Music essayist Film Retrospective did a deep dive into the 1967 recording of the Pink Floyd album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. As with his other videos, the narrator explored every event and instrument that contributed to the album’s legendary status.

Despite having no official releases, Pink Floyd were already recognized as the defining band of the underground counterculture movement. Sessions for the Piper at the Gates of Dawn would begin on February the 21st. 

He also spoke about the long friendship between Roger Waters and Syd Barrett, both of whom explored different options before coming together in 1965.

In the early years, Sid and Roger each formed their own bands, but neither would achieve much success. It wasn’t until 1965 that they joined forces, things began to take shape.

While their sound turned psychedelic in 1966, their look needed a bit of time.

Barrett had relatively short hair. They dressed smart, but they were different enough that people were noticing them. Long performances and improvisations made their sets feel unpredictable. It was in 1966 that they shifted their sound and image Barrett grew his hair long. They began wearing brighter and more flamboyant clothing. And their live sets took a dramatic change. They received so much coverage in the music press. The logical step was to look for a record deal. 

Sadly, Barrett suffered a mental health crisis after the recording of this album, and David Gilmour was brought in to cover his parts. During the 1968 recording of A Saucer Full of Secrets, Barrett had broken down completely and left the band.

On August the 5th, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” was released. It was the summer of love, and the album would peak at number six in the charts. ….Without doubt, it had been a success, a perfect start to their career. Though outwardly flying high, they were falling apart internally. Sid was deteriorating at a rapid pace. The other members were terrified.

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A grappling TED-Ed lesson, written by Lee Thompson and animated by Masayoshi Nakamura (Good General), examined how ancient Imperial and Samurai martial training eventually led to the relatively modern sport of Sumo wrestling.

Sumo wrestling is known across the world as a beloved form of entertainment, a grand display of strength, and an ode to Japan’s ancient past and traditions. But surprisingly, many of these so-called “ancient” traditions were actually recent inventions.

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The great Stewart Copeland visited Brandon Toews at the Drumeo studios in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where he recreated his legendary percussive line in The Police song “Driven to Tears”. Copeland was rather casual about this performance, amusingly checking both his watch and phone as he played.

Stewart Copeland performs “Driven to Tears” from The Police’s 1980 album “Zenyatta Mondatta”.

Why Left-Handed Copeland Plays a Right-Handed Kit

Copeland on Drumeo in 2025

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Film and TV essayist Rocket Riley, who previously gave a comprehensive tour of the entire map of lands within the Game of Thrones universe, happily explained the scientific lore behind every iteration of the radioactive spider that created every Spider-Man. This includes such glowing arachnids as the “Raimiverse spider”, the “MCU spider”, the “Spider-Man bite”, the “Mile Morales spider”, “Spider-Ham spider”, and various honorable mentions.

Every Spider-Verse Radioactive Spider EXPLAINED

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A lively yellow Lab named Duke gleefully jumps up and down whenever his human Nick Pringle repeatedly deadpans his own desire to go for a walk

I’m going to go for a walk. I am going to go for a walk right now. It is time to go for a walk. I have decided to go for a walk. Uh, does anybody else want to go for a walk? Would anybody else like to go for a walk?  You want to go for a walk? You do. You want to go for a walk real quick? We could go for a walk if you want to go for a walk.

This method also works for rides, particularly when they’re going to see Grandma.

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Matthew Trahan 3D-printed a colorful clothing ensemble, from head to toe. Using meticulous modeling, material testing across various filament types, and the assembly of complex pieces, Trahan created an entirely personalized, printed outfit that consisted of shoes and accessories, as well as custom shirts and shorts.

wearin’ 3D printed clothes from my toes to my nose

3D Printed Room

via The Awesomer

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Joseph McGrail-Bateup, a professional air conditioning cleaner and the honorary town crier for the city of Canberra, Australia, set the Guinness World Record for “Loudest shout by an individual (male)” at 122.4 decibels.

The loudest shout by an individual (male) is 122.4 dB (C-weighted), and was achieved by Joseph McGrail-Bateup (Australia), in Canberra, Australia, on 2 May 2026.

via Boing Boing

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While on a New York City subway, a woman named Sarah captured the sight of a street-smart pigeon riding with her. Like many riders, the bird was facing the wrong door at first, but soon realized how to exit and did so quite deliberately.

When the train makes its next stop and opens the doors, the pigeon exits the train promptly and goes on its merry way!

Other Subway Pigeons

Pigeons in Urban Environments

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Musician Frank Aumann expertly played an emergency siren sound on his accordion while riding hands-free on his bicycle. Aumann explained the effects he used to create this distinctive sound and cautioned others not to try this at home.

Accordion tuned to 442 Hz, with a slight tremolo. This video is uncut. No sound edits. Original tempo. No AI. Filmed and recorded with an ordinary smartphone. SAFETY FIRST – DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME

Other Hands-Free Bicycle Accordion Videos

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Boston comedian Matt Lyons quite hilariously poked gentle fun at the obsessive knowledge of birds that many people develop after installing a bird feeder in their yard. Lyons also addresses their need to share said knowledge while standing next to said feeder.

