This specially-created one-off steampunk gas mask was made from leather, brass, and a Soviet-era gas mask. What’s special about this isn’t that it looks incredibly creepy and incredibly cool, it’s that it looks kinda similar to that Nazi villain from the first Hellboy movie. Maybe it’s just us and our excitement for Hellboy II that we’re even thinking of buying this on eBay for US$650 to use in our “LARPing”. Yeah, that’s the ticket. [ebay via Livejournal via Steampunk Workshop via Wired]
newVideoPlayer("tankusb_gizmodo.flv", 494, 390,""); Incrudo makes water-proof, shock-proof, scratch-proof, and apparently T-72B tank-proof USB flash drives out of pure titanium. And to prove it, the crazy Ivans pitted the key—which also has a special metal-ceramics composite on the front and back panels, as well as a real ruby that illuminates from the inside—against the legendary tank. Sure, the test is on the mud, but that’s 49.1 tonnes of tank. A Soviet tank. If there’s something cooler than that, I don’t know what is. [Incrudo]
It’s the stuff of canine legends. Fifty years ago Laika the dog went from stray zero to hero when the Soviet Union strapped her to Sputnik 2 and launched it into the cold reaches of outer space. The trailblazing pooch, who had a statue to her unveiled in Russia last week, proved that living things could survive in space. Her trip also paved the way for more ambitious human-related endeavours, like John’s Glenn’s historic orbit, the Apollo 11 moon landing and Tom Hanks’ career. Laika eventually died an excruciating death from overheating when life support failed a few hours after launch, for which Russia recognised her with a monument. All that sacrifice, and just a statue?
The Buran space shuttle was once the apple of the Soviet space fleet’s eye. Unfortunately, it has now been reduced to floating peacefully down the river Rhine, where it will eventually come to rest at the Technik Museum Speyer in Mannheim, Germany. The great shuttle took to the skies only once during an unmanned test flight, but two decades later, the modern relic has gone the way of a crushed Buzz Lightyear—it’s realised it can’t fly, but at least it can put on one hell of an exhibition. Good on you, Buran. The images of the final float look stunning, and the video of the event, which is set against some seriously melancholic music, makes the whole event look like a sad and dignified funeral procession. Check out the pictures in the gallery below, then jump in to see the clip. Warning: have your hankies ready.
To hell with all this newfangled modern-looking stuff like that iMac—let’s go back to the heyday of the Soviet Union, circa 1961 when the Reds were making these Rekord TV sets. Enterprising case modders took out the guts of one of those old idiot boxes and inserted a completely current Athlon-packing Windows PC inside. We’re digging that gorgeous wood finish on the outside, and its lusciously retro implications. More »
Baikonur is the former Soviet spaceport that put Yuri Gagarin into space and—despite regime change and an uncomfortable proximity to Borat—is still active. This year it provided the launch pad for American billionaire Charles Simonyi and the first Malaysian cosmonaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. According to the AP, once the US space shuttle program ends in 2010, we’re going to run all of our missions through the former enemy territory, a town that hasn’t changed a whole lot since 1961. Here’s a gallery of the quirky spacetown, plus some more wacky fun facts:galleryPost('BaikonurTour', 8, 'Baikonur Tour'); More »
If you didn’t get enough with the Typhoon closing on the Hercules, check this Sukhoi SU-27UB whizzing by just 4 feet above the runway. However, this isn’t the most impressive thing flying at the Russian 2007 Air Show. Check out some of the strangest and coolest airplanes you will ever see, after the jump. More »
While Russian President, former KGB agent and failed comedian Vladimir Putin polishes his ICBMs, a group of friends at Moscow State Technical University has decided to do the same with a whole bunch of videogame machines from the Soviet Era. And like the USSR’s old missiles, these primitive Japanese arcade crude knockoffs look to be just as fun. I know this is all about nostalgia but someone should tell them that some things are better left in the graveyard. At least the ICBMs. – Jesus Diaz
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Soviet-Era Arcade Games Crawl Out of Their Cold War Graves [Wired] More »
