Why he chose to do so, I have no idea. Maybe he wanted to give his kids some sort of show, or maybe he was just choosing not to use his noggin. Or maybe he was just plain crazy.

You can see for yourself what happened when the firecracker he dropped ignited the trapped gas down the manhole:

Thank goodness his kids weren’t physically harmed when the manhole blew up and its metal cover went flying. I’m sure they probably won’t want to go near any manholes anytime soon, though. Especially not with their firecracker-wielding father.

[via TDW via Geekologie]

The dangerous looking contraption has at its heart a single Coolidge Tube, which is a vacuum tube capable of producing X-Rays when 75 kilovolts of power is applied to it. Thankfrully Grenadier is experienced with high voltage gear, so that was no problem for him to provide ample current to power up his X-Ray tube.

The left-hand box provides an Arduino-based controller, and cool looking gauges to check amperage and voltage, as well as a Nixie display which shows exposure time. The right-hand box contains the tube and all high voltage components, so it can be placed at a distance from the controller. Since Grenadier doesn’t have any X-Ray film lying around, he’s managed to rig up something called a “scintillation screen”, a plastic sheet which fluoresces when exposed to radiation.

This let him see through any object he fires the X-Rays at. As you can see from the photos here, the results are pretty awesome. However, this is one time that I can most definitely say “Do not try this at home. EVER.”

Hopefully, Grenadier has taken precautions to protect himself from the radiation with a lead shield of some sort, and he never tries to X-Ray the cat. You can read more details about the DIY X-Ray machine build here.

Rather than using their hands though, the gorillas tend to use their teeth apparently. I wouldn’t want to be tickled by a gorilla’s teeth. Apparently, when Emmie is in the mood to play she will make a sound that is a lot like human laughter when tickled. According to researchers, many animals will make specific sounds when tickled including rats and some birds.

The researchers are looking at videos online using YouTube and other sites to find what animals do when tickled. Would you tickle a gorilla or other great ape? Those animals can kill a human easily and some even been known to eat people. I’ll pass, thank you.

[via BBC News]

This otherwise ordinary umbrella conceals a nasty surprise. Hiding in the middle of this thing is a 15″ long stainless steel sword, ready to dispatch zombies or any other would-be attackers. While it still works as a regular umbrella, you just grab the knuckle grip, give it a yank, and you’re ready for some serious zombie-killing action. Or swashbuckling, if you’re into that sort of thing.

In all seriousness, there’s probably not a lot of real-world uses for this thing, but it is an impressive weapon nonetheless. It’s can’t even be shipped to California, Massachusetts or New York, if that gives you any sense how dangerous it really is. On the other hand, if you do have a zombie invasion in those states, you’re SOL. If you’re prepared to treat this weapon with the respect it deserves, you can get the umbrella sword over at BUDK for $29.99 (USD).

Made by Instructables contributor PDRWLSN, this flamethrower pistol looks like it could still do some pretty major damage, especially if you’re within a couple of feet of its flame-shooting barrel. He made it using various bits of copper tubing, plywood, some laser-cut acrylic parts, butane, and the pulse-ignitor from his gas grill to start the fire burning.

And while readers over on Make: have been quick to point out the dangers of spraying burning hydrocarbon into the atmosphere, you shouldn’t be playing with such a device if you’re not a little bit of a risk-taker.

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I love how he uses it to melt snow off his barbecue grill. I could use one of these this winter for sure. I’m betting that we’ll have another blizzard or two this winter here in Chicago. And if not, I could still use one to hold back the impending zombie invasion.

[Instructables via Make:]

He uses various knives including some made from ceramic and some made from flint rock and deer horn. Naturally, there is a sling shot in there. Joerg is using a little slingshot that is made from carbon fiber. The ammo for that slingshot rather than the metal ball bearings he normally uses was some larger pebbles.

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As you might expect, the knives all sliced and stabbed well. The slingshot was what amazed me. I have often wondered what hitting the gel with a rock would do. I thought it might just bounce off. The rocks actually penetrated into the gel by a significant margin. Those rocks and that little slingshot could certainly do some damage. Let’s hope that the TSA actually screens for non-metallic weapons with body scanners and X-Ray machines to keep this sort of stuff out of the skies.

The 18-foot diameter circle is made from metal of some sort and in the center is a metal box securely wrapped in what appears to be plastic for the utmost safety during flight. The lift is provided by eight different motorcycle engines on their side bolted to the metal frame. Shu has about $3,135 invested in the machine, and this is his fifth model.

