Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

Maya Rota Klein’s video tutorial demonstrates how if Photoshop existed for aspiring chefs, then baking cookies could be done with a mere click of the mouse button. Someone needs to greenlight and fast track this program ASAP. I’m also looking forward to Photoshop Clean.

Fraternity from Richard Mosse on Vimeo.

In his strangely captivating and succinctly titled video “Fraternity,” artist and filmmaker Richard Mosse challenged members of the Yale branch of fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon-alumni, including five US presidents, Supreme Court judges, a vice president, senators, and captains of industry-to compete against one another in a screaming contest. Mosse predictably got their participation in exchange for a keg.

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.

With the Copenhagen Climate Conference just around the corner, world leaders, environmentalists, and economists are all debating the best mechanisms by which we can combat global climate change while continuing to grow the world economy. Most of these discussions (though not all) center on the concept of “cap and trade.” If you’re a little fuzzy on the idea, or know it but have a tough time explaining it to others, you’re not alone: it’s fairly complex on its face, and presents policy makers with a range of choices for harnessing market forces to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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As stated in an earlier post Sundance Channel this month is all about Bruce Weber, the iconic American filmmaker and photographer. And while we love Weber’s images of perfect naked men, it is his iconic video for “Being Boring” by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys that many a gay adores. I also happened upon this interesting website dedicated entirely to the song and video.

So it is rather timely that we let you know that the Pet Shop Boys are on tour. Their live show must not be missed and begins its US leg on September 2. The setlist includes “Being Boring”, so Bruce Weber and PSB fans are both in luck.

Every now and then earth gets a little lonely, but on Tuesday this week people in Asia were able to turn around (with protected eyes) and view a total solar eclipse. Huffington Post collected some video recordings of this total solar eclipse, the longest of the twenty-first century. I found this video from Iwo Jima, Japan to be particularly breathtaking.

For this weekly entry, be sure to plug in your headphones or turn up your speakers. Here are five buzzy music videos circulating around the Internet that I found catchy and visually stimulating. Enjoy.

1. Popular mashup artist DJ Earworm’s latest includes Kanye’s “Heartless” and The Police, “Message in a Bottle,” as well as some others.

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Hello there. I am Bradford Shellhammer and I am new around these parts.

While my fellow SUNfiltered bloggers have done a bang up job finding unique culture, film and music stories across the globe I intend to shake things up differently around here. I’m here to gay it up. Bedazzle the blog. Bring a disco beat. So in the spirit of Gay Pride Month (which lasts the whole month of June) I give you this YouTube video to set the mood. It is what we homos call a classic. It’s two naked French guys doing interpretive dance to Daft Punk. High art or pornography?

However you answer that question I know one thing: you’ll hit repeat.

In internet time, Annie Leonard’s The Story Of Stuff is relatively old. But the 2007 web video, produced by Free Range Studios and funded by the Tides Foundation and Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption (among others) has attained cult status in American classrooms. According to the New York Times, teachers around the country use the video to supplement environmental education textbooks that often lack information on recent scientific discoveries.

Creative teaching, right? Not in Missoula County, Montana, where the school board responded to a parent’s complaint about the video’s “anti-capitalist” message with a decision that use of The Story of Stuff “violated its standards on bias.”

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If singing isn’t your thing, and you’d rather not have Simon Cowell dress you down in front of millions of people, the Organic Institute and Organic Trade Association are holding a greener, friendlier version of American Idol. These organizations have taken their search for a consumer ambassador on organic farming and products to YouTube, and invite you to submit a thirty-second video “explaining the moment you realized organic products are worth it.”

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Mashable, the site devoted to coverage of the social-media industry, posted a cool report about SplashCast, a widget that adds revolutionary commenting capabilities to offerings from Hulu and other online video providers. It’s easy to add a comment to the discussion thread on, say, a YouTube page, but SplashCast, or “Social TV,” as they call it, is different.

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How do you get a teenager thinking beyond angst, driving, and the Friday night dance? Officials in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, answered that question with “Give them a video camera and production tools.” The county’s “Rev Up Recycling” contest challenged student teams from area high schools to create public service videos on recycling.

The contest organizers announced winners last week; the video above, produced by students at Glen Burnie High School, took home the top honors. You can find other entries, including a rap video, a recycling romance, and a game show parody, at the county’s recycling program site (”Contests”> “TV Commercial Contests”).

In 2005, climate change activist and educator Bill McKibben asked “Where are the books? The poems? The plays? The goddamn operas?” on global warming. His point: the arts can engage us creatively and emotionally in the environmental challenges we face. Kudos to Anne Arundel county officials for attempting to stimulate students’ creativity… maybe these kids will start asking for hybrids, or even bicycles, for their 16th birthdays…

Via HometownAnnapolis.com and Earth 911