All about that symbiotomy in the phylum

Other ‘Every Person’ Rants

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Dustin Ballard of There I Ruined It cleverly remixed the sound of four thrashing washing machines to play the classic Rage Against the Machine anthem “Killing in the Name”. In other words, “rage against the washing machine”.

Cleaning in the Name

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Urban explorer Paul Stout explained the concept of “desire paths”, the shortest path that can be taken on foot, often evidenced by worn patches in the ground.

Those paths you see made by people walking have a name, they are called desire paths. But they ask a question of what counts as design. …They tell us a lot about human psychology and the wayplaces get designed. 

Stout further examined how Ohio State University designed its campus around desire paths, how Broadway in New York City followed a pre-colonial Lenape footpath, and how a sunken lane in France was formed by people walking on it. Design by utility.

People creating a pathway by walking it is design. Places often get designed from this top- down view, and sometimes you can miss the ways people actually use a space. Desire paths remind us that people have their own ideas about the best path to walk.

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Musician Lucas Brar performed The White Stripes‘ song “Seven Nation Army” as a classical fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach on acoustic guitar. Like his cover of “The Imperial March”, this song also has a time signature of four beats per measure (4/4), making it blend perfectly with Bach’s original baroque style.

An original Baroque-inspired fugue fantasy on the iconic Seven Nation Army theme.

The Imperial March as Bach Fugue

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The “Babies” episode of the National Geographic Kids series America’s National Parks is a playful 40-minute compilation showcasing adorable baby animals in national parks across the United States, cavorting in the wild, on land, in the air, and in the sea.

Meet the cutest newcomers in America’s national parks! With upbeat music and colorful scenes, baby animals take their first steps, hops and splashes. From tiny birds to playful bear cubs, every moment is full of giggles, surprises and big adventures as they explore their amazing world.

The locations include Yosemite National Park, Channel Islands National Park, the Grand Tetons, Biscayne National Park, Badlands National Park, Big Bend National Park, and the Grand Canyon.

A Shorter Compilation of Babies in the Wild

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Korean musician Ten K remixes viral animal videos, providing expressive piano soundtracks that interact perfectly with the subjects.

One example of Ten K’s work is a video by Keith Ramos of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of a bobbing woodcock, grooving to Michael Jackson‘s “Billie Jean”. Other examples include a custom soundtrack to accompany a tug-of-war between two dogs and a jumpy cat examining a metronome.

The Original Videos

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Laurence Brown of Lost in the Pond examined the distinct linguistic landscape of Canada by comparing vocabulary, spelling conventions, and pronunciation with those in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Growing up in England, I used to think Americans and Canadians basically sounded the same. I was wrong. Not only do they pronounce certain words differently, but have competing vocabularies and spellings. In this video, I’ll take you through them.

He further noted how Canada historically aligned linguistically with Great Britain during the Great Vowel Shift. Centuries later, Canadian English maintains its unique identity, blending influences from both countries on either side of the Atlantic.

The reality is that there is no singular way to speak English in the United States, as every region has its own colloquial lexicon.

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The Punch Brothers played a cover of “The Imperial March” from Star Wars as a twangy bluegrass song. Videographer Bill Hutt captured this incredible performance at Archer Music Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in May 2026.

Punch Brothers Live – The Imperial March – Archer Music Hall Allentown, PA 5/15/2026

The band also played this cover at DelFest 2026 in Cumberland, Maryland.

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Musician Brendan Goh quite cleverly spoke to his cat with the dulcet sound of his cello, instantly mimicking the chatty feline’s voice at every step.

I play cat

Goh Also Plays Dog on the Cello

Guitarist Mimics Cat

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Cameron Duke of MinuteEarth shared the story of a high-flying Rüppell’s griffon vulture who was hit by a plane at 11,000 meters (36,089 feet) in 1973 to illustrate how high certain birds can fly and how long they can stay aloft.

There are two things that limit how high a bird can fly. Its ability to stay aloft as the air pressure decreases. And on a much more basic level, its ability to stay alive as the temperature and amount of oxygen decreases.

Larger birds are better able to fly higher without running out of oxygen than small birds, and their larger wings allow for greater soaring ability as measured by Lift Coefficient and the Square-Cube Law.

Lift Coefficient: A dimensionless number that represents how effectively a wing generates lift based on its shape and angle. The higher the coefficient, the more lift produced.

Square Cube Law: A principle stating that as an object increases in size, its volume grows much faster than its surface area. This affects heat loss/gain and strength, impacting flight feasibility

These factors, plus the benefit of thermal columns, make the Rüppell’s griffon vulture the world’s highest flying bird

A bird we know for a fact can fly higher than 11,000 m. Our math suggests that it is lift-limited a lot lower than that, about 8,200 m. But this is where theoretical calculations fall short without some additional real-world knowledge. See, the Ruples Griffin like to soar on thermals, warm columns of rising air that can help birds exceed their mathematical lift limit, sometimes even thousands of extra meters up into the air. 

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A border collie named Milo (“King of Fetch”), who lives in the British seaside town of Staithes in North Yorkshire, England, is quite well known in the area (and on social media) for successfully completing any search-and-fetch challenges his devoted human proposes.

Milo, the Undisputed King of Fetch. From his kingdom in Staithes to feeds all around the world. 

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