Awesome Etc

George Lucas got his inspiration for Star Wars from a variety of sources, among them, vintage serials like Flash Gordon. Abandoned Films used generative AI to imagine what a Star Wars movie might have looked like had it been created 40 years earlier. The ship design and voiceover are spot-on, but the creepy AI-generated characters are nightmare fuel.

If you need to re-pave a street, you typically need to reduce lanes and redirect traffic around the construction site. Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) shows us a modern method for resurfacing that directs traffic over the work zone by erecting a temporary bridge. The modular ASTRA flyover bridge can be driven into place to minimize setup time.

This wild-looking LEGO Technic weapon uses compressed air to spray up to a dozen projectiles at a time. Jamie’s Brick Jams walks us through the construction of his triple-barreled toy shotgun and how it un-crimps hoses to release pressure in an instant. The blast of air alone is quite powerful.

Imagine, if you will, that Mother Nature focused her energy on a single location and hit it with all of her electrical fury. xkcd’s What If? takes on another hypothetical question, exploring what might happen if every lightning bolt struck a single spot on Earth and whether we could harvest the power from the mega-storm.

All Process of World takes on a tour of a steel factory in Korea that produces rebar, plates, I-beams, and other large metal parts for construction. The vast, mechanized facility takes piles of scrap steel, melts it down in an enormous cauldron, then extrudes the molten metal into shapes. Plasma cutters then slice parts into shorter pieces before hardening.

Love science fiction movies? As good as they can be, they often get real-world science wrong to serve the plot. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson offers his thoughts on the accuracy of 18 popular sci-fi movies, then ranks them based on their authenticity and entertainment value. We completely agree that aliens would not look anything like humans.

In James Gunn’s Suicide Squad, there’s a pivotal scene where one character shoots another by firing a small bullet through a bigger bullet. While that cool trick was performed with CGI, The Slow Mo Guys attempted to replicate a bullet-through-bullet collision in real life. It required precision, but they did make it easier by keeping the larger bullet stationary.

How It’s Made presents a creepy compilation of factory videos showing how we get mannequins, marionnettes, crash test dummies, dress forms, and other humanoid replicas. We can only imagine walking through one of these factories at night must be like the Cold Storage facility in Westworld.

Swag Brewery’s fragrant soaps are derived from real spirits, but we promise you won’t smell like you spilled booze on yourself. They’re actually quite pleasant, with a peppery and oaky Kentucky bourbon scent, a sweet and jammy Merlot scent, and a spicy and grassy IPA scent to choose from. The price shown is for a 3-bar gift set.

Hot Chip stopped by the NPR Music offices for a 4-song set that included some of their best tracks. They started with Over and Over and Boy from School before slowing things down with Look at Where We Are and kicking things into gear with Ready for the Floor. Jonny Lam’s pedal steel guitar added warmth to their electro-pop sounds.

This portable pencil sharpener from KeyUnity is designed to be carried on a keychain, lanyard, or carabiner clip. Its cylindrical body is made from sandblasted Ti-6Al-4V titanium, and it has a sharp German-made (but unfortunately named) KUM carbon-steel blade. In addition to sharpening pencils, it can help create wood shavings to start a fire.

We were immediately transfixed by this short video of a sushi chef showing off their knife skills, slicing an avocado into dozens of razor-thin pieces like it’s nobody’s business. We have a hard enough time scooping avocado out of its rind with a spoon.

Bees are an important part of our ecosystem, pollinating the plants that give us food and making their own delicious honey. Ze Frank explains how intelligent these insects are despite their tiny brains. They not only know how to make perfect hexagons for their hives, they can be trained to solve puzzles and simple math problems when motivated.

Drones can be used to capture aerial images or deliver packages, but they can also be weaponized. Mark Rober explores some of the technology being developed to take down dangerous drones. Then, he teamed up with fellow makers to build backyard drone defense tech, including a mega-turret, an electrified stream of liquid, and a powerful vortex cannon.

Science educator Steve Mould shows off a fascinating thing that happens when you ignite lighter fluid in a narrow channel. The flame travels around and around until the fuel is fully burned. He started with a circle and tested various shapes to see how the flames behaved. Along the way, you’ll learn about the concept of an excitable medium.

Randall Munroe and Henry Reich’s What If? attempts to answer the hypothetical question of what might happen if every living human stood close together, jumped off of the ground, and landed at the same exact time. While the answer to that question is less exciting than you might think, there would be plenty of unintended consequences of such an event.