Awesome Etc

If you set off an explosion next to a bullet, would the shockwaves affect its path? That’s the question that The Slow Mo Guys and the Colorado School of Mines sought to answer in this fascinating experiment. It took several tries to get the timing right between the explosion and the passing bullet, but it gave them an excuse for more explosions.

Like The Riddler, actor, comedian, and artist Jim Carrey is an enigma. He’s even said there is no real Jim Carrey and that he’s always playing a character. This excellent documentary from Daniel McMahon’s Dodford paints a fascinating portrait of the comedy icon and his public persona using Carrey’s own words and film footage.

Ants are well known for their ability to work together to build things and accomplish tasks for their colony. In this fascinating video from Horace Zeng, we see how hundreds of fire ants work in concert to pick up, move, and place pieces of glass gravel on a piece of sticky tape, resulting in a colorfully-paved road of sorts.

Sixty-six million years ago, everything seemed to be going just fine for the dinosaurs. But then something changed, wiping out the thriving beasts. Kurzgesagt looks at how one seemingly minor change in the skies led to the rapid extinction of most life on Earth. It’s a dramatic reminder to live each day as if it was your last.

After seeing those egg drop challenge videos, engineer James Bruton was inspired to try the same idea, but with a human instead of an egg. He teamed up with the folks from Kids Invent Stuff to build competing structures that can protect their precious cargo when dropped from a crane. Fortunately, James already built a crash test dummy.

MW Restoration paid 15 euros for a gumball machine that was in terrible shape. The machine was subjected to decades of wind and salt spray by the North Sea in Germany, along with what appears to be fire damage. But MW was undaunted and disassembled, sandblasted, repaired, and powdercoated the machine to make it look as good as new.

Science fiction books, TV shows, and movies often set their stories in real locations in space. The Overview Effect put together a visualization that charts the relative locations of stories in fictional works like Star Trek and Alien, and Dune, using actual places in the universe to illustrate their distances and relationships.

Despite what you might think, coral isn’t a plant. They’re tiny animals from the same group as jellyfish and anemones. Ze Frank provides a detailed look at these unusual creatures that live atop gigantic skeletal structures they leave on the ocean floor. Like other animals, these guys must find food rather than produce it on their own.

Raise a glass to the Empire with this official Star Wars Stormtrooper beer mug from Thumbs Up!. The glass Stormtrooper helmet holds 600 ml or roughly a pint of beer, soda, or other cold beverage and is guaranteed to make you miss every shot if try and fix a Boilermaker.

We’ve seen guitars made from unusual materials, but this is the first one we’ve seen that was made from leaves. Gitara Maker was inspired to create the guitar after seeing fallen leaves on a camping trip. He built the guitar’s body by stacking flattened layers of leaves with clear resin, shaping it with a scroll saw, and applying top coats for a shiny finish.

This wall-mounted grizzly bear bottle opener pops open beer and soda bottles with its mighty incisors and canines. It’s made from long-lasting cast iron with a natural rust finish. Available from Stag Provisions, as part of their cool barware collection.

(PG-13: Language) Inspired by GeoWizard’s treks across Europe, Jack Vincent and his buddy Matt tried to cross an entire American state on foot in a straight line. After plotting a 19-mile route across Delaware, they hiked through fields, forests, creeks, and yards, anxiously avoiding barking dogs and gun-wielding property owners along the way. (Thanks, Rob!)

The smallest plane we’ve flown on was a 4-seat Cessna, and the biggest was a Boeing 777. But there are much smaller and much larger airplanes out there. RED SIDE created this computer-generated clip of these flying machines ranging from a 12.8 feet long single-seater all the way up to a gigantic 275-foot-long cargo jet.

We’ve seen footage from a factory that uses automation to make rebar, but this facility in Pakistan takes a more hands-on approach. Hydraulic Hands posted this video showing how workers break apart large steel bars, heat them in a furnace, and gradually extrude the fiery hot ropes into long sections of rebar, which wriggle across the floor like orange snakes.

North Carolina designer Jenni Earle makes playful trophies to celebrate your favorite people and life’s little accomplishments. This cowboy-themed You’re the Yee to My Haw award lets someone you love know how they complete you. Buying yourself a gift instead? Consider the This Ain’t My First Rodeo version.

Armitron makes its Wave watches from Tide Ocean Material, recycled plastics that would have otherwise ended up in the ocean. It has day, date, and 24-hour hands and looks particularly dapper in this navy blue and gold nautical theme. It’s also available in orange, teal, and black.

This collection of EDC gear makes us think of the crisp and cool winter days just around the corner. This week’s Everyday Carry Loadout includes a bold G-Shock watch, a sleek Ridge wallet, a classic Victorinox pocket knife, and more, each done up in a pure-as-the-driven-snow white.

The updated 2024 Jeep Gladiator has a shorter 7-slot grille, a new 12.3″ touchscreen, a power seat option, a windshield antenna, and rugged new Mojave X and Rubicon X grades. But the best new feature is the Jeep Adventure Guides app, which includes 62 Jeep Badge of Honor trail guides and an optional upgrade with 3000+ trails from Trails Offroad.

Peter Ahern’s short film Buzzkill is an animated horror-comedy that starts as a happy little story about a new couple about to enjoy their first kiss. And we emphasize the “about to” because it’s just not going to happen. You see, neither of our protagonists is what they seem, and one of them is about to meet an untimely demise.

CRKT’s Redemption folding knife features a shape inspired by the knives carried in the Wild West. Designed in collaboration with Hogue Knives and based on Ken Onion’s custom Deadman’s Hand knife, this US-made folder has a 4.06″ spear-point blade with a stonewashed finish, a crossbar locking mechanism, and a G10 handle with a reversible deep-carry clip.

The guys from How Ridiculous aren’t done destroying things in their gigantic blender. This time, there’s even more spectacle as they satisfy the appliance’s voracious appetite with aerosol deodorant cans, a garbage bin filled with dry ice, and glow sticks. They also fed it a combination of hairspray and sparklers, resulting in some impressive fireballs.

Joerg Sprave is known for his inventive slingshot designs. He’s also into unique weapons. In this video, he shows off a neat custom knife he built with a rack-and-pinion mechanism. It pops open and closes quickly with the flick of a lever. He’s sending the prototype to a professional knifemaker to see if it can be refined and put into production.

Sometimes, the best place to hide valuables isn’t under lock and key, but someplace thieves would never think to look. Crafty Panda shows off a neat idea for a pull-out safe that hides beneath a floor tile. It requires cutting a big hole in your floor, but once it’s installed, you’d never know it was there.