Awesome Etc

This award-winning short film takes place at the world’s worst telemarketing outfit – a place where lack of performance is met with severe punishment. Director and writer Sam Rudykoff’s dark comedy might actually have you feeling sympathy for the person on the other end of the line the next time you receive an unsolicited call.

From Titanic to The Perfect Storm to Finding Nemo, Hollywood has been depicting shipwrecks for decades. Insider asked maritime archeologist and historian James Delgado to evaluate the realism of on-screen disasters and the wreckage left behind. While they’re not always accurate, a few of the films are surprisingly spot-on.

The 2717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa towers over Dubai as the world’s tallest building. André Larson took his drone to the architectural wonder, then flew it down the side of the skyscraper for an incredible first-person flight towards the ground. Watch it in 4K full-screen for maximum impact, though it might make you dizzy.

Did you know that the sunlight you’re looking at now is 8-minutes old? Or that the most common maps completely distort the relative size of countries? Mental Floss Editor-in-Chief Erin McCarthy digs into these and plethora of other facts about our planet in this extensive trivia video.

For the most part, Futurama takes place in a colorful and capitalistic 31st century. But how would the series have turned out if it were filmed in the aesthetic of David Lynch’s Dune or another similarly styled film? Through the power of AI image generation tech, Tenzin Tensor envisions just that. Hypnotoad is still highly effective.

After buying a remote-controlled model of a Bugatti Divo, master of papercraft Dan Creator decided he’d prefer to drive a truck. So he got to work stripping down the scale supercar, removed its body, and reconfigured its chassis and drivetrain to ride beneath a cardboard model cargo truck loaded with tiny Amazon boxes.

What’s more fun than playing with powerful neodymium magnets? Adding high voltage electricity, that’s what! Magnetic Games shows us some of the fascinating kinds of plasma arcs that form as 20,000 volts are applied to different shapes, sizes, and arrangements of magnets.

While they might not be good for us, Little Debbie snacks are a serious guilty pleasure. Weird History Food delves into the origins and evolution of the company that gave us classics like Star Crunch, Swiss Cake Rolls, and Oatmeal Creme Pies. And yes, Little Debbie is a real person.

A little while back, engineer James Bruton created a robot that moved along the ground using a spiral drive mechanism that rippled its tracks along the ground. In this video, he revisits the concept with a new design that uses a camshaft to create the ripple and propel the tank forward and backward. It walks a bit like a millipede.

In May 1964, Dick Van Dyke attended a civil rights event alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He read a speech written by Rod Serling about humanity, brotherhood, and equality. At age 97, the beloved actor and entertainer read the speech again, reminding us how important it is to embrace our fellow humans.

Zoom in Progress takes us on a tour of a factory in Korea that produces full-color product packaging. Along the way, you’ll see their printing operations, along with their gluing, die-cutting, and box-folding machines. But the most satisfying part is when they use hand tools to remove the edge pieces from the cardboard.

Sean Buckelew’s animated film explores what might happen if the government combined artificial intelligence and drone technology to enable a war machine that makes “objective, compassionate, and ethical” decisions. While live-streaming a demo of its capabilities, a programming error causes it to rethink its purpose.

Beatboxer Hiss is unbelievably good at producing tones and sound effects with his mouth. In this short clip, he shows us how he replicated the Overworld Theme music from Super Mario Bros. 2, building it up layer by layer. The man is a living synthesizer.

Perhaps it’s because they think nobody can see them down there, but the deeper you go beneath the water’s surface, the weirder-looking the creatures get. MBARI takes us on deep-dive with the strange animals that dwell in the depths of Monterey Bay and beyond. That black seadevil is some major nightmare fuel.

We found ourselves hypnotized by the back-and-forth motion of this conveyor belt sorting system. Apparently, cameras or barcode scanners identify what objects are entering the conveyor, and the system rapidly changes the direction of each belt to ensure the item goes into the appropriate box.

Maker and tinkerer Peter Sripol noticed a similarity between the reciprocating motion of a Sawzall and the drivetrain of a steam-powered locomotive. Perhaps jealous of William Osman’s power tool races, he got to work rigging up a reciprocating saw to drive a G Scale locomotive. It works surprisingly well.

The Backyard Scientist continues his trend of playing with stupidly dangerous things. After getting his hands on a 2000-watt industrial laser, he put it through its paces to set things on fire, weld metal, clean rusty surfaces, and cut down a tree like a laser chainsaw. At least he had the good sense to wear eye protection.

Felix Colgrave is known for his weirdly imaginative animations. His latest short film features a collage of silly creatures made of objects at the bottom of the sea. “Donks” comes from his 2-year-old’s pronunciation of “gonks,” the artist’s term for “things that are not categorically blocks or figurines or anything describable.”

If you’ve watched all 180 episodes of Seinfeld and are looking for more, then tune in now. Nothing, Forever is an AI-generated Twitch stream about nothing that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, churning out stand-up bits from AI Jerry and uncomfortably weird storylines with AI Elaine, AI George, and AI Kramer.

The words “slime” and “mold” conjure up some pretty gross visions. Combined, they’re even worse. But that doesn’t stop these bizarre living things from being incredibly fascinating. ZeFrank takes an up-close look at these nasty-looking organisms, which are surprisingly smart despite their lack of brains.

Stonewall, Canada’s Origin handcrafts each of these beautiful fixed-blade knives from recycled file steel. The minimal utility knife is great for carving, cutting cords, and opening packages and features a 2″ cutting edge. It comes with a leather carrying case in brown or black.

Hand Tool Rescue loves to take old patent drawings of unusual tools and recreate them in his workshop. This time, he made a wrench unlike any we’d seen before. It features a rotating jaw with grooves to help grip and turn tapered, smooth, and standard fasteners. The Canadian snow quench was a nice touch.

Geckos can climb up smooth surfaces and even walk upside-down, thanks to the microscopic structures that have evolved on their skin. Derek from Veritasium met with Stanford mechanical engineering professor Mark Cutkosky to learn about synthetic materials he’s developed which can mimic the capabilities of gecko skin.