Watch This Guy With One Arm, No Left Shoulder And A Bad Lung Shame You At The Gym

Luke Ericson is an amazing athlete, despite having been
born with no left arm or shoulder.  

You probably wouldn't expect much, physically, out of a guy missing his left arm and left shoulder, and who has an underdeveloped left lung, AND was diagnosed as a kid with type one diabetes.  And he's got scoliosis.

But your expectations would be totally wrong in the case of Luke Ericson, who is suddenly going viral on the Internet.

It helped that he put a video on YouTube this past Monday that explains everything. It's at the bottom of this post.

The guy is FIT, to put it mildly, and he can outdo just about anybody with a workout.  He's a wicked badass.

I just love noting these kinds of people, people like Ericson, if only to get me off my butt. Maybe other people, too.

Ericson's gotten the added notice lately, and has the new video online because he and his friend filmmaker Andrew Rizer, started a Kickstarter campaign so they can make a short film about Ericson's preparation for something called the Wodapalooza Fitness Festival in Miami.

The Kickstarter campaign reached its monetary goal, unsurprisingly.

Ericson is already a regular at Crossfit competitions, and also wiles away some of his days doing such "sedentary" things as rock climbing, surfing and swimming.  He was born with the condition that left him missing the left arm, shoulder and part of his lung.

Here's a choice quote from him from his Kickstarter page:

"As a child I had always insisted on doing everything myself and never taking the easy way out......If I want something bad enough, I'll find a way to make it happen."

I guess he pretty much has, huh?

Ericson's got a message for you. Yes, you. And me:

"There is lots of people, lots with different, whether it's physical disabilities or confidence issues and internal angst, that use it as an excuse for them not to do something, whether that be fitness or a job or a hobby they love, or a relationship they don't pursue.

They let all these different fears stop them from doing something. Just don't. Don't let anything or anyone stop you from being happy."

So there.

Now watch his video:

A Guy Named L'eto Does Impossible Things With His Body When He Dances.

I don't know how this guy, named L'eto, can
move his body the way he does.  

There was a big hip hop event in Amsterdam back in August called Summer Dance Forever.   

It was a big ta-do for the hip hop world.  Among the many events were dance competitions, and a lot of people just KILLED it out there with their moves.

But nobody can beat a guy named L'eto, who you can watch in the video, below. A lot of the video looks like stop action, but from everything I can tell, it's all real, with L'eto actually managing to give us optical illusions with his body

I haven't been able to find out much about L'eto on line, but GAWD I hope we see more of him in the future. He's amazing. Even if the dance moves and the music aren't your style, it's mesmerizing.

And if the video at the bottom of this post isn't enough, here's a web site with more of his videos. 

Watch the video to see for yourself.

Cat Probably Used Eight Of Nine Lives in Canadian Building Fire

A woman tried to retrieve Sylvester
after he escaped a raging fire and building collapse

An arson fire in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada left 25 people homeless and destroyed the building.

A totally sad story, but I love one glimmer of good news that literally emerged from the collapsing
wreckage of the destroyed building.

The fire had gone on for hours. Finally, the whole building collapsed.

At the end of the cacaphony of the collapse, a cat ran out of the destroyed building. It has apparently been trapped in the building, and somehow survived the fire.

The collapse miraculously didn't kill the cat, but instead creating an opening for the cat to run. It was all caught on the amazing video at the bottom of the post.

The cat, named Sylvester, was taken to a veterinarian and treated for smoke inhalation, but is recovering and has been reunited with his owner.

Sylvester will probably be avoiding fires and loud noises for awhile.

Here's the video:

One Legged Dancer Does It MUCH Better Than You

Here's a random video, posted in August, of a breakdancer with one leg. Um, he's beyond pretty good.

I couldn't immediately find anything on line that identifies him or whether he does this for a living.

But he should.  Scroll down a bit to watch the vid:

More Evidence That I'm A Sucker For Those "Got Talent" Shows

Arisxandra Libantino  

Yes, I continue to be an obnoxious sucker for those talent shows that are spreading all over TV worldwide like a major flu outbreak.

I stumbled upon this video, from about a year ago, of an 11 year old girl auditioning on "Britain's Got Talent."

Her name is Arisxandra Libantino, and she picked the challenging song "One Night Only" by Jennifer Hudson.

Tells us what you think. Are you blown away by this girl, too?  A star is born

Can You Keep This Many Balls In The Air At Once?

