Gunpowder Powered Nutcracker Cracks Even The Stubbornest Nuts

Cracking nuts while sipping cocktails and making small talk with relatives: it’s a timeless holiday tradition. But what about those stubborn nuts that refuse to crack so easily – what about them? I’m looking at you, macadamias! Well, engineer Shane Wighton of YouTube channel Stuff Made Here has just the thing for those nuts: an explosive nutcracker powered by up to four maximum power firearm blanks. Nuts, prepare to be shell-shocked!

The world’s strongest nutcracker has a steel piston that fires upward with an acceleration of around 18,000 G’s to make sure that no nut is left uncracked. As a matter of fact, it won’t just crack nuts, it’ll obliterate them, and you’ll probably be picking pieces of shell out of your living room walls for many Christmases to come.

Shane stresses in the video that you should not try this at home, which is like issuing me a personal challenge. I mean he might as well have insulted my family and slapped me in the face with his glove with the whole town watching because I am definitely about to seriously injure myself trying this at home.

[via The Awesomer]

A real suicide bomb detector should arrive this year

Ever since terrorism became an all-too-real fact of life, people have dreamed of suicide bomb detectors that spot an explosive vest before its wearer has a chance to detonate. However, making a working example has proven elusive. Some companies threw...

Mine Kafon: Seek & Destroy Landmines

Landmines are a terrible remnant of war, and there are literally millions still left around the world that injure and kill people on a regular basis. This unusual looking contraption is a cheap way to get rid of a lot of landmines, which could allow local populations to get rid of many of them easily without risking more lives.

mine kafon landmine

Mine Kafon was designed by Afghan product designer Massoud Hassani, who grew up in war-torn Kabul. As a child, with his brother, he developed some wind-powered toys that raced across the relatively flat terrain of the desert. He used this as an inspiration to develop Mine Kafon. The device is basically a sphere with long bamboo plungers with plastic caps at their ends. As the wind rolls it along, it exerts enough pressure to detonate landmines.

mine kafon landmine explosion

It usually costs $1,200 to get rid of one mine. The Mine Kafon can take out 2-3 on each pass, at a cost of just about $50 (USD). Embedded GPS chips will transmit cleared location, creating maps of safe zones.

mine kafon landmine explosion close

The campaign to produce Mine Kafon was launched as a Kickstarter project. It has amassed about 65% of its goal of £100,000 (~$163,500 USD) with 18 days of funding left, and you can pledge as little as £1 (~$1.64 USD) to help support the project to eliminate landmines in developing nations.

[via designboom]

Hitachi boarding gate can sniff explosives on passes, keep the transport queues flowing (video)

Hitachi boarding gate can sniff explosives on passes, keep the transport queues flowing video

Anyone who's hopped on a flight at a major airport, or even some land-based transit, knows the agonizing wait that certain agencies demand while they scan for explosives and check boarding passes. Hitachi is working with Nippon Signal and the University of Yamanachi to build a new boarding gate that hopefully kills those two security birds with one stone. As you're swiping your boarding pass (or smartphone), the machine also scans it for particle-sized traces of explosive materials and sends the all-clear or no-go in less than two seconds. If all goes well, the system could check up to 1,200 passengers every hour at a single gate -- a rate quick enough to prevent a logjam at even the busiest terminals. Our chief reservations surround its scope. Hitachi has earned enough trust to get trial installations at Narita International Airport and a Tokyo subway station this coming spring, but we have a hunch that some airport officials would demand a more thorough screening, no matter how much it's actually needed.

Continue reading Hitachi boarding gate can sniff explosives on passes, keep the transport queues flowing (video)

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Hitachi boarding gate can sniff explosives on passes, keep the transport queues flowing (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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