Awesome Etc

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard Carl Sagan’s brilliant “Blue Dot” speech attached to a video, but NASA really should consider using Reid Gower’s promo clip in their PR campaigns.

This clip could just as easily be titled “Three Cats That Don’t Give a Crap”, because that’s what this is about. They’re just chillin’ like villains while oranges and tangerines are piled on them.

Ross Ching’s 3 Minutes, starring Harry Shum Jr. (aka Mike Chang from Glee) and Stephen “tWitch” Boss, is a mysterious thriller that’s jampacked with lots of action, you know, for a three minute film.

Major Dick Winters, a compelling American hero and featured on HBO’s Band of Brothers, passed away this month following a battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Rest in peace. (Thanks George!)

Tucker, the schnoodle has a special talent. He can play the piano and sing at the same time. We didn’t say he was good at it. Then again, it’s no worse than watching the first few weeks of American Idol.

This makes two, so really – why do bears let cats get away with this? Is it out of pity? Amusement? Because there’s just no way a bear would be afraid of a cat. Also: Russians have pet bears?!

GE explains the benefits of dynamic braking in trains using an oversimplified demonstration –  dropping objects onto jelly and then shooting them as they bounce or shatter in slow motion.

We can always rely on Freddie Wong to deal out insane amounts of violence in his clips. Here Freddie compiles every action shot from his 2010 vids, and boils them down to under 2 minutes.

Music to your ears? Tiago Della Vega held the former world record for fast playing of the guitar at 320 beats per minute, but now has broken his prior record by playing at speeds up to 750 BPM.

This well edited, recut trailer for Ghostbusters with the Inception theme song turns the supernatural comedy into a sci-fi thriller, thanks to the immense, transforming power of music. (Thanks Kyle!)

For some reason, humans lack the innate ability to walk in a truly straight line. NPR correspondent Robert Krulwich explores this phenomena, accompanied by animation by Benjamin Arthur.

Does wingsuit basejumping make flying squirrels look boring? The answer may be revealed in this collection of shots from recent flights made by a talented group of enthusiasts. (Thanks IceBone!)

Freud said professional drivers race because deep inside they harbor a death wish. But racers don’t race because they want to die, they race because that’s when they feel alive.

Not content with having a catch-all blog about “funny things”, Mike Lacher starts off the new year with a creepy meme. You wanna know what makes muppets cute? It’s the eyes. The goddamn eyes.

A jaw-dropping short film by creative design studio Charlex. It’s probably part of an Audi campaign, but for now Charlex isn’t revealing anything else. Will Audi be selling transforming cars?

(Language NSFW) James Van Der Beek already made up for his crying face meme by making even more faces. Now he’s making up for raising the bar for men when he played nice guy Dawson Leery.

We at TA have known for quite some time that intense and awesome can easily be used to describe vacuum cleaner ads; for you naysayers, behold the power of the LG Kompressor Elite.

Researcher Jean-Christophe Laurence took a bunch of vintage gadgets and tech stuff from the 1980s and 1990s and showed them to today’s kids, then asked them to figure them out.

Fans of the Ice Age movies should be entertained by this short film, starring everyone’s favorite saber-toothed squirrel as he manages to mess with the Earth’s geology in search of his elusive acorn.

Watch as Mika tells us about the movie Titanic, complete with awesome illustrations of her narration. Who could forget the part when Jack said,“Rose. It is cold… so take on the door”?

(Language NSFW) Apparently the young man in the black shirt made up some stuff on his Facebook profile about being a gang member. His enraged uncle makes him record his punishment.

Jack is a nice guy. He even stops people by the side of the road to help. Too bad nothing he says makes any sense. Stay out of the blue area, they don’t make the applesauce quite right in there.

Time for your midday zen moment: Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, arranged for four violins and performed by Joe Edmonds. Quite beautiful, and also good for karaoke practice. (Thanks Martyn!)