The Best Videos of the Week [Video]

The Best Videos of the Week [Video]:

Have you heard that video is a big thing over at Gawker Media? It's true, we watch and post a lot of videos each week. Here are some of the best videos of week, culled from an array of Gawker Media sites.

Here's Video of One of the Dallas Tornadoes Ripping Through an Entire Tractor Trailer Lot

There are multiple tornadoes on the ground in the Dallas area right now, and one has already caused significant damage after ripping through an entire tractor trailer parking lot. The video above, from CNN's broadcast, clearly shows a number of 18-wheelers being picked up hundreds of feet in the air. View »

---

The Fray's Pre-NCAA Title Game National Anthem Performance Was … Different

While nowhere near as bad as any that made our suggestions for the Worst National Anthem Ever (indeed, if you caught Monica's tone-deaf rendition Saturday, you know it wasn't even the worst of the Final Four) The Fray's attempt at a hipster version of Marvin Gaye's "Star-Spangled Banner" fell awfully flat. If you were fortunate enough to tune into tonight's game late, well, blame us tomorrow. View »

---

Adorable Dog Has His Mind Blown By an Escalator Ride

"I'm moving, therefore my paws should be moving." You really can't argue with this kind of flawless puppy logic. View »

---

Do Not Honk At The Axe-Wielding Moped Rider

At a stoplight, a car waits behind a moped, whose rider is checking to see if something's wrong with his bike. The light turns green, the car starts honking, and then the moped rider shuts the car up pretty fast by brandishing a freaking axe. View »

---

This Might Be the Only Way a Live-Action Pac-Man Movie Could Ever Work

Production company Steelhouse and writer James Farr have just answered one of life's greatest questions: How do you make a live-action film about a yellow ball with eyes that runs about a maze eating dots and ghosts without resorting to a man in a giant foam suit? View »

---

The Best Moments from Sarah Palin's Today Show Gig

This morning, Sarah Palin "guest hosted" on the Today Show, meaning that besides an interview with Matt Lauer, Palin cropped up in a few other segments. In this compilation of her most inane moments, she bangs her usual drums about the lamestream media and Obama's socialist policies, and, of course, she couldn't appear on national TV without an incredibly conspicuous "aw jeez, Matt." View »

---

In the first scene from The Avengers, Black Widow gets angry

The very first scene from The Avengers has hit the web. Behold Natasha Romanoff and Agent Coulson engaging in some very Joss Whedonesque patter while some poor doomed goons stare on slack-jawed. Tony Stark and his Exotic Friends will be in theaters May 4. View »

---

Stan Van Gundy Sets Up Dwight Howard For The Most Awkward Interview Ever

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Stan Van Gundy has heard, from "people in our management right from the top," that Dwight Howard has requested that he be fired. The video above picks up Van Gundy's comments just as he utters them. At the 2:50 mark, Van Gundy is approached by Howard, who is not aware of what Van Gundy just said. Without giving Howard any indication of what's going on, Van Gundy walks away, leaving a surprised Howard to stumble and deny his way through a series of questions. It's opera buffo without the music, and it's great theater for the rest of us, but if the Magic do indeed have plans to fire Van Gundy, right about now seems to be as good a time as any. View »

---

This Rear Window Time-Lapse Is Detailed and Amazing

Videographer Jeff Desom took all of the the courtyard view shots from Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and remixed them all while keeping the film's events in chronological order. Says Desom, "Since everything was filmed from pretty much the same angle I was able to match them into a single panoramic view of the entire backyard without any greater distortions." View »

---

Let Me Show You What Doesn't Work In Kinect Star Wars-And What Does

Kinect Star Wars is not the world's greatest new video game. I've said as much in my review. But you should see this game's failures-and its triumphs-for yourself. Watch the video and allow me to demonstrate. View »

---

Stephen Colbert Has Seen the Greatness of America and It is a Dude Popping Wheelies in the Lincoln Tunnel

On tonight's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert told a personal story that elucidated everything that is right with America: on his way into work this morning, he captured a dude popping wheelies on his motor bike while driving through the Lincoln Tunnel. It's an amazing personal testament to all that is right with our fair nation and all that is dangerous about driving while shooting video with your iPhone. View »

---

Watch The Driver Bail As This Big Rig Falls Off A Cliff

A tow truck driver's attempt to remove a snow-bound truck in Norway went very wrong yesterday when both vehicles slid off the side of a cliff. Amazingly, everyone survived. View »

---

Kaká's Long-Range Finesse Strike Was A Work Of Art

While APOEL's Cinderella run through the Champions League was mostly over before today's return match at Real Madrid even started, Kaká helped slam the door by increasing the aggregate lead to 5-0 when he landed a shot from a position and with a curve more reminiscent of his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo (who opened the scoring earlier in the match). It was nice of Real Madrid to give the Cyprus side a nice going-away present of effort on their way home, though. View »

---

Mental Health Break

Mental Health Break:
Creator Jeff Desom reveals his tricks:

I dissected all of Hitchcock's Rear Window and stitched it back together in After Effects. I stabilized all the shots with camera movement in them. Since everything was filmed from pretty much the same angle I was able to match them into a single panoramic view of the entire backyard without any greater distortions. The order of events stays true to the movie's plot.