So far, Shu, who is a farmer by trade, has had one test flight in the courtyard that appears to have been conducted while tethered to the ground. The craft flew for about ten seconds. Obviously if something went wrong, and Shu fell from the basket he would be chopped into tiny bits by the staggered, whirring propellers – even if he were just a few feet off the ground.

[via BoingBoing]

Just like Stark, Priebe built his dangerous toy by hand. It uses a laser diode from a Casio projector, mounted to a brass housing that Priebe made just for the glove. Two Li-ion batteries provide enough power for about an hour of lasering. So how dangerous is it? Here’s Pop Sci’s take on the Laser Glove: “In the U.S., the maximum strength for consumer laser pointers is typically five milliwatts; Priebe’s handheld laser is 1,000 milliwatts, enough to instantly blind anyone not wearing special safety glasses.” Yikes.

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Priebe is actually taking orders for the glove, although I don’t know how many units he plans to make and how much he’s asking for one. Just drop him a message on his YouTube channel for details. And get a pair of those special safety glasses will you?

[via Make: & Popular Science]

Styropyro used a 700mW laser diode from a 12x Blu-ray burner; if you don’t have a spare burner around, he suggests hitting up Modwerx for the diode. You can even find stronger lasers at that website. Watch the video to find out more about the conversion and to see exactly how dangerous this real-life laser gun is.

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I wonder if you can somehow fit this bad boy into a gun mod. If you have a replica of the neat Dead Space plasma cutter, Kipkay already showed how you can convert that to a laser gun.

[via Hack A Day]

The Sith Series (sheesh, might as well change their name to Lucas Lasers) is made of two Class 4 1-watt Spyder 3 lasers – the same lightsaber-ish laser that got them a cease-and-desist letter from Lucasfilm. You can use each end separately or go Darth Maul on your Powerpoint and hold two presentations at once. Seriously though this thing is very dangerous. Both a direct hit or a reflected beam can result in permanent blindness, cause dark surfaces to catch on fire and may ignite skin, hair or clothing. Yikes. That’s why buyers will be required to apprentice under a Sith Lord review Wicked Lasers’ safety training video and pass a Laser Safety Test.

The Sith Series double handed laser can be ordered at Wicked Lasers’ website for $600 (USD). Let’s be honest – even if we all had $600 to spare most of us don’t need a laser, let alone a two-headed one. Still, I’m sure some nerd out there can wrangle a couple of legitimate excuses to possess such an amazing tool, so I’ll just wait for the cool videos of their projects and exploits. Wicked Lasers, you wicked.

[via Uberreview]

Looking at its features, it seems as though the designers tried to make a compromise, but then they realized that having anything on a rear-view mirror aside from a mirror is already dangerous in itself, so why hold back? So yes, there is a dedicated mirror, and there’s a GPS navigation system, but there’s more! Bluetooth for hands-free calling! Audio and video playback! Touchscreen games! Users will surely be entertained in the final minutes of their lives.

I wouldn’t give this as a gift even to my worst enemy. We already have enough mobile gadgets that distract us while we’re driving; there’s no need to mount one more right in our vehicles.

[via TechFresh]

Justin got to shoot some of the longer-range Taser weapons at dummies and then agreed to get Tased by the new Taser Grenade himself. The projectile-based Taser Grenade has 50,000 volts of light your ass up inside and can be fired from a long distance to attach itself to its victim. Apparently, the Taser guys decided that he might not be able to handle the actual Taser Grenade, and opted to just hook the electrodes from a box that has the same stuff inside it directly to his body.

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Silverman said, “First off, the grenade’s 50,000-volt charge, as you might imagine, is extremely unpleasant. Every voluntary muscle in the body yanks tight, as a sizzling crackle of electrons fills the air, making it impossible to move. Its white-hot barbs even leave burn marks on the skin as a surge of electricity scorches your flesh.” I hope he got a nice bonus for getting shocked.

[The Daily via CrunchGear]

The guys at J&M Special Effects put together a set of DIY flamethrowers that are mounted on his gloves, firing intense, scalding flames from the palms of his hands. But who needs words when you can see it in action:

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This kick-ass pyro system is just a prototype, and the J&M guys say the final version of the system would be more streamlined so the hoses and cables could be hidden inside of a performer’s costume – which I can only hope would be flameproofed.

