Awesome Etc

Adult hippos can be quite disgusting, but just like most animals, their young ones will melt your heart. Here’s 8-week old Monifa, a pygmy hippo at the Taronga Zoo, on her first swim.

Fender gives us a time-lapse view of how its manufacturing facility in Corona, California makes the company’s world famous Stratocaster guitar. The song is Dangerous Madness by Wayne Kramer.

During a practice round, pro golfer Martin Kaymer skips his ball across the water on the 16th hole at Augusta, putting it right on the green, then into the cup. View from another angle here.

Cribble put the envelopes given to him by his university’s career department to send out resumes in to good use as the background for this imaginative and often nonsensical short animation.

Not only is this clip a perfect time capsule of 1980s style, the guy at the center of the video – The Skipper – would have probably been a millionaire if he had only waited until YouTube came along.

Athlete Christian Vasconcellos might not have had the best day ever when he wiped out in the middle of a run – but that didn’t stop him from turning his epic fail into an epic win.

The Shorty Awards interviews comedian Tracy Morgan, requiring him to answer the questions in 140-characters or less. Watch him fail, drop knowledge and sing praises to the internet.

A possibly senile Gandalf takes to the streets on his longboard for a leisurely ride, at times confusing motorists behind him for a 50-foot-tall Balrog. They could always just drive over the double yellow line.

Compilation master Luc Bergeron aka Zapatou is back with 183 of the best recent online videos. If only we participated in sports and outdoor activities as much as we sat at our desks watching videos.

Popper extraordinaire Poppin John was kind enough to post this awesome clip of his Soulbotics Krew pal Randm knocking out some of the most buttery smooth waves we’ve laid eyes on.

V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup loses it in a hairpin turn, pulling a full 360° spin in the middle of the track. Like a boss, he recovers and goes on to complete the race. Show off.

Nathan Barnatt’s dancing fool shows up at an audition for a Kimberly Cole music video, and busts out some serious moves. Honestly, this is so much better than Dancing with the Stars.

(NSFW: Language) While it might be a while before we get to see it here in the states, Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington star in the new comedy/drama Derek. Premieres on Channel 4 in the UK on 4/12.

(NSFW: Lyrics) YouTuber bd594’s robot band is back with another cover, and they have a vocalist now: the DECtalk Express, the same type of speech synthesizer that Stephen Hawking used in the 80s.

Not to be confused with People Are Awesome, this compilation still features incredible stunts, tricks and extreme feats of both man and their machines – set to the always great Sail by AWOLNATION.

Latinworks created several amusing ads that poke fun at the damage viral videos can do to national identities for the upcoming Cine Las Americas International Film Festival in Austin, TX.

Vimeo user La Pompadour runs down the English alphabet with names of pop culture monsters. Try and guess all 26 of them. Protip: La Pompadour is quite loose with its definition of “monster.”

Japan’s Toyama Bay is home to a beautiful (and delectable) bioluminescent sea creature, the firefly squid. Tiny photophores in their bodies cause them to glow and illuminate the shoreline at night.

If you’re not too keen on fancy tumblers or glasses, you can use the Cuppow lid to turn a simple canning jar – it’s heat-resistant, cheap and durable – into a spill-free travel mug.

Join Commander Shepard, Garrus, Wrex, Tali and the whole gang for this 1980s style cartoon parody. We love the idea of killing reapers with rock and roll. Maybe in Mass Effect 4. (Thanks Alfredo!)

A kid and his two friends shot this short with surprisingly solid action, tight editing, and a perfect score. One Reddit commenter said “This kid’s talent exceeds his equipment.” We couldn’t agree more.

A LEGO version of the The Dark Knight Rises trailer, by Paranick Films, Jedimastersoda and Adviceversa. Is it just us, or is Bane more comprehensible as a minifig than as a human?

Improv Everywhere strikes again – loading up a NYC park with eight sets of identical quadruplets, making the real world look like some sort of VFX trick, and messing with the heads of passersby.