Awesome Videos

A while back, we checked out Engineered Arts’ expressive humanoid robot Ameca. In this short video, the recently upgraded bot takes a look at herself in the mirror and seems quite happy with her new capabilities. It makes us wonder if someday a robot will look in a mirror and question their reality.

There was lots to love about the 1980s, like Max Headroom, VHS tape boxes, and this McDonald’s training video, created to familiarize the crew with Chicken McNuggets and their sauces. What we got was a hilariously surreal short film with googly-eyed Big Macs and french fries welcoming their new friends to the menu. Brought to you by Tony Pepperoni.

There’s no question that extreme opinions have become more prevalent in recent years, and much of the blame is laid at the feet of social media. Kurzgesagt explores the psychology of online communication and theorizes why it’s making people less empathetic and more divided. They then provide some ideas about how we could make things better.

We love how metal can be used over and over again. After one object has served out its life, it can often be melted down and turned into something new. In this clip by metalsmith Random Hands, he shows us how he took a rusty link from an old piece of ship’s chain and hand-forged it into a beautiful new samurai sword.

Contrary to popular belief, one horse is said to produce about 15 horsepower. But that number is disputed because there’s some question about the accuracy of the original measurements. With the help of Motivo, the guys from Donut came up with a new test: connecting a horse to a dynamometer to measure its true pulling power.

Many modern microwave ovens have a popcorn button, but microwave popcorn bags have a notice saying not to use that button to cook their product. Technology Connections offers an entertaining explanation of the issue, the rationale behind the warnings, and how to know if the forbidden button is okay to use on your particular microwave.

With the holidays upon us, the fragrance of pine is in the air. After buying some pine cones from the market, Boxlapse plucked and planted one of their seeds to see if it would grow into a tree. This captivating time-lapse footage condenses 300 days of growth to about two minutes. Perhaps it’ll be big enough to use as a Christmas tree in a few years.

We’ve seen some pretty clever use of space in tiny houses, but never anything like this. Inventor Handy Geng challenged himself to build a fully functional steel safe house with just 30 sq. ft. (2.8 sq. meters) of space. It has a living room, computer desk, bed, kitchen, and even a bathroom, all way too close for comfort.

When The Slow Mo Guys and How Ridiculous got together, they didn’t just crush some heads. After all, if you’ve got a cannon that fires bowling balls at 500 MPH, you want to destroy all the things. With the help of the cannon’s maker, BealsScience, they tested the strength of bulletproof glass and polycarbonate along with a fiberglass-lined safety door.

It’s common knowledge that octopi are intelligent creatures. After he purchased an octopus from a pet store, engineer Mark Rober wanted to release the animal back into the ocean. Before he could do that, he built a challenging maze to confirm that Sashimi would be able to hunt for food after being hand-fed for most of her life.

Finnish skiing channel Real Skifi created this clever short film as a tribute to the filmmaking tool known as the transition. Using a mix of edits, fades, and split screens, skiers are transported seamlessly between locations and times of day and swap places in the middle of rail grinds and other tricks.

Here’s one from the “don’t try this at home” file. TikTok user ex9g6oxt has posted a series of videos in which he uses firecrackers to launch metal bowls and rice cookers into the air. He starts with the smallest firecracker and gradually ups the size to see how high the explosion can launch each object.

Using large syringes, Tom Stanton shows us how the vacuum captured inside can be used to drive gears, a belt, and an axle. The result is a mini dragster that travels an impressive distance compared to the short distance that the syringe’s piston moves.

Quiet Nerd was looking for a way to add some warmth outdoors. Rather than buy an off-the-shelf heater or stove, he decided to build his own. He started out with four stainless steel dog bowls, which he cut and assembled to form the body of the wood-burning stove. It stands on four tall threaded rods.

When we’re dragging, one of our go-to snacks is peanut butter and cheese sandwich crackers. They offer a savory mix of carbs and protein and help us power through. Science Channel’s How It’s Made goes inside the Lance factory to see how they’re baked, cut, and assembled, and where that orange color comes from.

Get your daily dose of engineering porn with this video from Uwe Krumm GmbH. The company makes precision tooling for manufacturing, including the press brake tools shown here. It’s a hypnotic and satisfying 6-minute sequence of sheet metal being bent into complex shapes through the simple application of force.

As teenagers, we all felt peer pressure at one time or another. Anthony Sneed’s lighthearted short film SWIPE explores the consequences of giving in. After a boy’s friends push him to shoplift from a convenience store, he gets taught a valuable life lesson.

The blasters in Star Wars supposedly fire bolts of plasma energy held together with a magnetic field. This sounds like pure science fiction, but Jake Makes wanted to see if he could create the same effect with a real-world weapon. While he came up with an approach that looks pretty accurate, it’s not technically the same idea at all.

Like most metals, steel is an easily recyclable material. In this video from Handyman Restoration, he shows us how he took a pile of steel nail clippers, forged them into a block which he hammered flat to form a fixed blade with a unique damascus pattern. It was interesting to see how he made the wooden handle too.

Turkey is so closely associated with Thanksgiving that many call it “Turkey Day.” Weird History Food explores the origins of this traditional holiday meal. Historians don’t know if the pilgrims ate turkey during their celebratory feast, but that’s what we ended up with as the nation broke away from England and wanted to dine on a bird that’s more distinctly American.

This amazing scene played out in Turkey’s Cappadocia region. Watch as mountain bikers Nikolaj Juhlsen Rasmussen and Korbinian Engstler ride along a gorgeous stretch of trails on hilly terrain as dozens of hot air balloons float in the skies above. The POV footage was captured with the Insta360 Ace Pro action camera with photography by Luke Maximo Bell.

Who here thought that an Ozzy Osbourne song would sound good played on bagpipes? The talented and beautiful Ally the Piper proves that with the right arrangement, it can definitely work. Her cover of the 1980 hit Crazy Train is as solid as any we’ve heard. And if you’ve ever wanted to know how bagpipes work, Ally is here to help.

So you’re driving down a road in your Jeep when a wild rhinoceros comes out of nowhere. You could try to go around the beast, but you’d risk an impact. Based on this video, the better move is to back away as fast as possible. We’re equally impressed with the driver’s skill and the speed at which such a heavy animal can move.