Historiff

A brief history of (some of) rock n' roll via 100 famous guitar riffs, done in one take.

And famous songs reinterpreted by tech nerds, as old computer disk drives cover "Bohemian Rhapsody", "What is Love", and others.

"Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel." - Jimi Hendrix

Challenging

The 135 Space Shuttle launches, all in one shot, the Grand Finale.

Got a minute? Here's a ridiculously frustrating and impossible 60-second game where you use your arrow keys to navigate a constantly-changing pathway.

"In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take." - Adlai Stevenson

Square up

Super Mario brought to life with 7,000 Post-it® notes in a stop-motion animated video. [bOING bOING]

And use this handy calculator to figure out how many Legos it would take to build your house.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

Save me

Five months and 4,600 photos, with about 60 hours of filming and 20 more editing, result in Bonnie Tyler's "I Need a Hero" brought to life as a fantastic claymation epic.

And a nice bit of pareidolia in these eggs dismayed at their own fate.

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." - George Carlin

Self-styled

Proving that Hollywood does indeed feed on itself, a Supercut of Sorkinisms (Aaron). Probably helps avoid writer's block, anyway.

And an amazing children's book from the post-War era, Hansi, the Girl who Loved the Swastika apparently is the biography of a real person.

"All good books have one thing in common — they are truer than if they had really happened." - Ernest Hemingway

Around and about

Six years in 24 countries on seven continents, "Terra Sacra" is an around-the-world time lapse journey celebrating our sacred Earth.

And grab a barf bag and visit some famous landmarks with these one-second GIF trips around San Francisco, courtesy of Hypno SF.

"Flying is hours and hours of boredom sprinkled with a few seconds of sheer terror."
- Gregory "Pappy" Boyington

Lego that wire

An epic piece of video reproduction using those little plastic snap-block toys, The Lego Wire. The obsession with this show continues to amaze me.

And a city map made of song titles. Plus a film map that's not bad either.)

"Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Quick trip

Groundbreaking (?) video of New Yorkers tripping on subway step at the 36th Street stop in Brooklyn. Apparently one of the steps is slightly higher than the others, causing a whole 'lotta people to stumble on their way up the stairs. Though I never thought of this as a filmmaking opportunity... [bOING bOING]

And a little furrier transformation for your Sunday paper, kittens take over the N.Y. Times. (And by the way, Meowbify.com lets you do this to pretty much any cat-deficient site on the Internet.)

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

That sync'ing feeling

Another really good lip sync vid from Jimmy Slonina, this time it's the Screamin' Jay Hawkins classic, "I Put A Spell On You". Some serious mime skills on display, a bit like watching a Joe Cocker on meth. [bOING bOING]

And for no good reason, results of the 2012 L.A. Beard and Mustache Competition, with a gallery of photos, naturally.

"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

...and a smile

A Lonely Island production I hadn't seen, "Great Day" has a light and lively bounce featuring a cheery cokehead who sings about yet another fabulous day in his wonderful life. Lesson learned, yeah.

And just asking for it, morons post photos of their credit cards on Twitter. Maybe they all have LifeLock (?).

'Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.' - Ambrose Bierce

Unbearable emotion

Remember Teddy Ruxpin bears? Or maybe you saw Seth MacFarlane's new movie...? In any case, Severe Enterprises whipped up this art project that uses 80 of them to stream emotional content buried within that sea of noise we call the Internet.

Also, a little challenge for your color recognition expertise. Or try this more challenging (annoying?) test of dragging and dropping colors to arrange them by hue order.

"The purpose of human life and the sense of happiness is to give the maximum what the man is able to give." - Alexander Alekhine

Just win, baby

This experimental robot from Japan never loses at Rock, Paper, Scissors mainly because it cheats, using a camera to see and react to its opponent's impending in the blink of an eye. [Gizmodo]

And sort of on the topic of cheating, imagine What Celebrities Would Look Like If They Were Average Americans without the benefit of personal trainers, hair stylists, etc.

"You must lose everything in order to gain anything." - Brad Pitt

Over easy

Ever wonder what happens when you crack an egg under water? Me neither, but the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences shows all in this aptly titled short clip, "The Egg". Nature is fun, learning is good.

And Bad Questions for Yahoo Answers is a compilation of questions, apparently being asked by bored and ignorant kids.

"Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back." - Paul Erdos

Honest lies

Magician Marco Tempest shows us the magic of truth and lies (and iPods) using an application he wrote to sync videos across multiple devices, which — lest you think he's cheating — he borrowed from audience members just moments before the show. And this was from a TED talk, so you know it's quality stuff.