The “War on Cops” That Wasn’t. And Still Isn’t.

The “War on Cops” That Wasn’t. And Still Isn’t.:
You might remember that about this time last year, media outlets, police groups, even Attorney General Eric Holder were up in arms over an alleged “war on cops” taking place all across the fruited plains. In April of last year, on-the-job officer deaths were up 20 percent from the same point in 2010. The media went nuts, pointing an accusatory finger at anti-government rhetoric, a “don’t tread on me” mentality, anti-cop Internet sites, and gun ownership.
But some wise folks (ahem) didn’t buy into the hype. On-the-job cop deaths had been falling for 20 years. Those numbers couldn’t keep dropping forever. And the claims of some sort of surge in violent anti-cop, anti-government anger were belied by the fact that non-fatal assaults on police officers were also dropping.
In retrospect, those of us who were skeptical of the hysterical headlines look to have been correct. While January and February of last year saw a few unusual mass shootings of multiple police officers, those months appear to have been anomalies. Police deaths in the remaining months of 2011 were mostly on par with prior years.
So what about this year? Police officer deaths are down 48 percent from last year. Firearms deaths specifically are down 58 percent. And as the watchdog blog Clark County Criminal Cops points out, a significant number of  the firearms deaths were actually cops who were shot by other cops.
The police watchdog websites are still out there. The Tea Party and “Don’t Tread on Me” patriot movements are still going strong. You also now have the Occupy movements, which foment a lot of anti-police sentiment (in many cases, justifiably). Gun owners certainly haven’t been melting down their weapons en masse. And yet officer fatalities and violence against police officers have nosedived. In fact, if the current pace keeps up, we’ll actually hit an all-time low in police fatalities this year. And these are just the raw numbers. They aren’t percentages of the total police force (which has been growing), or police deaths in comparison to deaths in the larger population.
All worth keeping in mind should the numbers slightly tick up again—as any statistics pulled from a large population of people are bound to do from time to time—and the media and police groups again start placing blame, and calling for us to grant the police more powers, less oversight, and bigger guns.

A Diamond, Unlike Virginity, Is Forever

A Diamond, Unlike Virginity, Is Forever:
A fascinating twist to the story of the diamond engagement ring:

A now-obsolete law called the "Breach of Promise to Marry" once allowed women to sue men for breaking off an engagement. Back then, there was a high premium on women being virgins when they married -- or at least when they got engaged. Surveys from the 1940s show that roughly half of engaged couples reported being intimate before the big day. If the groom-to-be walked out after he and the bride-to-be had sex, that left her in a precarious position. From a social angle, she had been permanently "damaged." From an economic angle, she had lost her market value. So Breach of Promise to Marry was born.
But in the 1930s, states began striking down the "Breach of Promise to Marry" law. ... Regressing the percent of people living in states without Breach of Promise against a handful of other variables -- including advertising, per capita income and the price of diamonds -- [legal scholar Margaret Brinig] found that this legal change was actually the most significant factor in the rise of the diamond engagement ring.

Assetto Corsa – Plenty of Monza Previews

Assetto Corsa – Plenty of Monza Previews: Kunos Simulazioni has released new previews of their Assetto Corsa simulation that is due to be released later this year.

Google’s Autonomous Prius Drives Blind Man to Taco Bell

Google’s Autonomous Prius Drives Blind Man to Taco Bell:
Steve Mahan is clinically blind, having lost 95 percent of his vision over the course of several years. But on a sunny day in the Bay Area, the Google crew arrived to shuttle him around, running errands like the rest of us and making a trip through the Taco Bell drive-through.
It’s one of the most compelling cases for driverless cars.
Steve’s freedom could be regained when autonomous vehicles make it to the mainstream, enabling other visually-challenged denizens to enjoy the freedoms most of us take for granted.
As we highlighted in last month’s cover issue, the age of the autonomous car is coming up quickly, with Google, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and General Motors all working on new, innovative ways of making the driverless car a reality.
Still, there’s more to this video than Google’s brief YouTube description conveys.
To begin with, the legal hurdles of self-driving cars are numerous and varied. While Nevada has enacted legislation to allow the testing of driverless vehicles on public roads, there are still a myriad of legislative challenges ahead, ranging from how many occupants have to be in the vehicle to who’s at fault if a collision occurs.
Partner that with the fact that destinations have to be pre-programmed and the waters get even murkier, although Google concedes that Mahan’s ride was “a carefully programmed route.”
But even with all that in mind, after watching Steve’s simple journey for a bad burrito, how can you not get behind a technology that enables one of the most quintessentially American freedoms?

