By far my favorite commercial this year was this cute spot from Volkswagen featuring a pint-sized Darth Vader who gains the power to turn on a car using The Force.

Which Superbowl commercial was your favorite this year?

Do yourself a favor, skip the 22 minute sitcom you were going to watch on Hulu during your lunch break or later tonight and watch this instead. The illustrations and explanations make it easy to understand, plus, you’ll be able to throw around economic terms like “planned obsolescence” or “externalized costs” at your next party.

(If you found this video interesting be sure to check out the other videos from The Story of Stuff Project)

Here are a few of the statistics they shared in the video that I found most disturbing:

• Over the past three decades, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed.
• In the United States, we have less than 4% of our original forests left.
• Forty percent of waterways in the US have become undrinkable
• In the U.S., industry admits to releasing over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year.
• The average U.S. person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.
• Each person in the United States makes 4 1/2 pounds of garbage a day. That is twice what we each made thirty years ago.
• For every one garbage can of waste you put out on the curb, 70 garbage cans of waste were made upstream to make the junk in that one garbage can you put out on the curb.

Here’s the question I’ve been pondering since watching this video, How do we raise children in this consumeristic society without them jumping on the consumer hamster wheel themselves?

So if you’ve ever wondered how to plant a church, here’s everything you need to know in just 3 minutes.

Here is some archive footage showing Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, before being replaced by the director after 5 weeks of filming.

We all know now that Michael J. Fox was born to play the role of Marty McFly in those movies. But at the time, the Director didn’t know that. He was under the gun of a tight movie deadline and had already invested countless hours and dollars over five weeks filming with Eric Stoltz.

After reviewing the footage he had a gut feeling that Stoltz wasn’t right for the role. Most people would have just stuffed those concerns down and kept shooting in order to complete filming before deadline. But writer/director Robert Zemeckis made the tough call to cut Eric Stolz and ask the studio for more time. That decision led to casting Michael J. Fox for the role and the rest is history.

Here’s the takeaway…

Never underestimate the importance of having the right people in right places in your organization (or, as Jim Collins says, are the right people on the right seats in your bus?). And, perhaps even more importantly, don’t hesitate to make the call if someone needs to be replaced.

And then, it was on.

Accompanied by Fallon’s house band The Roots, Fallon and Timberlake took to the stage and ran through a virtual history of hip-hop, starting with the Sugar Hill Gang classic “Rapper’s Delight” before touching on The Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg and Eminem, among other rap luminaries.

Check out Jimmy and Justin getting their rap on in the video below.

Gotta love the combined talent of Jimmy & Justin. It’s no wonder this video has gone viral overnight.

There were a lot of different eras and styles of rap represented in that video…Which era of rap did you grow up in? Which type of rap/hip-hop (if any) do you throw on the boombox now?

100 Ways To Love A Cat

So…how long did you make it before you shut it off?

Being a sucker for nature documentaries and the film-making that goes into it, I was fascinated by this behind-the-scenes video where Filmmaker Ann Prum describes the breakthrough science and latest technologies that allowed her and the crew to capture these amazing shots (check out that cool Borescope lens they use at the 1:45 mark).

Am I the only one who likes watching this kind of stuff? That is just too cool.

Are you a documentary or nature video fan? What’s your favorite TV Special or Documentary you’ve seen?

Seriously though, how bad would you freak out if you thought the pilot of the little plane you were in had passed out? Poor guy.

1. What you see is what you hear. (No lip-syncing for instruments or voice)
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it. (No hidden sounds)

Those two simple rules have allowed Pomplamoose to create some pretty awesome songs and covers that have garnered them millions of views and over 150,000 subscribers on YouTube. The talented duo continue to crank out new music all the time and even have begun selling their songs on iTunes. Here are a few of my favorite Pomplamoose videos I’ve found.

Another Day

Telephone

Beat It

Nature Boy

Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing

There’s plenty more music on their YouTube Channel so check them out.

What do you think? Are you a fan of Pomlamoose’s style or are you weirded out by her unblinking stare? Which Pomplamoose cover is your favorite?

At the heart of Jesus’ story is the provocative, compelling, subversive, beautiful insistence that nothing can ever be the same again…not after resurrection.

(you can download this video, MP3 audio and discussion guides about resurrection at RobBell.com/resurrection/)