The Craziest Dash Cam Videos Of 2014

The Craziest Dash Cam Videos Of 2014

In 2012, dash cams introduced themselves to the world. In 2013, dash cams started breaking worldwide news. In 2014? Things got weird.

Physics Is A Lie

How this guy perfectly somersaulted onto the roof of the car he just crashed into, I do not know.

Physics Is Not A Lie

Try lanesplitting at high speed and there’s really only one thing that can happen.

It’s Only Real If It Happens On A Dash Cam

For a few innocent weeks, people doubted that Russia was actually brazenly invading Ukraine. Then we saw a guy in a Lada nearly get incinerated by a missile launched into his country.

Everyone Started Hanging Onto Windshields

There were a lot of these videos this year. They were all equally terrifying.

Speaking Of Crazed Drug Binges…

This dude leapt off a bridge, then dusted himself off like it was nothing. Nobody would believe you if you told them the story, but there it is on your dash cam.

Getting Driving Lessons The Hard Way

Here’s why you never, ever pass a semi truck before you pass your exit. Amazingly, everyone in this highway pinball game survived.

Staring Death In The Face

Dr. Guan Zhu in Texas got to stare down death itself in the form of a wayward concrete truck. This may be the most harrowing video we saw this year.

Staring Death In The Face, Part 2

Perhaps the most heartening video we saw all year, though, was this American truck driver rescue a family from their flaming wreck just before it exploded.

Honorary Mention: Most Fake Dash Cam Of 2014

If anything, 2014 is the year that people figured out they can make money off of dash cams and they started spawning fakes. I have a particularly soft spot for this one where a dog steals a Subaru.

But I think the most incredible is this one of Spongebob and friends beating the crap out of some dude.

How do I know it’s fake?

The Russian driver acts surprised. Watch enough dash cam videos and you’ll know that nothing, absolutely nothing. Not tanks, not meteors, not rocket explosions fazes them.

via Gizmodo
The Craziest Dash Cam Videos Of 2014

Ruger’s New Charger Pistols

Ruger ChargerRuger is now shipping two new Charger pistols. The first is a reworked base model, while the second is a take-down version of the gun. The guns have a number of new features that will appeal to many shooters. Among the new features are: 10″ threaded barrels (1/2″-28) for the addition of a suppressor includes […]

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The post Ruger’s New Charger Pistols appeared first on The Firearm Blog.


via The Firearm Blog
Ruger’s New Charger Pistols

The stunning process of making a Beretta shotgun

The stunning process of making a Beretta shotgun

Here’s a short film by Ancarani Studio that shows the process of making a Beretta shotgun. It’s an artistic take on the process so shots are dolled up and it’s not like every Beretta gun comes with its own birth movie but I love seeing how futuristic robots and old fashioned human craftsmanship work together.

Human Technology is an artistic short movie celebrating the uniqueness and the distinction of every Beretta premium gun. This movie by Ancarani Studio, under the creative direction of Paola Manfrin, reveals through the minutia of the manufacturing process, the genesis of a luxury Beretta shotgun. A poetic journey through sterile robotic rooms is blended with five centuries of Beretta’s history, culminating in the final assembly by the gunsmith, ever the wise guardian of the art of manufacturing.


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via Gizmodo
The stunning process of making a Beretta shotgun

VetiGel: A Plant-Based Polymer That Stops Bleeding in Seconds

0vetigel001.jpg

I once got stabbed in the head with a wooden knife. It was an accident that occurred during a martial arts training exercise. I’d heard that head wounds bleed badly, but as I waited for the taxi to take me to the hospital (an ambulance is not what you take in NYC if speed is a priority) I was shocked at the amount of blood that came out of my head.

While head wounds are bad, severing a femoral or carotid artery is way worse in terms of blood loss. If you slice one of these open and can’t stop the bleeding, that’s basically the last selfie you’ll ever take. But now a tiny biotech company in Brooklyn can change that equation, having developed a product that stops bleeding, whether pinprick or grievous wound, almost instantly.

Called VetiGel, the material is a plant-based polymer. It requires no training to use and can be loaded into an ordinary plastic syringe; rather than needing to learn how to prepare a field dressing, someone providing aid can simply aim and squirt it like toothpaste onto a brush. Watch how it works in this video:

The leftover material, by the way, can be safely resorbed into the body or removed.

As for why it’s called VetiGel, the material is first being marketed towards veterinarians, with approval for human use planned for further down the line.

0vetigel002.jpg

Should the product pass human trials and prove affordable enough to manufacture, it could be a real game changer: Simple syringes loaded up with the stuff and placed into every ambulance, soldier’s pack and first aid kit around the world could mean the difference between life and death for countless people, particularly those for whom a hospital is more than a cab ride away.

