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6 Memorable Movie Musical Moments That Were Recorded Live

Much ado is being made about the fact that the movie musical version of Les Miserables, out December 25, did not use pre-recorded vocals. Instead, the actors sang live to a piano track played through earpieces; the full orchestra was added in post-production. Though director Tom Hooper and the cast will claim this is “groundbreaking,” that’s not exactly true. According to Slate, “Even if you eliminate non-narrative concert and experimental films—which typically record vocals live—there... READ ON

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This Visualization Shows How the Earth Moves During An Earthquake

There is much about earthquakes that is a mystery, even to scientists. But a new video—showing four earthquakes in both real time and slow motion—is showing us how the ground moves as a quake ripples through it. The video is the result of a study done by geologists working for Signal Hill Petroleum and Nodal Seismic. In 2011, the scientists deployed seismic arrays consisting of 5300 nodes spaced 330 feet apart to measure the 3D rock formation below their Long Beach oilfield. "The sensors... READ ON

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Terry Gilliam Explains Animation in 1974

Terry Gilliam started out as the only American* member of Monty Python, and he was responsible for the absurd animated sequences seen throughout Monty Python's Flying Circus as well as their later films. Gilliam went on to direct some of my favorite movies (The Fisher King, anyone? Brazil? 12 Monkeys?). But way back in 1974, Gilliam appeared on Bob Godfrey's Do-It-Yourself Animation Show explaining how to make cut-out animations. If you're interested in Python history or actual animation, this is well... READ ON

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In Honor of Titanic's 15th Anniversary, Watch the MythBusters Tackle the Movie's Myths!

Wednesday marks 15 years since Titanic was released in theaters. Based on the film's profits—it grossed $1.84 billion worldwide—you probably saw it at least once (or if you were a teenage girl at the time, like I was, you saw it many, many more times than that). So I'm sure you were intrigued when a series of photos made the rounds on the internet claiming that Jack and Rose both could have fit on the door at the end of the film. In the premiere of the latest season of MythBusters, co-hosts Jamie... READ ON

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Video: What Really Brought Down the Hindenburg?

For 75 years, scientists have wondered what caused the Hindenburg, the world's largest airship, to catch on fire as it landed during a thunderstorm in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937. This past Sunday, the Discovery Channel's Curiosity tackled the mystery, building the largest replicas of the airship—one-tenth of the original's size—to test out a few of the most popular theories. You can check out video of one of the builds below. The Curiosity team used the scale models to test out four... READ ON

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Mars Curiosity: Looking Forward, Looking Back

On August 6, 2012 the Curiosity rover made a successful touchdown on Mars. It was a thrilling moment, the culmination of many careers and decades of hard work -- but at the same time it was just the beginning of the rover's mission on Mars. In the videos below, listen to Allen Chen, who calmly narrated the landing sequence every step of the way. Chen was Entry, Descent, and Landing Operations Lead for the rover (technically known as the Mars Science Laboratory or MSL), and at 2:33 in this video his... READ ON

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Video of the Huge Asteroid that Buzzed by Earth Last Week

Last week, the 3-mile-wide asteroid 4179 Toutatis flew by Earth—on December 12, Toutatis was 4.3 million miles from Earth; on December 13, it was about 4.4 million miles away. Using the antenna from the Deep Space Network, NASA created radar data images of the irregularly-shaped asteroid and used them to create the video below. The images show that the asteroid has ridges and maybe craters; glints in the images might actually be boulders on the surface. Because of the high resolution of the... READ ON

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Fall, Timelapse, Central Park

Need a dose of tranquility? Watch this three-minute timelapse video shot in New York City's Central Park. Photographer Jamie Scott selected fifteen locations in the park and returned to them twice a week for six months, from August 2011 through January 2012. And I do mean fifteen extremely specific locations -- repeating the exact same video pans on the exact same trees, water, and so on -- so you can watch the leaves change colors, then fall off the trees in timelapse. This is a feat of persistence,... READ ON

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Neil Gaiman Waits for His Parents in a Train Station

Neil Gaiman can really tell a story. In this fourteen-minute bit for The Moth, he tells the tale of how he waited for his parents at Liverpool Street Station after returning home from Germany. And they never showed up. It's delightful, smart, and a little scary around the edges, as Gaiman and his parents seem to swap roles in terms of who's an adult and who's a child. A sample: "I don't know how you went to school. I went to school by getting up and going, 'Oh my God, is that the time?', leaping in... READ ON

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Here's What $315,000,000,000 in Gold Bars Looks Like

"We're in the bullion vault of the Bank of England. I've never seen so much gold -- in fact, I've never seen so much of any element!" So exclaims Professor Martyn Poliakoff, host of this The Periodic Table of Videos visit to Britain's equivalent of Fort Knox. The inside of the vault is surprisingly bland -- just a bunch of blue metal shelves holding gold bars. It looks a little like a gym that happens to contain an insane amount of gold. Fun fact discussed near the end of this video: if you took... READ ON