In real life, car crashes are expensive and/or deadly. In movieland, car crashes are awesome and/or outstanding. We've compiled a list of the twenty four best car crashes in movie history, these range from explosive to crazy to silly to realistic to absurd and beyond.

Stephen Colbert interviewed President of the Ploughshares Fund Joseph Cirincione about the elimination of nuclear weapons. Colbert feared that if nuclear weapons were eliminated, we wouldn't see any more awesome explosions. He then demonstrated said awesome explosion.

Okay, now we're ready for dinner. Taco Bell, anyone?

Knowledge is power. Until that knowledge blows up right in your face.

On November 12th, 1970 the Oregon Highway Division blew up a rotting beached sperm whale and things did not go exactly as planned.

No indication of the moon wobbling dangerously off its axis, starting an inexorable descent towards earth. No huge chunks of the moon breaking off, starting an inexorable descent towards earth. No angry aliens rising out of the moon's core in their battle crafts, starting an inexorable descent towards earth. No reason to call out the Army's top secret interstellar fighting force. In contrast to this direct quote from NASA's director of nerd propaganda, yesterday:

Disappointingly for sex-on-Youtube purists, the fake banned Sprite blow job ad that shook the world to its very (sexy) core yesterday is not the first time that exploding carbonation has been used as a male orgasm metaphor.

True story: tomorrow's my second day not working in 62 days! Take a wild guess what I'll be doing tonight! Meanwhile, if any news breaks, uh, just read the comments in this thread. We'll be back on Sunday.

News Corp. employees picked up their holiday gift bags today—what did they get? "A Simpsons page-a-day calendar, some Jeff Foxworthy book, and The Simpsons Movie DVD," one of the lucky recipients tells us. Anything else? "We also got an Emergency Procedure Guide." Oh! Well that will definitely come in handy should there be a second freak chemical accident at the News Corp. headquarters this week! "In the event of 1211 exploding, we have to take a bus to Seacaucus, NJ," says a staffer. Um, through the tunnel? No thanks!

We're hearing there might have been an explosion across the street from 1345 Sixth Avenue. Which is what, the Warwick Hotel or maybe the Hilton? Midtown we mostly avoid as much as possible.

ABC7, our favorite source for ridiculously overblown breaking stories, actually did wait until The View ended today before reporting that MANHOLE FIRES had KNOCKED OUT POWER in Greenwich Village, INCLUDING NYU. Which means like one law school dorm and a bodega on 3rd Street. PANIC! Is it terrorism? Sabotage from underpaid Indian foundry workers? Too soon to know but we say YES!

Today Channel 7 interrupted "The View" with promises of an awesome plane crash televised live but all we got were a couple sparks followed by the Cremaster-inspired covering of the plane in a thick layer of suggestive foam. Then they back to the tail end of a Steve Martin anecdote and a commercial. If you're gonna interrupt the ladies of "The View," we demand explosions!

Plane makes successful 'belly landing' in New Jersey [ABC7]

We know you can't get enough of today's burning taxi photos, so here are some incredible shots from the folks at WNBC, who rushed down to Rockefeller Center from, you know, upstairs, and eventually decided to put them online. [WNBC]

Two views of Rockefeller Center after today's mad cab blowup.