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via Core77
VetiGel: A Plant-Based Polymer That Stops Bleeding in Seconds

Where New York City’s Poop Goes

Where New York City's Poop Goes

In Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant borders Newtown Creek and Long Island City to its North. The facility opened in 1967 and, since then, has undergone several renovations and expansions—including its massive silver digester eggs—to accommodate NYC’s constant growth and evolution.

Oh and in case I wasn’t completely clear: It’s entirely full of shit.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Newtown Creek is the largest wastewater treatment plant in New York City, handling some 250 million gallons per day. Most of that wastewater comes from Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and downtown Manhattan through a unique combined sewer system.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Keeping out the trash

A combined sewer system means that street water and waste water from apartments wind up in the same sewer main. If that doesn’t sound like a great idea, that’s because it’s not, but a system like this is easier to build than one that separates the two. Unfortunately it also makes the process of cleaning New York’s expelled waste water more complicated than most cities. Because street water will end up in the pooptubes, garbage and other debris can cause damage to the treatment plants’ equipment. That’s where the sorting machinery comes in.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

To make sure larger chunks of non-poop trash don’t get into the plant, the system utilizes several gates and screens to make sure only wastewater is entering the facilities. Sewer Overflow Regulators block floating trash from getting in by routing unfiltered water through pipes that block floating items while letting water (and poop) flow through unabated at the bottom.

Whatever makes it past this first defense is fished out with Mechanical Bar Screens, pictured above. Just like the Overflow Regulators, these screens filter the water that’s flowing through the top part of a pipe. A huge mechanized scraper periodically wipes off the bits of trash that get stuck to the screens. Meanwhile, the poops and wastewater keep flowing onward below.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

After any trash is taken care of, the wastewater treatment process proper can begin. To start, the Newtown Creek facility utilizes things called degrittors and detritors. These machines essentially take solids (which is to say "poops") and smooshes them all together to take up a smaller amount of space in the waste water.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

From there, the Newtown Creek plant tries to replicate the process that waste would undergo when breaking down naturally, except in a massive and controlled environment. After solid wastes are consolidated, the water enters secondary treatment area, where aerobic bacteria eats away at the poop and turns it into sludge.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

After sludgification, the water reaches settling tanks that remove the sludge and floating scum. Water travels across a slight slope while unwanted poop particles rest along the bottom and get suctioned out. The sludge then travels back to the aeration tanks for a second pass while the water heads to a disinfection stage. In disinfection, concentrated bleach is poured in, after which the no-longer-poopy-poop juice is released into Newtown Creek as clear and fresh smelling water.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Tough shit

The Newtown Creek facility’s aeration tanks do a pretty good job of breaking down poop into sludge, but when the sludge can’t be broken down any further, it’s spun into a thicker solid and sent to one of the facility’s eight massive digester eggs.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Each egg basically acts as a stomach where poopsludge can be "digested" for 15 days. Inside the eggs are more anaerobic bacteria that further the process in a balmy 98 degree poopvironment. Just like in the human body, the breakdown of waste produces a methane gas byproduct, but this methane is used to power the plants boilers instead of going into farts.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Above the massive digester eggs is a walkway that wraps around the whole complex, providing a great view of northern Brooklyn, Long Island City and the Manhattan skyline from atop the tanks of shit. It’s a view you can see for yourself: the Newtown Facility is open for tours, and they’ll take you up on the eggs if you go.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Even these massive digester eggs can’t process everything though. After digestion there is inevitably some sludge waste that just can’t be broken down. This tough shit is transported to a separate facility by poopboats. Once there, its dewatered and turned into a thick, spongy solid and ultimately is delivered to a landfill.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Touring the facility from start to finish, I was struck by one thing in particular: The place doesn’t smell bad. Because emissions are mostly captured inside a set of tanks, the grounds smell at least as good as the rest of Brooklyn. I’m not completely sure how the open-air poop-sludge pools manage not to smell, but they don’t! It’s really impressive how little odor there is.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

Poop jokes aside, without facilities like Newtown Creek our waterways would be horrible. The Newton Creek plant and the people who man it manage to turn millions of peoples’ waste back into into clean, environmentally safe water. They don’t even mind it! What they do mind though is litter.

A small piece of trash that sneaks by the facility’s defenses can easily break the whole, complex system. When a machine breaks it can costs thousands, if not millions, of dollars. So think twice about what you throw down to toilet—and don’t litter in the street. Somebody has to deal with that shit.

Where New York City's Poop Goes

via Gizmodo
Where New York City’s Poop Goes

A Day at Trijicon

DSCF2072Last Fall, I was invited by Trijicon to their writer event at their training facility just south of the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. The morning session was mostly product presentation with a focus on the Trijicon ACOG family, the new battery powered reflex sights such as the RMR mini red-dot and the full size […]
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via The Firearm Blog
A Day at Trijicon