You’ve probably seen some bizarre aircraft before, but the Bartini Beriev VVA-14 could be the strangest yet. This vertical take-off amphibious aircraft was a wing-in-ground-effect aircraft developed in the Soviet Union during the early 1970s and designed to take off from the water before flying at high speeds over long distances. This meant that it could not only complete flights at high altitude, but also flying efficiently just above the water. Read more for a video and additional information.
At first glance, this traffic camera footage appears to show just another speeding driver running a red light in Beachwood and slamming into another car last month, but the out-of-control vehicle didn’t stop there. Officers quickly responded after the car had already knocked down several power lines, a utility pole, and even crashed into a house. The driver states she tried to literally “let God take the wheel”. Read more for the video and additional information.
Photo credit: CBP via The Verge
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that their officers seized five shipments of counterfeit Apple AirPods, which carry a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of over $1.3 million, earlier this week. They inspected five shipments of True Wireless Earbuds and discovered 5,000 fake Apple AirPods and 1,372 fake Apple AirPods Pro. All shipment information, including photographs, were then referred to CBP import specialists at the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE) to verify authenticity of the merchandise. Read more for a video review of an AirPods Pro knockoff and additional information.
The Malaysia department discovered that a Bitcoin mining farm was stealing electricity for their ASIC machines, so they not only shut down the operation, but also steamrolled 1,069 of their machines. This was a joint operation carried out by the police department and Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) in Miri that took place between February-April, 2021. An investigation was carried out after residents complained of frequent power outages. Read more to see these machines get steamrolled.
Photo credit: Pizza Pacaya De David via Oddity Central
Chef Mario David García Mansilla decided to showcase his pizza making skills in one of the most unusual ways ever. Since he grew up close to Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s most active volcanoes, it’s now used as a giant pizza oven for his Pizza Pacaya business. These days, you can find him cooking up a hot pie for hikers visiting the active volcano, which does command a premium due to the difficulties and dangers of such a stunt. Read more for a video and additional information.
Deep Dive Dubai has opened and it’s officially the world’s deepest swimming pool for diving. Guests can dive 197-feet to a submerged city that looks to be straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. The pool itself can hold the equivalent of six Olympic-sized swimming pools, and is 49.2-feet (15 meters) deeper than any other. For extra safety, there’s a total of 56 underwater cameras installed throughout to ensure that safety crews will be able to reach anyone in need. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea has unveiled a bizarre toilet that is designed to turn human waste into digital currency that can be used by students and faculty members. Called the BeeVi Toilet, designed by urban and environmental engineering professor Cho Jae-weon, essentially utilizes a vacuum pump to send excrement into an underground tank, reducing water use. Read more for a video and additional information.
Ukrainian authorities seized 3,800 Sony PlayStation 4 consoles being used for a cryptocurrency mining operation, and despite not being the most efficient machine for the task, the sheer number of them got the job done. Other hardware seized include over 50 computer processors and 500 graphics processing units (GPUs). The group of miners were charged with “theft of water, electricity or thermal energy through its unauthorized use.” Read more for another picture and additional information.
Northeastern Russia has been experiencing record-breaking heat and drought, resulting in hundreds of intense wildfires throughout the taiga forests of Siberia. NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP captured amazing natural-color images of large clouds of smoke enveloping the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), while satellite data indicates several small fires burned intermittently in the area for weeks. Read more for a video and additional pictures.
Photo credit: Alexander Simons
Child prodigy Laurent Simons from Oostende earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Antwerp after completing a 3-year course in just 12-months, all the while taking part in master’s program courses part time. However, he has a bigger goal than just becoming a physicist, as he aims to achieve immortality, or in other words, finding ways to replace as many body parts as possible with mechanical parts. Read more for a news segment from when he was just 9-years-old in university.