Posts by Andrew Tarantola
The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Dumbass (NSFW)
Ai Weiwei is one of China's preeminent contemporary artists, having won numerous worldwide accolades for his architectural feats (such as that awesome Beijing National Stadium from the 2008 Olympics). Problem is, Ai isn't what you'd call a "company man," riling Chinese authorities for years with his brand of political activism that inbcluded producing documentaries on political dissidents and subjects considered sensitive by the party. This ultimately resulted in his 81-day detention in 2011 on flimsy tax evasion charges.
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This Russian Mobile SAM Site Could Be a Serious Ace Up Syria’s Sleeve
Coalition airstrikes helped turn the tides of the Libyan revolution in favor of the rebels; why not do the same in Syria? Because the Syrian government may or may not have just taken possession of one of the most frightening anti-aircraft batteries ever devised, that's why.
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The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Demons End
What? Everybody's cool with monkey knife fighting but put one up against an unholy giraffe with a katana and suddenly people are yelling, "but it's got an unfair height advantage," "where'd that monkey get an Under Armor hat?" and "why is that giraffe breathing fire?" None of that matters, only who's neck is left intact at the end.
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How Sunscreen Works (And Why You’re Wrong About It)
Your skin shouldn't look like a package of pork cracklins after spending the day outdoors; that's why we invented sunscreen. However, there's a right way and a wrong way to slather on your protection—screw it up and you could get burned.
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This Printer Spits Out 10 Meters of Solar Panel Every Minute
Australia is on the cusp of a solar energy revolution. First, a recent study suggests that the country could power its entire national domestic infrastructure using only solar (while slashing the price of home electricity by 70 percent). Now, the University of Melbourne has introduced a new organic PV cell printer that rolls out a functional binder page-sized sheet of solar panel every two seconds, making the production of all those cells cheaper and a whole lot faster.
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The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Wandering
This awesome 8-bit retro music video from Joe Presser is a classic tale of love: boy meets girl, boy runs away from girl, girl undergoes grueling training regimen to hunt down boy and deliver smooches. It's like Forrest Gump but in reverse.
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This Insane Highway Demolition Is the Longest Ever in China
Given the fevered pace of China's infrastructure development, 16 years is ancient. That's why the two-lane concrete Zhuan-yang viaduct running through the town of Wuhan, Hubei in central China had to go—a bigger and better six-lane freeway was in the works. But to demolish the original roadway without harming the surrounding homes, engineers smothered the blast under a blanket.
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Shanzhai Biennial: Dark Optimism
This song, like the dress and the woman wearing it, is the sincerest form of flattery. In that they're all shameless knockoffs.
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Tokyo Has Never Sounded This Incredible
What do you get when you combine a 1:1000-scale model of Tokyo, 3D video projection mapping and catchy techno riffs? Three minutes of awesome, that's what.
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First Footage of an F-35B Taking Off Straight Into the Air
Finding a suitable runway to launch your multibillion dollar fighter jet from isn't always as easy as it sounds. That's why the F-35B Lightning II is designed to with the ability to both take off and land without ever needing to taxi. Here's the first look at its vertical launch.
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The 5 Types of Ax Everyone Should Know
The forest isn't just going to lay down and stack itself into timber piles because you asked nicely. You'll need to fell, chop, and hew it into submission. Here are the tools to do it.
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Mi-24 HIND: The Flying Russian Crocodile Can Fight and Flee
Most helicopters are designed to either carry a lot of cargo at the expense of maneuverability—like the Chinook—or be quick and nimble while sacrificing armament and transport capabilities, like the Huey. Russia's Mi-24 HIND multi-mission gunship isn't "most helicopters."
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Share Your Rare Music Collection with the Internet
Sometimes, you love a song and it’s not on the web. That’s just not right, because the three or so generations alive today are largely responsible for making sure that all the important and interesting stuff (and not just cat videos) make it onto the Internet.
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The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Two Colors, Three Dimensions
Mixing surreal anaglyphic animation and a haunting soundtrack, this stunning short by Stephen Chan is cool enough to watch even without the glasses. Of course if you want the full effect but don't have access to pair, just blink your eyes alternately real fast. That might work.
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Iowa Farms Can’t Seem to Keep Their Pig Shit from Exploding
Pig farming is tough, foul-smelling, and dirty work. Turns out, that's the good part of it. See, since 2009 the American hog farming industry has been struck with an explosive pork poop problem—in that the decomposing porcine waste will go boom under the right conditions.
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NASA Designs the Scientifically Perfect Space Meal
After being strapped onto the front of a 15-story controlled explosion and launched clear out of the atmosphere to live in an experimental laboratory orbiting around the Earth at thousands of miles an hour, the least NASA can do is give you a good meal.
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Energizer 180W Cup Inverter: Juice Your Gadgets on the Go
It's been a brutal week at work, you've spent what? Maybe 15 seconds of it without your phone on your ear and your computer on your lap? At this point, your electronics are just as drained as your are. Give them a jump start on your drive home with this 180W car charger.
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How to Make Your Own Anti-Venom without Poisoning a Horse
The Iocane Powder trick really does work! As this slick educational short from the SciShow explains, you've got two choices when it comes to treating deadly, deadly snake bites: you can either hopefully make it to a hospital in time to counter the toxins with dozens of expensive vials of delicate anti-venom, or you can slowly inoculate yourself against their effects—effectively turning yourself into a poison-immune mobile anti-venom factory. Where do I sign up? [SciShow]
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Tomorrow’s Corporate Jets Will Be Flying Johnny Cabs
Being a commercial airline pilot isn't as glamorous as Leonardo di Caprio would have you believe; in practice, it's more akin to long haul trucking than aerial acrobatics. So rather than force a human pilot to endure the monotony of maintaining course, a European research consortium wants to replace them entirely—with software.
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The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Mysterious Potions
Oh sure, it started off innocently enough with a little taste of silver iodide, what's the worst that could happen, right? Wrong. Now one of them is hooked on Seed and is running amok in the lab. I mean, just look at the top of its head—where does it keep going?!
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This Subterranean Telescope May Have Just Seen Humanity’s First Cosmic Neutrino
Catching a glimpse of even regular neutrinos—low-energy particles generated in the atmosphere—is difficult enough, but spotting a "cosmic neutrino" left over from the Big Bang has been downright impossible. That is until this cubic kilometer buried under Antartica's frozen wastes started looking.
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