Quality wood, a few craftsman with serious skills, computer assisted design, and large machines in factories! Take a factory tour with player Graeme Swann in The Art of Bat Making… cricket bat making!

And if you’ve never seen it before, watch a few minutes of cricket here — South Africa vs New Zealand:

This Nike Better World promo video from 2012 shares the manufacturing process of how plastic bottles can turn into “the most advanced football jerseys on the planet.” (And by the way, that’s soccer/football, not American football.)

There are some excellent vids about plastics and sports in the archives. 

via Ecouterre.

Eddie the Sea Otter lives at the Oregon Zoo where he practices playing basketball in the pool to help relieve the arthritis in his elbows.

via Viral Viral Videos.

Has the kid seen windless kite flying?

Member of Team iQuad and recognized as one of the top Rev pilots in the world, Spencer Watson flew this winning indoor kite competition performance at the 2013 Windless Kite Festival in Long Beach, WA… he is flying an Indoor Rev.

via Kottke.

NPR’s Human-Powered Helicopters: Straight Up Difficult!

How difficult? The Sikorsky Prize from the American Helicopter Society has promised $250,000 to anyone that build’s a human-powered helicopter that can “hover for a minute, reach a height of 3 meters (about 10 feet), and stay in a 10-meter box.”

No one has claimed this prize in 30 years. And not for a lack of trying. 

But students at the University of Maryland, Team Gamera HPH, are now closer than most to reaching this goal. Watch the video above and read more about them on NPR.

via Kottke.