The Web’s Best Video Clips: Videos With A Brain

She’s Japanese and she’s very, very fast. Wow!

From ABC’s Master of Champions. This 14-year-old girl from South America, known at Princess Elaine, is impressive alone as a contortionist. But this is her most eye-popping feat. She holds a bow-and-arrow in her legs/feet, aims and shoots at a target 20 feet away…BLINDFOLDED…and nails it! Judges for the show included Oksana Baiul and Steve [...]

I can’t understand a word of the audio…but the video footage is in the universal language of WOW. A truly PERFECT archery shot.

It’s so big compared to that little hole. Incredibly, it finds a way to squeeze itself through.

Just don’t stand too close to this dude, or he’ll bust a cap…or a few…in places you’d rather he didn’t. Ver-r-r-ry fast.

Known here as “Dynamo Jack”, he is a healer in Java who uses the power of chi.

Beautiful, stunning, moving and tragic. Just a few of the words that might appropriately describe this animation from Andy Huang. In his words: “Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future.” Extremely cool.

This 2-year-old boy is bustin’ a move big-time. Very athletic and creative. You can tell how much he loves it.

This guy really plans out his stuff. It’s quite fascinating to watch. In this segment, he takes two advertising professionals and exposes them to subtle manipulation through (ironically) subliminal advertising.

Armless guitarist performs the big Tom Petty hit. More about Mark and his band, Big Toe, here: myspace.com/bigtoerocks

Part of this is very hard to see, but a huge man-hole cover is blown off the top of a drainage access point. If you watch very carefully, through the ensuring geyser, you can see a truck that runs into the cover and is stopped DEAD. The water pressure here is pretty amazing!

You’ve seen this kind of thing in the movies, but this appears to be an actual, functional product. We’ll all probably be working with interfaces like this in a few years, but for now…it’s quite impressive! More info at http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/index.html

Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or art of displacement is a physical art of French origin, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the possibilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything [...]

A beautiful blending of art and technology, blending strobing LED lights with fluorescent drops to create the appearance of motion…to control speed and opacity…and apparently, to even make the drops move upward. Very cool.

I love the problem-solving skills at work here. This is a WHOLE lot more than just “FETCH…!!”

Since I’ve never seen anything quite like this before, this may well go beyond what the human body OUGHT to be able to do. Nonetheless, she appears to be bending with ultimate flexibility and ease. It’s quite beautiful on one level, and quite freaky on another…almost to the point of squeamishness at times. Wow. Just…wow.

On the heels of our recent posts about the color-changing capabilities of the octopus, here’s something even more detailed and incredible. A Nova presentation on the Cuttlefish, often called “the chameleon of the sea”. Their blood is an unusual shade of green-blue because it uses hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin to carry oxygen.

An octopus’s camouflage is aided by certain specialized skin cells which can change the apparent color, opacity, and reflectiveness of the epidermis. Chromatophores contain yellow, orange, red, brown, or black pigments. Other color-changing cells are reflective iridophores, and leucophores. This color-changing ability can also be used to communicate with or warn other octopuses. (from Wikipedia)

One of the most amazing sites in nature. The first line of self-defense for the octopus is its ability to blend in with its background. An absolute must-see.

Really creative stop-motion animation. Remember this is done with markers on a whiteboard. So all the stuff he apparently moves with his finger is actually drawn and then he has to move his hand back into place. Feels quite seamless. Strange imagination. Fun, interesting art style. Even though this is over 4 minutes long…apparently, there’s [...]

Just watch the resourcefulness of this bird as he tackles his problem. He modifies his implement until the task is complete. Very creative!

An impressive feast for the eyes. Long exposure videography with lights in motion. Energtic, almost frenetic. Very creative and cool.

This is an oldie but goodie. After the two clowns in front of him, a guy walks onto the stage, seeming very gawky and shy…and then just turns himself into putty. He’s smooth and creative. Just imagine the number of hours he must have spent in front of the mirror getting this flawless performance together.

The tagline from the original Superman movie has never seemed so real…only this time, it’s about technology, not special effects. Yves Rossy took this amazing journey in October of 2006. Incredible footage. You’ll only wish it went on longer. Find out more about the technology at jet-man.com