[YouTube via Gadjitz]

Developed by the Mayekawa Electric, this automated ham-boning robot was designed to cut up down on human butchers. The HAMDAS-R robot can expedite the process of gutting you cutting your ham up into pieces. It’s such an efficient killing boning machine, that it can double the kill count productivity of a plant, allowing for the boning of 500 humans hams in an hour with just 10 workers, versus the normal 20.

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Given the well known fact that pigs are the perfect human analog (I saw it on an episode of Mythbusters) All they need to do is combine HAMDAS-R with that NEC robot that thinks humans smell like bacon, and the end of the world will be nigh.

[via DigInfo TV]

In this vid clip, SS shows off his work-in-progress wrist-work flamethrower in action. The rig consists of an aerosol can of butane, some tubing, a nozzle and a finger-controlled trigger made from string. It’s definitely not something I’d strap to my arm if given a choice.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Now SS hasn’t figured out a permanent source of ignition, so he has to start it with a torch, but once it’s going, it’s definitely something that could strike fear into the hearts of anyone who tries to mess with him.

While I can’t in good conscience advocate you guys building this sort of dangerous rig for yourselves, I have to hand it to ShockSlayer for his ingenuity. Now don’t set the house – or the cat – on fire.

The Martin Aircraft Company jetpacks have about 200 HP coming out of their dual propellers. They can go up to 1.5 miles in the air and reach speeds of 60 mph. They will aim to make about 500 packs a year.

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These jetpacks were invented by Glenn Martin, who unveiled his prototype last year in July. This whole contraption weighs less than 254 lbs, so in the UK, you won’t need a pilot’s license to travel in it. It is capable of traveling 30 miles with a full tank of fuel.

The jetpacks will be made in New Zealand, and the company says that these packs would be perfect for emergency services, as well private users and the military. (And killing yourself – ed.)

[via Good]

The crazy Flaming Thor helmet was created by Joey Andolina (aka “Andomation” aka “megaplow”), and he’s apparently been known to show up at Burning Man donning one of these himself. In addition to the Thor Helmet, Andolina has created other variants, such as this Kevlar police riot helmet.

Each helmet is adorned with a pair for copper flame tubes and attached to a control valve you can hook up to a propane tank. While you can start out with a small flame, you can crank up the valve to put out a flame up to 3 feet into the air. Now that doesn’t sound too dangerous, does it?

According to the description “(the flaming helmet) …is an amazing way to get noticed, light your surroundings and catch yourself of fire. I can not suggest you wear it, I recommend you never wear it, as it’s dangerous!”

Well, sign me up. If you too are ready to set your cranium on fire, head on over to the Andomation Etsy shop now and light up!

The HAROP can stay on air for up to 6 hours, plenty of time to select a target within its 620 mi range. So you can deploy it from another city way ahead of time, and have it wait for a target to come out or pass by, then BOOM. Haropped.

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I do not want to die that way. If you feel the same way, then you’d better not piss off India or Germany in some royal manner, because both countries recently bought a bunch of HAROPs.

[via IAI via BotJunkie]

Wilkinson says he’s often asked by women why he does this. His reply? “It’s just neat, launching something that wasn’t intended to be launched.”

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Straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Let’s watch it again! Again! Again!

[via Boing Boing]

The “assassin extension knife” is being made by Museum Replicas, prop makers whose catalog is rife with replicas from Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Terminator, 300, and lots of other geek-friendly names. And while a lot of their products run pretty high in price, the extension knife is a paltry $125 (USD). In addition to Altaïr’s extension knife, Museum Replicas are also selling virtually every component of his outfit – over tunic, under tunic, vambraces, boots, belt . . . if I were a cosplayer, I’d have struck gold.

So why am I concerned about this knife, which is designed to be concealed, hitting the market? Remember that scene towards the end of V for Vendetta, where the inspector says how he can “see” how everything will unfold? Well, I’m having the same experience, but about this knife. Prophetically, I can see an “accidental discharge,” blood being shed, and the ensuing media storm (spearheaded by Fox News) that will damage video games’ already weak credibility.

So by all means, get your fan boy or fan girl on. Just… exercise a whole lot of caution when you do. My last roommate once stabbed himself in his gut with a katana, and that thing’s big. I imagine it’s much easier to wound yourself, or others, with a retractable knife strapped to your forearm.

[via Kotaku]