And on the topic of deception, What Junk Food Should Actually Be Called features junk food amusingly renamed to something closer to the truth. [Gizmodo]

"We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Not hungry

This clip of a clam apparently eating salt on a table looks unnatural, but for good reason. It turns out, according to this bOING bOING post, that they don't have giant tongues.

And We Know What You're Doing is a constantly-updating wall of idiocy, featuring people without enough sense to stay mum about hating their boss, being hungover, doing drugs, etc., on Facebook.

"There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have." - Don Herold

Chatterbots

The website Cleverbot showcases some awkward conversations of the not-too-distant future — I especially enjoyed "The morning after" — with AIs and avatars talking to each other about life, the universe, and who really knows what else.

And some patriotic fantasy art featuring figures from American history kicking butt and taking names (?). Teddy Roosevelt vs. Sasquatch, Thomas Jefferson fist-fighting a gorilla, Ben Franklin vs. Zeus, George Washington Zombie Hunter — all fodder for potential summer blockbusters.

"Always remember that the future comes one day at a time." - Dean Acheson

Existential indignation

The third episode in the Henri series, "Henri 3, Le Vet", finds the cat protagonist lamenting the many indignities suffered during visits to the "doctor".

And these animal footprint shoes might make fine footwear for winter wrongdoers of all ilks.

"I do believe that if you haven't learnt about sadness, you cannot appreciate happiness." - Nana Mouskouri

Unnatural extensions

Redubbing pop music to the vocal stylings of the undead is a common thematic put to especially good use in this (death metal version of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream").

And Birds With Arms lives by a single, simple credo — Photoshop human arms onto birds and send 'em in. [bOING bOING]

"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is." - Albert Camus

Future shock

Twenty years later, prescient but cynical filmmaker Jeremiah McDonald has a conversation with his 12-year old self via a video he recorded in 1992. Refreshingly unsentimental, as B3TA puts it.

Also forward thinking, a birth plan by hipsters who likely would make the world's most annoying parents.

"The future has a way of arriving unannounced." - George Will

Adaptation

Another venture from College Humor, this one an action-packed parody trailer for a somewhat more grown up, live-action movie version of Dora the Explorer featuring Ariel Winter (the smart kid on "Modern Family"). [Mashable]

And an artist created these famous movie scenes in the style of a traditional children's picturebook.

"Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves." - Ernest Dimnet

Tweet and low

Nick Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson on NBC’s "Parks and Recreation", recently reappeared on Conan to redux a somewhat amusing segment in which his manly character reads the tweets of teen celeb-ettes in monotone deadpan. [Mashable]

And from street vendors to civil servants to the well-known, an artist's goal is to draw every person in New York.

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." - Mark Twain

But will it toast?

And how to amaze your dining companions by slicing a bagel into geometric wonderment to create a Mathematically Correct Breakfast. Next project, möbius strip bacon...?

And artist Kumi Yamashita's "Constellation" series of portraits are amazingly made from a continuous single piece of thread wrapped around nails hammered into a wooden board. [bOING bOING]

"Perfectionists are their own devils." - Jack Kirby

Thy quill be done

If you know someone with an out-of-control email signature block — hopefully not you — Declaration of Email Signatures is a somewhat amusing video, just in time for Independence Day. [Mashable]

And from illustrious past to confounding present, the American Hipster channel on YouTube profiles our country's current cutting edge. Heaven help us.

"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit." - Khalil Gibran

God bless America.

Let the good films roll

A neat bit of animation, this Tim Burton filmography, and quite a tribute, as well.

And another alphabet movie quiz, this one for famous comedies.

Also, see if you can identify 100 years of movies from Paramount in this iconic poster.

"The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude." - Aldous Huxley

Don't weight

Apparently the Shake Weight finds few admirers when you shake one out in public, as this prankster/videographer's footage attests. [Mashable]

And also somewhat deceptive, "Blow Job Portraits" aren't what you think. Completely safe for work and everywhere else.

"Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes." - Daniel Defoe

Clutch

Billed as inspiring and epic moments that embrace the idea of "now or never", though I'm not sure what the guy with the milk carton is doing in there.

And let's say you've got an essay to write and someone's snooping around, hecking up on you... well Essaytyper is here to help make you look like you're working. Just pick a subject and go.

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure." - Bill Cosby