Awesome Etc

The buttons on our clothing are one of those things we take for granted. But it’s somebody’s job to make them for us. All of World Process takes us inside of a factory that cranks out buttons by the thousands. They pour liquid plastic into tubes or sheets, slice or cut out button shapes, then drill and tumble them until shiny.

Billy Crudup stars in this streaming series that takes place in a retrofuturist version of Earth, where gadgets like jet packs and hovercars actually exist. Crudup leads a team of door-to-door salespeople tasked with pitching another dream – selling timeshares on the moon. Coming to Apple TV+ on 2.17.23.

Is Mercury the hottest planet? Is the Earth a perfect sphere? Does Uranus smell bad? Mental Floss host Justin Dodd takes us on a mission to space for a look at things you thought you knew about our solar system’s planets, and probably had wrong. The bottom line, most other planets sound like pretty miserable places to live.

Is a pricey kitchen knife stronger than a cheap one? The Hydraulic Press Channel conducted the ultimate knife-on-knife battle, pressing blades against each other to see which cuts deeper. Which knife will reign supreme? We love how he says, “don’t try this at home,” as if we all have a 150-ton hydraulic press lying around.

King Process takes us inside a Korean factory that makes large industrial nuts. The process starts with rods of steel, which they heat in a forge, then use machines to shape the molten metal into hexagons, punch holes into them, and tap screw threads after cooling and polishing. If you need some bolts to go with, here you go.

This satisfying compilation video from Food Kingdom takes us on a tour of five factories in Korea that make different kinds of foods. We start off with rainbow-colored cake layers, followed by corn chip snacks, deep-fried and stuffed tofu pouches, chocolate nut mini brownies, and chocolate cakes. We’re so hungry now.

While Avatar: The Way of Water shot its underwater scenes by training actors to hold their breath, there are lots of other tricks that moviemakers use to create the illusion of underwater action. Insider explores some of the visual effects techniques – both practical and digital which bring underwater scenes to life.

We love the rainbow of colors that can be found on some titanium objects. If you’ve wondered how those colors appear without paint, The Action Lab explains the science at work when heating or anodizing titanium. By applying different voltages to the metal in an ionizing bath, you can change how light reflects off of its surface.

Atulie’er village is situated on the edge of a cliff in Sichuan, China. Historically, it took villagers a half-day to climb a series of 17 wood, rope, and vine ladders to get there. The China Traveller takes us on a tour of a more recent addition to the community, a metal ladder made from pipes that offers a more direct, but still exhausting route.

Marine biologist and shark expert Amani Webber-Schultz sat down with the folks from Insider to watch footage of sharks from movies and TV shows. With scenes from Jaws, The Meg, Finding Nemo, and more, find out which sharks are the most realistic and which took the most artistic license. What, no Sharknado?

Takara Tomy’s Masterpiece G figures are based on the 1980s anime Transformers: The Headmasters. There are figures of Trainbot Getsuei, Seizan, Shouki, Yukikake, Suikan, and Kaen – each capable of transforming from a heavily-armed robot into an inconspicuous choo-choo train. Combine all six figures to build Raiden.

This incredible footage from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is about as we’re going to get to the Sun. The 59-minute time-lapse was stitched together from 133 days of extreme-ultraviolet imagery the probe captured of the Sun’s corona between August 12 and December 22, 2022.

Bored at home during the 2020 lockdowns Michel + Nico, decided to make a movie with their sons Sacha + Robinson. The result is this wonderful short about kids dreaming up their own action-adventure flick. The title pays tribute to The Goonies and Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner. A must-watch for film buffs.

If you’re not careful hammering nails, you can really smash your fingers. But Veysel Çelik has his nailing technique down to a science. We watched in awe as the professional builder banged in nail after nail in exactly the right spot with just a tap and a hit every time.

Located high atop a mountain in California, a bristlecone pine tree has survived longer than any other living thing on Earth. The tree, known as Methuselah, has defied all odds to outlive billions of people despite its lack of nutrients and minimal water and oxygen. David from MinuteEarth explains why the tree has lived for so long.

This crazy-looking flying machine resembles some kind of angry dragonfly as it takes to the skies. Instead of engines, the remote-controlled Serenity Ornithopter flies by rapidly flapping multiple sets of wings. The back half of the video is entirely in Russian, but it provides a brief up-close look at the unusual aircraft.

At the end of each month, Everyday Carry tallies up the gear that was most popular with their fans. For the last month of 2022, the list included some great knives like the Spyderco Para 3 and Benchmade 940 Osborne, along with the handy Ti Pocket Pro pen, and versatile Gerber Suspension-NXT multitool. Read on for the full list.

World records are broken every day, thanks in no small part to the internet. Drew Builds Stuff and his brother Adam wanted to join the world record club and settled on an archery challenge. The goal: break the record of 38 water balloons burst with a single arrow while following the precise Guinness World Record rules.

Zealous and his pals set out to break the record for the highest paper airplane drop. So they engineered a plane that could handle the weight of a camera and a GPS module, launched it to the edge of space on a balloon, and waited for it to fall back to earth. Naturally, it was much more complicated than they thought it would be.

The 1992 Weezer track Undone – The Sweater Song was a pretty stripped-down song, to begin with. But the original did at least have instrumentation. Not so much with Shonkywonkydonkey’s version of the tune, which he performed entirely with his voice (and a brief guest appearance by Ava Moutzouris.)

(PG-13: Language/Gore) After a woman calls an exterminator for an apparent bedbug infestation, things get so much worse. But the bugs aren’t the only irritating thing in her life – a telemarketer is hounding her too. Daniel DelPurgatorio’s gross-out horror-comedy short film is a trip straight to Destination WTF.

There are nearly a million species of insects from beneath our feet to high in the skies above Earth. But which bugs are the most powerful? TierZoo offers an in-depth analysis of the varied and impressive abilities that insects possess and attempts to rank some of the major factions and builds.

Because of their size and weight, chainsaws typically require both hands for safe operation. Make It Extreme shows how it’s possible to engineer and construct a compact chainsaw small enough to be held with one hand, yet capable of sawing through thick branches and making very rough cuts of lumber.