Here's a fun video:  Watch this guy balance on an oversized soccer ball while juggling lots of other soccer balls. Talk about multi-tasking!

So, watch Zhora from the Moscow State Circus do what you certainly can't do:

Amazing Video As Drone Flies Into An Active Volcano Crater

I'm really getting sold on drones. Cameras attached to them can capture the most amazing things.

Magma and ash belch from the Yasur volcano.

The latest I found is a YouTube video uploaded in late January by Shaun O'Callahan.

It shows the view a camera on a drone had as it buzzed around inside the Yasur Volcano on Tanna Island in Vanuatu.

Yasur is one of the most active volcanos in the world, according to Volcano Discovery.

It's prone to frequent small to medium eruptions, not cataclysmic ones, so people do get fairly close to it.

Vanuatu is a collection of island way out in the South Pacific.

I found the music O'Callahan chose to accompany the video annoying, so turn the sound down (The video doesn't have the sound of the volcano.)

Still, this is one helluva fascinating video. It also made me extremely glad I wasn't there.

Here's the video:

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Feel Good Or Feel Bad: People Who Do Things Much Better Than You

Tell me: Are you willing to try anything the people in this video are doing?

You're braver than me if you do want to try anything in the video.  I got dizzy just watching some of the people in there. But it is awesome to watch, because as the video is called, people are awesome.

Watch and enjoy:

Is This 9-Year-Old Girl World's Best Opera Singer?

As I think I've noted before, every nation in the world it seems has a "(Insert Country Here)'s Got Talent."

A star is born Amira Willighagen, 9,
wows the crowd, and the world on "Holland's Got Talent"
Add caption

Holland has a version, too, and they've just discovered perhaps the world's best opera singer.

She's Amira Willighagen, age 9. Cute little girl. Shows up on stage. Announces she will sing Puccini's "O Mio Babbino Caro" from the operate "Gianni Schicchi."

Should be sweet enough.

Um, cute is not the word I'm looking for with this performance. Try blow your socks off amazing.   As Huffington Post said, Amira is going to become extremely famous fast. 

The article goes on to say she's self-taught. The only education she's gotten in singing opera is watching YouTube tutorials.

Watch this incredible performance. Like everyone else who has seen it, you will be SO blown away.

Better Than You: This Guy Flips Out

In our occasional series I informally call people who are better than you, we meet Ozell Williams, a guy who certainly does better gymnastic tumbles and flips and twirls an jumps better than anybody I've seen.

My knees and ankles hurt just watching his highlight real, as you can see, below.  Watch and be amazed.

Man Does Amazing Stuff With Soccer Ball

Get your head out of the gutter. After reading the headline to this post, you think I'm going to write about something icky.

But please watch the G-rated video, below, of a guy named Andrew Henderson playing around with a soccer ball. (OK, football if you want to get all British about it)   The guy is amazing. Maybe I should practice like Henderson and make this my new career? Nah. I'll do something else. But I'll still marvel at Henderson.

Watch:

Extremely Scary Tornado Video Out of Italy, Of All Places

As you know, I love weather porn, defined as videos or images of really bad storms or really horrible weather that ads some excitement to the day.

A tornado touching down near Milan, Italy
yesterday.  

There was an odd outbreak of tornadoes near Milan, Italy, of all places yesterday. It seems everybody in and near Milan shoots videos, so there's lots of images of the storms.

My favorite and scariest one is a view out of a corner office window as a tornado comes through.

The person who shot the video is lucky. The windows could have easily shattered and high speed broken glass and debris could have shredded the poor guy.

As you watch the video, notice at the end it cuts off abruptly. It's clear he thought he was in danger and fled. He was right. But he survived to give us a very unique view out of his office window on a day that turned out to be anything but dull.

If you ever get a tornado, don't try this at home, OK?

Watch and be amazed, as you will be even if you're not that into weather porn.

(EDITORS NOTE: Person who took the original video, which I posted here 8 a.m July 30, was taken down. I replaced it with an RT tornado report that includes most of the orginal video.)

Amazing Video: Mama Bear Rescues Two Cubs That Had Gone Over Waterfall

I so want to go to Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Bears at Katmai Park in Alaska. 

The park has "bear cams" deployed along some of its water ways so that you can watch bears doing what bears do along the river.

From those bear cams comes an amazing video came out recently that shows a number of bears on a beautiful looking stretch of river called Katmai Brook Falls.

The video shows a mother bear fishing near the falls when suddenly her two cubs get swept over the falls and into a torrent. Mama bear leaps over the falls to rescue her young. Another bear tries grab at one of the cubs but Mama quickly shuts the other bear down with a quick snap, and goes back to rescuing the cubs.