Some Questions On ObamaCare's Compassion For Dahlia Lithwick and Other Bleeding-Heart Liberals

Some Questions On ObamaCare's Compassion For Dahlia Lithwick and Other Bleeding-Heart Liberals:

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, usually a solid advocate of
civil liberties against government intrusions, can’t for the life
of her understand what all the fuss about the loss of economic
liberties due to ObamaCare is all about. Shell shocked by the
shellacking that the Solicitor General Donald Verrilli received at
the hearing Tuesday, she went into a deep sulk and threw the
intellectual equivalent of a
hissy fit.
How dare the conservatives on the bench ask Verilli if he
recognized any limiting principles on the government’s powers under
the Commerce Clause to coerce activity? By simply posing this
question, the conservative justices had revealed just how dark,
primitive and – above all – uncompassionate their conception of
freedom was. She wrote:

Until today, I couldn’t really understand why this case was
framed as a discussion of “liberty.” This case isn’t so much about
freedom from government-mandated broccoli or gyms. It’s about
freedom from our obligations to one another, freedom from the
modern world in which we live. It’s about the freedom to ignore the
injured, walk away from those in peril, to never pick up the phone
or eat food that’s been inspected. It’s about the freedom to be
left alone. And now we know the court is worried about freedom: the
freedom to live like it’s 1804.

(She had no freedom from acid reflux as she wrote this, I’m
sure.)
But if she’s having trouble understanding the conservative
conception of freedom, I’m having difficulty understanding her
conception of compassion. So here are some questions that might
help clear the cobwebs off my Neanderthal brain.
One: Liberals insist that the individual mandate forcing
everyone to buy coverage is necessary to prevent freeloaders from
saddling everyone else with the cost of their emergency care. One
can defend this provision by appealing to individual responsibility
(as the awful Mitt Romney did) or the need for a more rational
health care system, or, if liberals were honest, putting in place a
funding mechanism for universal coverage.  But why is forcing
someone to buy a product against their wishes on the threat of
fines or jail compassionate?
Liberals might say that the individual mandate is not
compassionate, but the system in whose service it’s being deployed
– universal coverage – is because everyone will get better care.
But that only raises more questions: one conceptual and one
empirical:
Conceptually, if we subtract the cruelty of the means from the
alleged compassion of the ends, will there be a net increase in
compassion?
Empirically, if people don’t experience significant health gains
under universal coverage, as there is
scientific evidence to believe they won’t, does the mere
intention of compassion matter?
Two:  The individual mandate shows that it does not matter
to Lithwick and her fellow progressives that they have to resort to
conscription to enact their grand compassionate designs. But does
who they are conscripting matter? In the bad old days of the draft,
the fact that politically powerless minorities ended up serving
disproportionally more than rich, powerful white kids made the
system even more immoral.
Shouldn't that doom ObamaCare too?
In our current health care system, a mix of taxpayers; (rich)
hospitals/providers and (even richer) private insurers are stuck
with the tab for uncompensated care. There are many problems with
this. But isn’t it at least more compassionate than ObamaCare that
would force asset-poor young people – trying to pay off their
college debt and hang on to some beer money – to subsidize the
coverage of relatively wealthier prospective geezers? If maximizing
compassion is the issue, shouldn't we stick with what we've
got?
Three:  In the Manichean worldview of Lithwick & Co.,
one can have compassion or freedom but not both. That would be news
to Aristotle who, for a dead, white, male, wrote some rather lovely
stuff in the Nichomachean Ethics about how freedom is a
pre-requisite for genuine compassion.
If anything, the evidence that compulsion leads to more
compassion is slim at best. Despite the fact that doctors and
hospitals have a legal obligation to treat emergency cases, the
total amount of uncompensated care provided in America currently
adds up to only $40.7
billion annually or about 3 percent of our total health care
spending (hardly the kind of problem that justifies a draconian
2,500-plus page government power grab). This is comparable to the

3 to 5 percent of billable hours in pro bono services that big
law firms, that have no equivalent compulsion, aim to
offer.
Why is it obvious that, absent a legal requirement, doctors
would offer any less free care than lawyers? Is it at all plausible
that people who have chosen healing the sick as their vocation
would simply walk away as poor people “bleed out on the curb,” as
Lithwick worries?
Three: Related to the above point, have liberals ever considered
that freedom and compassion are not enemies, but friends? That
incentivizing, rather than forcing, compassion might be a better
way to go? For example, how about offering, say, Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation tax breaks to buy coverage for the uninsured?
I can already hear derisive laughter. But does that show that
opponents of ObamaCare are indifferent to compassion – or that
liberals have contempt for freedom?
No doubt it’s my naivety that is causing me to ask such
simple-minded questions. But perhaps liberals can enlighten me – in
the name of compassion, you know.