While googling about mechanical inventions like Mark Galt’s walking mechanical humans, I happened upon this lovely 1890 piece of restored gears and springs, with the original bellows: a singing bird mechanism. From Colossal:

It’s believed the machine was built 120 years ago in Paris by Blaise Bontems, a well-known maker of bird automata and was recently refurbished by Michael Start over at The House of Automata.

Singing bird boxes were extremely popular in Europe starting from the 18th century, first as a toy for a privileged few and then later as a more affordable item. Watch this video from The British Clockmaker Ray Bates to see how the bird fit in with the box’s innerworkings: 

And below, HD video of a singing bird box made by Jaquet-Droz & Leschot, Switzerland circa 1785:

How fun is this AsapScience video written, directed and performed by Mitchell Moffit? Based on the famous can can piece from Orphée aux enfers by Jacques Offenbach, The NEW Periodic Table Song makes it fun to sing all of the elements… in order! Find it on iTunes or Bandcamp, and if you need help with the lyrics, you can find them in the video notes.

Of course, this video is an excellent addition to a long line of elements songs. They Might Be Giants’ Meet The Elements is one of our favorites, and of course there’s Tom Lehrer’s classic.

via Daily of the Day.

Watch singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician Tom Lehrer perform The Elements live from Copenhagen in 1967. Set to the melody, ”I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General“ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, it challenges the speed at which you can recite all of the elements known in the early-1960s.

Read more about Tom Lehrer here, buy The Elements on Amazon, or watch Daniel Radcliffe sing it on the Graham Norton Show.

Director Tom Jobbins and team bring us on the epic journey of two colorful triangles in We Can Be Ghosts Now by Hiatus featuring Shura.

More shapes and patterns in the archives.

To celebrate Commander Chris Hadfield’s return to earth today, Monday, May 13, Scientific American has collected the Top 10 Commander Hadfield Videos from the International Space Station. Excellent watching all around.

Above: the most popular video on their list, Wringing out Water on the ISS - For Science. And a just-released bonus vid below, the Commander’s version of David Bowie’s 1969 Space Oddity:

It’s the first music video made in space.