So that you don't worry, the video has a happy ending. But you HAVE to watch it. It's so cool. Here it is:

6-Year Old Break Dancer Will Blow You Away

An amazing video surfaced in the past couple of days from a breakdancing tournament in France held Saturday.

It's the baby division of the competition, in which pre-teens show their stuff. It opens with a boy who looks to be about nine years old, looking incredibly impressive.

Then a six year old girl identified only as Bgirl Terra appears, dressed in a grey sweat suit with red stripes, and shows us how it's done. Big Time. (I love how the nine year old, impressed, is eventually reduced to just pointing at the six year old phenom.

Watch and be amazed.

People To Be Totally Impressed With, But Don't Try This At Home

I absolutely love the "People are Awesome" series that's been rattling around YouTube for the past few years. Just search that term to see what I mean.

The video from that series in this post has been up for a bit and shared by quite a few people on blogs and other media, but I have to put it here, too.

The obvious appeal is watching people do stuff that we are completely incapable of doing and would never dare try.

But the cinematography, photography and music combine to make the whole thing a visual poem honoring the possibilities us humans are capable of.  Here it is, and there's another impressive video below this one:



  

Our second video has more of a winter theme, in keeping with the season. A few of the stunts are more fails than anything else, but most are almost as impressive as those in the first "People Are Awesome" video.  Time to start adding some of these to your bucket list:

Amazing Snowshoe Artist

It's snowing a little here in Vermont today, raising hopes that some of the powder lost ot the recently ended January thaw will come back, and maybe I can go snowshoeing.

An example of Simon Beck's handiwork

If snowshoeing becomes possible again, I won't be as into it as a guy named Simon Beck, who goes out for ten hours at a time and creates huge, geometric artwork while carefully walking around on his snowshoes.

Of course Beck's  art doesn't live long, except in photographs, because of blowing snow, melting and fresh accumulations. I wonder if the brevity of his art frustrates him.

In any event, it's amazing how precise Beck is as he creates his wonderful geometric patterns.

I guess it's another reason to like winter.

Amazing Panoramic Photo Contest Winners

The aerial, panaromic, amazing view of Central Park and parts of Manhattan in this post were taken by photographer Sergey Semenov in the annual Epson International Photographic Pano Awards.

Do click on the link to Dphoto to see the other winners if you want to look at some amazing photographs. (Note to self: I'm not worthy!!!)

When you're in the site gaping at the wonderful photographs, make sure you click on the image of VR/360 winner Eric Herrmann and follow the instructions to put your mouse on the image and move it around.  You'll get a real treat with that.

Do click on the photograph on this post to make the image bigger and easier to see. Believe me, it's worth it.

Hmmm. I've never really done anything with panometric photography. Maybe I ought to look into it.

I'm a Sucker for Dancing Videos Like This

I can never resist watching people who can dance like this. They're called Dragon House. It's four guys who excel at dubstep.

It's amazing how people can control their bodies so much that the whole thing looks fake. It isn't fake, but it almost would have been easier, you'd think, if they had just futzed around with video editing than learning to dance like this.

But their hard work is our gain. Watch the vid and enjoy this awesome performance that's really hitting big here on this Internet thingy.

How Do People Do Such Amazing Stunts?

This video I found on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish will either inspire you or make you feel inadequate, but I'm giving it to you anyway. Just because it's amazing what people can do.

Don't try this at home kiddies. Better yet, try this at home. You might get a sense of accomplishment:

A Bartender To Sober Up Any Drunk

Thank goodness for the worldwide franchise of "... Got Talent." Britain's Got Talent. Korea's Got Talent. America's Got Talent.  Hell, there's probably Neptune's Got Talent"

The reason I'm so happy about all this is the shows from all over give us an endless supply of videos of amazing performers  doing stuff most of us have never dreamed of.  A couple weeks ago I showed you the winner of Britain's Got Talent, a woman and her amazingly talented dog named Pudsey

Today, we go to Ukraine's Got Talent. And they really do, I've highlighted Ukraine's Got Talented performers before. Like sand artist Kseniya Simonova, with her incredibly moving sand art act. Worth watching again, by the way, by clicking on this sentence. 

We have a bartender, who to Western English speakers has the unfortunate name Alexander Shitfanov. But you really want this guy to be your bartender. You might never get your drink, but you won't care. Watch and be amazed: