While diving near the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland, England, Ben Burville (previously) encountered a bob of curious seals who swam over to him in order to fully investigate his presence. The seals put their noses to Burville’s helmet, armpits, and hands before one sweetly offered up a…
Test Dummies Act Out Deadly Scenarios Caused by the Misuse of Fireworks in a 2020 Consumer Safety Video
Just ahead of the Independence Day holiday in the United States, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission put out a rather humorous, but extremely serious safety video about the proper handling of fireworks (here’s the video from 2015). Since many official 2020 displays have been canceled due to health concerns,…
A Startled Owl Puffs Up to Appear Much Larger In Order to Intimidate an Equally Defensive Family Cat
A startled owl employed the defensive posturing technique of puffing out feathers to appear much larger in order to intimidate a family cat in a Belgian backyard. The alarmed feline became equally puffed up at the sight of the strigidae stranger, leading to a standoff between the two. We looked…
An Amazing Continuous LEGO Marble Run System That Automatically Returns Balls to the Start
The very talented designer Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks built an incredible continuous LEGO marble run system that features an elevator to automatically return the marbles to the start. Allemann also built and alternator that sends incoming marbles in opposite directions Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working…
A Star Trek Redshirt in the Age of COVID-19
McCoy couldn’t convince him to wear a mask after Spock’s Tricorder detected a COVID-19 outbreak. We all know this will not end well for the redshirt…
A Magnificent 425 Million Image Timelapse That Documents the Activities of the Sun Over 10 Years
On the tenth anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory being in space, the Goddard Flight Space Center of NASA shared an absolutely magnificent timelapse that documents the activities of the sun over the course of a decade. Every second of the timelapse represents a single day of solar viewing. Over…
Slow Motion Footage of Popping a Balloon Inside a Balloon Inside a Balloon Inside a Balloon
Nate Bonham of The King of Random (previously) incrementally nested balloons of various different sizes inside of each other in order to see what popping each of them would look like in slow motion. So today we’re gonna try not just popping balloons in slow motion but nesting balloons, so…
How the Use of a Green Screen Can Go Wrong
In a cloaking episode of Things You Might Not Know, host Tom Scott and series animator William Marler amusingly demonstrate the many ways in which the use of a green screen can go wrong due to issues with lighting, color, key, shutter speed, and framing. Green screen looks terrible sometimes….