This street vendor makes popcorn with an explosive, pressure-cooking, popcorn cannon contraption, a centuries-old method. The video was filmed in Zhengzhou, China, but we’ve watched videos of this in South Korea, too. And of course, Mythbusters has looked into it, video below. Boom!

Related watching: Click to Enlarge: Popcorn, more explosions, and more videos of street vendors, including how this intricately-drawn melted caramel/sugar dragon is made.

via Boing Boing.

Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW performs a medley of 43 Cartoon Theme Songs. Who doesn’t love watching music being performed as animated action happens all over the place? After you’ve watched, check your guesses against the song list in the notes on the video’s YouTube page.

And if you liked that, you’ll likely enjoy these two videos: Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France performs Le Carnaval des Animaux and the John Wilson Orchestra plays Scott Bradley’s Tom and Jerry cartoon music.

via Devour.

Bill Nye The Science Guy bikes down a long road in wide open country to demonstrate a scale model of the solar system – a classic clip. Total distance of his ride to Pluto, back before Pluto was known as a dwarf planet: almost 2.5 miles (4 kilometers).

Related links: Scale of the Universe, Distance to Mars, and If the Moon Were Only One Pixel.

Related watching: Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, animated, Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten, Veritasium’s How Far Away is the Moon?, and the Royal Observatory’s Measuring the Universe.

In the 1970s, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown composer Clark Gesner made a series of found signage-based videos for PBS’ The Electric Company. The song above is our favorite because of the nonsensical lyrics, but the two below, the original Sign Song (later used for Sesame Street) and Office Sign Song are also ever-catchy, still great for reading comprehension, and are now 40-year-old culture and technology time capsules:

Watch more typography, more PBS, and more videos from the 1970s.

Which tire will roll down the ski jump fastest and jump the farthest? A Formula One tire? An enormous bulldozer tire? The smallest tire? This clip from Japanese television has made the rounds in years past, but the video source disappeared. We watched it again when it reappeared on Metafilter. Gotta love the lab coats, white gloves, and the surprising last jump.

So which of these six tires would you guess makes the biggest jump? And why?

In the archives, more physics of falling and jumping: domino chain reaction, 2,000 ping pong balls and 30 teachers in zero-g, a cat landing on its feet, and the jumping sand flea robot.