Must See Videos: Explosions That Are Far Too Close To Humans

When things explode, it’s quite a sight to see from a distance. However with these three clips, the people operating the camera were far too close in these instances:

A rare tornado touches down Northeast Of Tokyo, Japan. In this case, the tornado gets so close to the cameraman that you can see the windows blow out next door from the air pressure:

A train derails near Texarkana, Arkansas. While this police officer (And others heard on the radio) surround this nighttime accident site for a bit, one of the derailed cars leaked gasoline which would lead to a dramatic series of explosions:

In this final clip, members of the U.S. Military are traveling in Iraq, when a large underground IED explodes under the road. The driver narrowly misses getting within the explosion:

Things That Are Cool: Fort Carroll – Baltimore’s Abandoned River Fort

Fort Carroll is a 3.4 acre (14,000 m²) artificial island and abandoned fort in the middle of the Patapsco River, just south of Baltimore, Maryland. It is named for James Carroll (1737-1832), a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1847, the State of Maryland gave permission to the United States War Department to construct a fort in the shallow water of Soller’s Point Flats to protect the city of Baltimore. Fort Carroll was important for the defense of Baltimore — before the fort was created, Fort McHenry, just outside the city, was the only military defensive structure between Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay. The Fort was part of the “Permanent System” or Third System construction program, which aimed to defend America’s most important ports.
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What It’s Like to Skydive With the US Army Golden Knights

Have you ever heard of the US Army Golden Knights? Before you answer that question, think carefully! Because if you’ve ever watched an Army / Navy football game, or seen the Indy 500, or basically any other major event where Army parachutists dramatically land in the center of the action then you have seen the Golden Knights!

Well, not only did I get the chance to spend a few days with the Golden Knights, I also had the extreme privilege of going on a tandem jump with Sergeant Jon Ewald while Sergeant Joe Abeln took care of videography duty documenting my first ever jump. Michael Battise, the battalion’s resident multimedia expert assembled the following edit of clips from Joe’s footage. I’ve also got some additional footage that I’ll be working on another edit with later so stay tuned for a different take entirely.


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Iron Mountain – The Most Secure Civilian Facility IN Earth

Iron Mountain Storage FacilityYou know how people are always talking about Ft. Knox being really secure? Well, here is the civilian equivalent!

Iron Mountain Inc is a company specializing in data storage. The best known Iron Mountain storage facility is a high-security cave in a former limestone mine at Boyers, Pennsylvania near the city of Butler in the USA.

It has been in operation since 1950, and it is here that Bill Gates stores his Corbis photographic collection in a refrigerated cave 220 feet underground.
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Smoothest Crash Landing I’ve Ever Seen

Plane Crash LandingHere is an amazing clip of a small plane crash landing in California when one of its landing gears refused to function properly. Funny thing is, there wasn’t really any “crash” in the landing.

What makes this especially interesting is that someone apparently got another plane up in the air in time to film what was going on, and they did a really good job of capturing the entire event.

POINT MUGU, California
Monday Jul 30, 2007
A twin-engine turboprop aircraft with its left main landing gear stuck in the up position skidded to a safe landing at a Navy air station Monday.Twelve people were aboard.

The civilian Grumman G-159 was on a shuttle flight from the military’s San Nicolas Island to Point Mugu.

The Phoenix Air plane carrying nine passengers and three flight crew members circled for about an hour to burn off excess fuel.

The airplane came in with its left engine feathered ”the propeller slowly turning” and it set down gently before settling onto its left wing, then skidded to its left off the runway and onto an unpaved area.

Everyone aboard jumped out of the aircraft as fire trucks sprayed the craft.
There was no fire and the plane appeared to be repairable.

San Nicolas is a Navy-owned island off Southern California. The plane is leased to shuttle military personnel and civilian workers between the mainland and the island.

Point Mugu Naval Air Station is part of the Navy base in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles.

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LSD Being Tested on British Soldiers

LSD Tested On Combat TroopsThis is an old clip of a study of the effects of LSD on combat troops. It appears to be from around the 1940′s, and I don’t have any clue where it came from originally. But its mildly amusing to see a bunch of highly trained killing machines walking around aimlessly and falling over laughing.

LSD is typically delivered orally, usually on a sugar cube or in some sort of food product, so I’m guessing they were trying to determine how they could weaponize it by contaminating an enemy’s water supply or food supply. One surefire way to win is to make the other side not care if they fight any longer!
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Short Film: End of Ze World

End of Ze WorldCame across this great short film about Mutually Assured Destruction. It’s not really a political commentary or anything, it’s just funny.

Be forewarned however that this one is NOT for the kiddies. Plenty of really bad language in this. Still, you’ll be laughing your A– off mates.

PS – Watch out for those nasty kangaroos!
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US Display of Military Might

You don’t ever want to be sitting on a beach and see this heading your way… unless they are coming to rescue you!

US Military Formation

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Russian Bombers in British Airspace

RAF Intercepts Russian BombersCan someone please tell me why the Russians are taunting the British by flying bomber/reconnaissance planes to the border of British airspace?

With relations between Russia and Britain deteriorating, the number of incidents in which Russia’s submarines have been found close to British shores or in contact with Royal Navy warships has also risen, reports said yesterday. London’s Daily Telegraph said there was a suggestion Russia could be testing the West’s air detection systems and response times.

Diplomatic tensions between London and Moscow — already stretched by the murder in London of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko — intensified as the Bear bombers headed towards Britain. It was the first time Russian bombers had threatened to penetrate British airspace since President Vladimir Putin indicated, with no little chutzpah, that he had ordered his bomber force to resume long-range patrols around the world.

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