Awesome Videos

Land Rover is working on electric versions of its vehicles. But this particular British SUV has driven in the opposite direction. Its builder Frank Rothwell explains how he replaced its internal combustion engine with a steam-powered one. It runs on coal, ignited with wood kindling soaked in diesel fuel, so it’s not exactly eco-friendly.

There’s no question that David Bowie had a distinctive singing voice. Musician Joshua Woo has perfected his impression of the Thin White Duke, as he demonstrates in this Bowie-esque performance of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence. His version of Stayin’ Alive by Oasis is spot-on too.

A useless machine is a contraption that’s designed to automatically flip its own switch off as soon as you flip it on. Fornax built a pair of 8-switch useless machines, then linked them up to flip each other’s switches, resulting in a perpetual battle for switch-flipping supremacy.

Video games have been simulating way that organisms thrive, evolve, and die ever since 1970 with John Conway’s, Game of Life. Over the years, simulations have become far more sophisticated but don’t always produce realistic results. Curious Archive looks at the strange evolution of games that simulate life.

The theme music from Tetris is a big part of what made the video game so popular. Musician JER of the Skatune Network and We Are the Union transformed the classic Russian chiptune into an energetic piece of ska, with its trademark quick beats, layered brass, and organ sounds.

Artist DariusTwin has made some amazing stop-motion animations using point sources of light and long exposures. This short vertical video transports us to a magical, rainbow-filled world set to the tune of the classic song Dream (When You’re Feeling Blue).

Steven Blake of the band Animal Sun has figured out that if you listen closely to some popular songs, the vocals sound like they were sung by another famous person. By showing a photo of the person, your brain will be totally convinced that it’s true. Find more examples on their Instagram reels page.

With the success of The Last of Us, HBO has proven that video games can be turned into quality television programming. During his guest spot on Saturday Night Live, TLOU star Pedro Pascal joined the cast of another famous video game franchise turned prestige TV drama, with a little help from Nintendo.

NEBO’s brightest Davinci flashlight yet kicks out an astounding 18,000 lumens in turbo mode, lighting your way up to a distance of 830 feet. It’ll run for up to two hours in 10,000-lumen mode and 12 hours in 800-lumen mode and has an adjustable 2x zoom lens. It’s IP67-rated waterproof and has an intuitive magnetic control dial.

Perhaps it’s because they think nobody can see them down there, but the deeper you go beneath the water’s surface, the weirder-looking the creatures get. MBARI takes us on deep-dive with the strange animals that dwell in the depths of Monterey Bay and beyond. That black seadevil is some major nightmare fuel.

Multi-instrumentalist Joe Porter is back with another medley of music performed on various percussion instruments. This time, he played rock tunes from bands like Metallica, AC/DC, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Iron Maiden. It’s also likely to be the only time you’ll hear Sweet Child of Mine played on a steel pan drum.

The 1977 Bee Gees track Stayin’ Alive is one of the most famous songs of the disco era. Musician Charles Berthoud remembers the song a little differently than we do, with way more flourishes for the bass guitar part – and a funky prog-rock synth solo sandwiched in the middle.

We weren’t familiar with the Japanese manga and anime Jujutsu Kaisen, but now that we’ve seen that one character wields a sword with a human hand for a handle, we want to know more. Bladesmith and prop maker Tetrahymena created a knife inspired by the unusual weapon, and we’d like to shake his hand for a job well done.

Wake up! Grab a brush and put a little makeup. During a concert by Epic Symphonic Rock, a quartet of cello players (and a dude with a wooden box) jammed out this great sequence of tunes, including a Nirvana medley, Iron Maiden’s The Trooper, and System of a Down’s Chop Suey.

We found ourselves hypnotized by the back-and-forth motion of this conveyor belt sorting system. Apparently, cameras or barcode scanners identify what objects are entering the conveyor, and the system rapidly changes the direction of each belt to ensure the item goes into the appropriate box.

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.

After laying his eyes on the giant mechanical keyboard that Razer brought to CES, keyboard enthusiast Glarses wanted one for himself. And after Razer wouldn’t sell him theirs, he got to work building his own from scratch. He was able to use some off-the-shelf giant switches, but everything else had to be custom fabricated.

Percussionist Sethdrums likes to add his own rhythmic flair to humorous edits of songs. Here, he takes on The Police’s track Roxanne, but all of the vocals have been deleted except when Sting sings “Rox.” Of course that begged the question, “Where’s Anne?”

Prog rock band Polyphia is known in large part for Tim Henson and Scott LePage’s virtuosic guitar work. Musician Moyun shows us how their track Playing God can take on a whole new texture when performed with precision on the ancient string instrument known as the guzheng.

In this video from The Q, he shows us how he made a hand-cranked machine for displaying animations using cardboard, rubber bands, and a few pieces of hardware. The zoetrope-like device has a series of 25 animation frames on each of its tiers, creating the illusion of movement when it spins.

Maker and tinkerer Peter Sripol noticed a similarity between the reciprocating motion of a Sawzall and the drivetrain of a steam-powered locomotive. Perhaps jealous of William Osman’s power tool races, he got to work rigging up a reciprocating saw to drive a G Scale locomotive. It works surprisingly well.

The Backyard Scientist continues his trend of playing with stupidly dangerous things. After getting his hands on a 2000-watt industrial laser, he put it through its paces to set things on fire, weld metal, clean rusty surfaces, and cut down a tree like a laser chainsaw. At least he had the good sense to wear eye protection.

There I Ruined It is back to demolish another popular song – this time taking on Lady Gaga’s hit song Poker Face, and transforming it into something straight out of Texas in the 1940s. If you’re into steel guitar, fiddle, and jangly old pianos, this one is for you.