Awesome Etc

It took Martin Montesano about three years to build the Walking Beast, a 6.5 ton, 11 x 8.4 x 24 ft mechanical spider. It’s powered by a Chevy V8 engine and can carry 8 people. Mad Max approves.

While it’s not quite as poetic as the octopus who stole a video camera, this manta ray nabbed cameraman Travis Matteson’s Canon 5D Mark II. Luckily, the ray dropped the $5k+ camera rig.

Similar to Flipboard, FLUD is a stylish way of reading and sharing articles on the iPad. FLUD is a paid app, but since it’s an RSS feed reader you always have lots of free content at your fingertips.

We’re baffled by the half-naked dudes in this short film from Russia, but we’re duly impressed by the computer-generated Transformers animations, built with 3DS Max, Boujou and After Effects.

Did you know that when ants get separated from their colony, they start following each other in a circle until they drop dead? The phenomenon looks like an insect hurricane. Nature sure is weird.

There were 2 Battles of Endor that fateful day; this one involved a man and his monkey vs. a woman and hers. If we could throw the Smokemonster in from Lost we think we’d have the perfect storm.

The guys at College Humor have put together these handy illustrations to show you how you really get your exercise at the gym. We’ve done the writhing-in-pain one a few times this week.

One of the more dramatic installations at Burning Man 2010, Ein Hammer is a metal tower which can belch massive jets of fire as 3 workers below smash sledgehammers to trigger the flames.

We’ve all heard of Keyboard Cat, but never seen a real Cat Keyboard. Played at an eco-festival for the Prince of Wales, at least the guy didn’t squeeze real cats in a crowd full of environmentalists.

Why is this dorky looking guy bouncing around on a pogo stick? And why should you be forced to sit through almost 2 minutes of this? You’ll see when you get to about 1:39. (Thanks, Yo-Naa!)

Despite the fact that Patrick Walsh and Paul Damgaard were inside of a “protective” shark cage, the 2-ton, 15 foot-long Great White headed their way isn’t going to let that get in his way.

We all have our memories of Spider-Man, whether the old “…does whatever a spider can” theme, the Sam Raimi blockbusters or even Spider-Pig. The Japanese have their own special memories.

Australian magician James Galea shares a simple story in mind-boggling fashion, seemingly making a pack of cards match his tale even though the deck has been shuffled and cut.

If you like 80’s synth music, buddy cops, Jerry Bruckheimer, mullet-moustache combos and bromance, it’ll be worth your while to watch this goofy video from Grum. (Thanks Michael!)

(NSFW) If you play TF2, and run into a guy named ChoZo, you might hear just a little bit of swearing. If Tony Soprano and Tony Montana had a child, they’d name him ChoZo. (Thanks, Everyone!)

If you don’t have the time to read – or wait for the upcoming Hobbit movies – the dudes from Brothers Grim and Grimy explain the little barefoot dude’s story in 1:55 flat. Dude. Did Hurley write this?

Gather round everyone, this baby has some things to say. She’s concerned about a lot of things, like rock n’ roll and the ozone layer. And what do you think of her table? Isn’t it a nice table?

No email can match the old school charm of a telegram. Just type your message at Telegram Stop’s website and they will take care of the rest. Perfect for special occasions. And pranks.

A short film by Ken Turner worth watching over and over. TiM is without question a work of metafiction, a Tim Burton-style stop motion about a boy whose ambition is to become like Tim Burton.

Knock Knock’s self-diagnosis manual is a hypochondriacs’ dream checklist, with hundreds of diseases linked to the most general of symptoms. Does your head hurt? It’s encephalitis! It has to be!

How about a little game of Pac-Man? Guillame Reymond latest stop-motion clip features 111 human pixels acting out the classic arcade game. The 2-minute short took about 4 hours to shoot.

There’s no better way to play the theme from Star Trek but on one of those squealy theremins. Actually, there is one better, geekier way: dressed in full Starfleet garb on the transporter deck.

Once you’ve seen this stuff, would you ever chew DoubleMint or Juicy Fruit again? Didn’t thinks so. According to ThinkGeek, you must chew this if you ever want to ride a unicorn. Also, raises the dead.