Boom

Geek Out

This Manhole Cover Must Have Also Been A Hellmouth

9:00AM January 4, 2011 | Brian Barrett

newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http://www.youtube.com/v/AaE8kGhUqxo&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1","customParams":[] ,"width":500,"height":332.5,"ratio":0.615,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube","wrap":true,"agegate":false} ); Manhole covers explode all the time. But I can’t remember any that sent up a 15-foot tower of cackling flames and gas in the middle of the West Village. Somewhere in the sewer is a dragon with a Jiffy Pop. More »


Entertainment

Mythbusters Explosion Breaks Windows, Tosses Women Off Couches

7:20AM March 27, 2009 | Sean Fallon

The Mythbusters’ passion for explosions got a little out of hand earlier this week when they detonated 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate a mile outside of Esparto, California. Perhaps two miles would have been better.

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Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab Lets You Play Dr. Manhattan for Radioactive Funsies

11:30AM March 25, 2009 | Erica Ho

They don’t make toys like this anymore: why have an E-Z Bake Oven when I can have a U-238 Atomic Energy Lab and create my own Manhattan project in the backyard? (BAM! Emeril said it.)


Geek Out

This Is What Happens When a Train Hits Nuclear Waste Containers at 160KPH

1:20AM March 5, 2009 | Jesus Diaz

On one side, big train running at 160kph. No driver. On the other, heavy duty containers with nuclear waste. What would happen? Boom. That’s what happens. But, surprisingly, not as bad as you can imagine.

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Gadgets

Explosive Mallet Party is Confusing and Dangerous

10:00AM December 11, 2008 | Adam Frucci

When you attach a bunch of explosives to a huge mallet and slam it on the ground, what do you expect to happen? If you said lots of ridiculous explosions, you would be correct.

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Software

iPhone 3G Jailbroken

3:07AM July 16, 2008 | Jesus Diaz

After unlocking and jailbreaking iPhone OS 2.0, the iPhone Dev Team has now liberated the new iPhone 3G, only five days after launch. This means a Pwnage tool that will allow you to install the unofficial applications that Apple doesn’t want you to have in your iPhone–like video recording apps or game emulators–alongside with the App Store ones. The upcoming Pwnage will support the classic iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPhone 3G. The video shows it works great:

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Cars

New B-2 Bomber Crash Photos Show Carnage Up Close

12:00AM July 16, 2008 | Jesus Diaz

Joe Pappalardo got some crisp, high quality military close-ups of the Spirit of Kansas, the US$1.2 billion stealth B-2 bomber that crashed in Guam last February. We published other images of the crash scene before (because we like to see a billion dollars burning), but all the mess was cleaned up then. Here you can see the carnage right after it happened, including Air Force personnel trying to deactivate explosives in the ejected pilot seats:

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Cars

Air Force Dismantles Crashed C-130 in Military-Style: With Lots of Explosives

7:32PM July 14, 2008 | Kit Eaton

What do you do with a C-130 cargo aircraft that has made a crash-landing in an insecure area of Iraq? If you’re the 447th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron you wire it with explosives and you blow it up. Again and again and again… until it’s in small enough bits to load onto a flatbed and ship back to an air base. Apparently it’s pretty rare for an aircraft to make emergency landings in the field, which is good news. Though if it resulted in more videos like this, we wouldn’t complain. [PointNiner via Danger Room]

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Science

LHC Ignition Delayed Until August, Earth Spared Another Month

9:15PM July 8, 2008 | Gizmodo US Edition

The scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have decided to delay the ignition of the massive particle accelerator. The LHC countdown now shows 30 more days, so you can enjoy July to its full potential. In case you don’t know what a Large Hadron Collider is, it’s the thingamajig that is supposed to find the Force that binds all things or–according to some morons–was supposed to kill us all yesterday. Wait, hold on a moment here. Maybe they activated it. Maybe the first collision created a white hole that sucked the whole Universe in, and we got back in time.

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Eco-Friendly Bombs Ensure No Smog Results from The Destruction of Your Ancestral Village

6:50AM May 29, 2008 | Adam Frucci

I have a problem I’m sure you’re all familiar with: eco guilt. Whenever I’m about to drop a gigantic bomb on say, a small village, I get to thinking about the impact of the bomb on the environment. I mean, I’m not a monster. Popular explosives like TNT and HMX create nitrogen oxides when they explode, and those create smog and acid rain. Good heavens!

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