited, transgenic silkworm threads to literally swing from the ceiling like Spider-Man.

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News & Business

On the finance front, CNBC’s Why Airline Ticket Prices Are Unlikely To Go Down explains why your summer airfare is so painfully expensive right now, pointing to volatile jet fuel costs and the recent collapse of budget competitor Spirit Airlines. Meanwhile, a fantastic Chinese-language deep dive by 美投讲美股 (微软史无前例大反转！蛰伏一年，巨头终于准备好起飞了？) breaks down Microsoft’s recent earnings report, explaining how the company’s massive AI infrastructure investments are finally showing up in their cloud revenue. In current events, GQ Taiwan brought in historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat (民主制度真的擋得住貪腐嗎？) to answer internet questions about kleptocracy, explaining exactly how authoritarian leaders use state enterprises as private piggy banks. Lastly, the New York Times covered breaking news on a tragic shooting at an Idaho In-N-Out Burger (At Least 3 Are Killed in Shooting at In-N-Out Burger in Idaho).

Learning & Ideas

The most emotionally resonant talk of the day comes from TED (What 3D Scanning the Aftermath of the LA Fires Revealed), where immersive journalist Nonny de la Peña shares how she used emerging 3D-scanning technologies to document the apocalyptic devastation of the Los Angeles fires—including the ruins of her own home. For history buffs, the Chinese-language LIFEANO CLUB channel offers a fantastic comparative analysis (【限免】袁Sir翻牌：明治维新真让日本走向了“成功”？) of why Japan’s Meiji Restoration aggressively modernized the country, while Siam’s (Thailand) parallel reforms took a more gradual, survivalist approach to avoid colonization. In shorter clips, Coleman Hughes shares a brief anecdote with the Hoover Institution (Coleman Hughes on Discovering Thomas Sowell at 19) about the intellectual oasis of discovering Thomas Sowell’s writings, and Khan Academy uploaded a batch of 8th-grade math tutorials on everything from negative exponents to estimating the volume of hemispheres.

Tech & AI

The biggest tech story is hidden in the aforementioned Microsoft financial analysis from 美投讲美股, which details how Copilot’s rapidly growing corporate user base and upgraded throughput are proving that AI can actually integrate into enterprise software workflows without cannibalizing them. We also get a glimpse of cutting-edge biotech on Veritasium, where scientists are using CRISPR-Cas9 to splice spider DNA directly into the genome of domestic silkworms to mass-produce high-performance fibers.

Everything Else

If you need something lighter, Susie Woo breaks down the highly dramatic slang British people use when the temperature creeps past 30 degrees (天氣超熱時，英國人真的會這樣說！). GQ Taiwan dropped a flurry of quick entertainment clips, including a peek into North America’s top-rated Wagyu burger bar (全美第一的和牛漢堡餐酒館) and a behind-the-scenes look at how practical jet skis were used to create whirlpool VFX for The Odyssey (《奧德賽》海上旋渦特效是水上摩托車真實製造). Finally, Pastor Dave Nelson delivered a lengthy sermon at Timberlake Church on the pervasive nature of cultural lies (The Truth About Lies), and Apple TV dropped a charming new Snoopy animation (Throw him a bone.).