There is no formula for Web video success, except to say, it must be something worth watching. Or at least hold the promise of something worth watching.

The most successful video of the year was a somewhat shaky cell phone video that had a relatively poor picture and somewhat garbled sound, but people tuned in because they got to see aging rocker Steven Tyler topple off the Buffalo Chip Campground stage during an Aerosmith show during the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

The most successful video from last year was a grainy duotone clip that captured a few moments of a mountain lion stalking around in the dark outside near Spearfish. The final moments of the video in which the big cat picks up the deer carcass in its jaws with the ease a child would pick up a feather certainly turned a few heads, but high theater it is not.

What we learned early on as content producers for the Journal is that the physical and technical requirements for successful video is much different than our media brethren in the television industry. Some of the best produced videos ever posted on our site were seen by only a few hundred readers. Meanwhile, a user-submitted video of a reader's back deck during a snow storm pulled in thousands of views.

It's largely because viewers are in complete control when it comes to Web video. It's even better than TiVo. No need to fast forward through commercials, just skip the boring parts completely. And if you begin to watch something that isn't living up to your expectations or you have something more important to do, like Twittering about the absolute state of boredom you've achieved, you can simply click away from the video midstream.

Still, the opportunity to take chances are so much greater and the variety virtually infinite, the fact that there are so few constraints on the medium, that it all ends up significantly more rewarding than adhering to the routine of standard news video.

Here's a quick look at some of the most interesting news video of the past week offered up through AP.

Singing stutterers of the world unite

Apparently, Mel Tillis isn't the only one who is able to curb his stutter through use of song. But there are other ways that those with the speech impediment are able to at least momentarily escape the stigma of stuttering.

This video shot at a lakeside camp in the New York's Catskill Mountains shows how counselors use devices such as song workshops and rap routines to build youngsters' confidence. It's a fascinating glimpse at a wide swath of people from varied backgrounds whose shared impediment creates a temporary culture of community and acceptance.

First Person: A Grim Discovery in Texas

What is it about Texas and infant tragedy?

It hardly seems that a week goes by without some sort of disturbing story comes out of the Lone Star state about some heinous crime involving the harming of a baby boy or girl.

This time, a year and a half after his father discovered the remains of an baby boy stuffed in a suitcase behind their Texas rental property, Justin Southern found the bodies of two more children under the same rented mobile home.

While many of the Texas baby tragedies seem beyond comprehension, Southern's step by step account of how he found the remains of two babies under a porch at a rental property makes it abnormally real - and all the more eerie.

John Doe, meet Edward Lightheart

It seems straight out the movies. A man who walked out of a Seattle park a few weeks ago with $600 stuffed in his sock and no memory about who he was or how he got there is beyond unusual.

After his photo was published in a local paper, a reader was able to identify him as Edward Lightheart, a former teacher who has traveled internationally and a fluent speaker of French, English and German and, apparently, taught in China for some time.

But Lightheart says that name means nothing to him and he would rather be called John Doe.

Little snippets of memories have been coming back to him, and while he recognizes a photo from his resume, he doesn't recognize an older photo of himself from a high school yearbook.

I wonder if the name Jason Bourne rings a bell?

Cop car goes crunch

Dash cams are one of the greatest gifts to raw video on the Internet. Out of control suspects, angry law enforcement officers and wicked traffic accidents are the uncommonly common stars of these short, often grainy videos of the life and times of law enforcement officers nationwide.

The above video falls into the latter of the type of videos, capturing a wicked head-on crash between a police vehicle and another car that simply turned into the oncoming lane of traffic.

Having been in a high speed head-on myself some years ago, it certainly stirs more than a few memories. The only thing lacking is the sound, which I can imagine, was a little louder than loud.

Half woman, half a-ma-zing!

I was only vaguely aware of the ongoing controversy involving a young South African runner who blew away the field at a recent world class track meet. The rub?

It appears that some, particularly in the foreign press, suspect that young Caster Semenya may not be a woman but competes in women's events.

Officials, fans and family members of Semenya's all say that is ludicrous.

But the controversy lingers for a few reasons. First of all, initial interviews with family members had them defending her gender by saying things like, "Well, we've always dressed her as a girl." That's a little less the convincing.

Then, there's the fact that the level of testosterone in her body is three times that of a normal woman. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean she's not a woman.

Still, perhaps the reason questions still arise is her physical appearance and ther presence certainly seem more in line with an 18-year-old boy than an 18-year-old girl.

That's why one has to watch the video.