Inventor Derek Muller, better known as Veritasium on YouTube, bet Alex Kusenko, a professor of physics from UCLA, $10,000 USD after successfully recreating a Blackbird-inspired land vehicle by Rick Cavallaro. This wind-powered vehicle claims to outrun the wind itself, so this was quite the task for Muller, but in the end, his vehicle was able to outrun the wind due to its propeller fan, driven by the moving wheels, was actually running in an opposite direction than the wind was pushing it. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Tesla Model 3 owners have probably never thought about smashing their infotainment screen for any reason, and that’s why TechRax is here to show just what happens if you do so while driving. A handheld sledgehammer was used for the job, and the screen is quite resilient, taking many hits before eventually cracking. Eventually, enough of the glass came off to cause the display to have random RGB flashes. Read more for the video and additional information.
Hidden in Yemen’s remote eastern desert landscape is a mysterious hole, called the “Well of Hell,” that locals believe to be “million and millions” years old. Officially known as the “Wall of Barhout,” it’s believed that anything too close will sucked in without escape. Throughout the centuries, ancient folklore has been spread about this hole, including of supernatural figures known as jinns or genies. Read more for a video and additional information.
H/t: Kotaku
Apparently, the 1982 Atari 2600 game “Air Raid” was released in extremely limited quantities, with possibly just a handful still having the original box. For those who’ve never heard of it, it’s basically a shoot ’em up published for the Atari 2600 by Men-A-Vision, and the cartridge is a blue T-handle design with a picture of flying saucers attacking a futuristic city. One of these are donated to a Goodwill Industries store in Texas. Read more for a video and additional information.
Aviation fans probably already know that the A350 is the first Airbus aircraft made almost entirely of carbon fiber reinforced polymer and a new fuselage designed around a nine-abreast economy cross-section. However, there are some areas that most have not seen, like the electronics room beneath the cockpit or the crew sleeping quarters. Read more for a video tour by Swedish pilot Björn Lundström .
California-based Kernal claims that its $50,000 Flow brain-computer interface can read your mind, or to be more specific, it contains multiple sensors as well as other electronic components that measure and analyze a brain’s electrical impulses as well as blood flow at the speed of thought. This data then provides insight into how it responds to the world, enabling researchers to study mental disorders, concussions, strokes, and more. Read more for a video and additional information.
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology have developed an ultra-thin organic material that can transform stress into electricity using the piezoelectric effect. This process basically turns mechanical movements into electricity, and the material is basically a rubber substance consisting of a composite material made of polar nanoparticles and an elastomer. Read more for another picture and additional information.
Sure, house and building fires can be extinguished with normal fire trucks, but what about those in oil wells? That is a job best left for Big Wind, which is now owned by the MOL Group. Initially based on a Russian concept used during the Soviet times for taking out gas as well as oil well fires, it consisted of a single MiG-15 jet engine tacked onto the bed of a truck. Since that time, Big Wind has been upgraded with two MiG-21 jet turbines bolted onto a tank chassis. Read more for a couple video and additional information.
UC Santa Barbara and Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed an innovative fast, controllable snake-like soft robot capable of burrowing through sand. This paves the way for new applications of fast, precise and minimally invasive movement underground, while also laying mechanical foundations for new types of robots. Simply put, the body mimics plants and the way they navigate by growing from their tips, while the rest of the body remains stationary. Read more for a video and additional information.
A mysterious sinkhole opened up over two weeks ago on a field in Santa Maria Zacatepec, about 12 miles outside the Puebla City center in Central Mexico, and this past weekend, it swallowed an entire house. Several of days of rain contributed to the sinkhole growing even larger these past week, reaching over 400-feet in length at some points, which is larger than a football field, and 150-feet deep. Read more for the drone footage and additional information.