You are a shark. You swim off the coast of Florida. You dive in and out of the water to smash boats, and you can pull jumbo jets out of the sky WITH YOUR TEETH. You are Miami Shark. Via Rockpapershotgun. [more inside]
posted by Decimask on Oct 9, 2009 - 58 comments

When whales die: Yesterday, a 20-30 foot whale washed up a shore in New Jersey. Officials are going to deal with it by cutting it up into small parts and burying it. In previous incidents, officials tried to explode it into bits that were meant to fall in the ocean and get eaten by seagulls, but that didn't work out [YT] so well, especially for nearby spectators. Even if you want to let it decompose naturally, you have to be careful for spontaneous explosions due to gassy buildup. Especially when transporting it in busy city streets. Oops. When whales die in the ocean, on the other hand, their bodies eventually fall to the sea floor and can start mini ecosystems, where female pink glowstick-like sea worms that harbor the male pink glowstick sea worms inside their bodies live, eat whale bones, and propagate. (Previously on Metafilter: Taiwan explosion)
posted by Salamandrous on Jul 28, 2009 - 46 comments

Andrew W.K. (yt): Musician (yt), Motivational speaker (nyt) and now, kids show host (auto-playing video). via
posted by 1f2frfbf on Jun 16, 2009 - 80 comments

Explosions and boobs. (NSWF)
posted by boo_radley on Jun 2, 2009 - 76 comments

Haven't you always secretly wondered what would happen if a ninja accidentally stumbled into, say, Bill and Ted's time traveling Phone Booth and ended up somewhere around 7th century BC, only to come face-to-face with a feisty Spartan? Have you not pondered what would happen if you locked up an Apache with a Gladiator inside some sort of 21st century battle dome? Are you frustrated because you feel like there's nobody doing proper scientific studies to see what would happen when you pit two historically violent warriors that could have never actually met in real life? Worry no more people - I present to you Spike TV's newest offering - Deadliest Warrior! [more inside]
posted by Bageena on May 5, 2009 - 110 comments

Can't wait till Friday Flash Fun: Atomic Kaos 2 Orbits is a puzzle-ish game where you are trying to remove all the atoms from the playing field through a chain of explosions.
posted by schyler523 on Mar 18, 2009 - 6 comments

GenDisasters is a genealogy site, compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents of Canada and the U.S. that our ancestors endured, as well as, information about their life and death. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Dec 9, 2008 - 12 comments

Friday Flash Fun — Boombot.
posted by BrotherCaine on Aug 29, 2008 - 45 comments

Tunnel boring machines, underground nuclear tests, and all manner of things below the surface.
posted by Wolfdog on Jul 21, 2008 - 25 comments

Disaster at Sea!! A collection of dozens & dozens of photographs of misfortune striking those GIGANTIC shipping vessels, the kind that bring goods from China to Wal Mart. Every kind of affliction imaginable, from shipboard fire to heavy weather to grounding amidst crushing waves to capsizing from ill balanced loads to random explosive cargo to terrorist attack to so much more. Descriptions of the vessels and what brought them down are included in the first link.
posted by jonson on Jul 15, 2007 - 57 comments

Maybe it's not really news because no one was killed, but you'd think that more people would notice when a massive explosion in suburban Boston totals 60 buildings, knocks out windows for a half mile around, knocks people out of bed in the middle of the night, and registers on the Richter scale 30 miles away.
posted by alms on Nov 22, 2006 - 46 comments

Broadband is exploding!
posted by ZenMasterThis on Nov 10, 2006 - 16 comments

Explosion at Iowa Army Ammunition Plant Interesting to note, this plant which is just a few miles from my hometown remained relatively dormant after the cold war ended.
posted by Tablecrumbs on Jun 13, 2006 - 40 comments

The dog's nuts of the periodic table.
posted by ozomatli on May 30, 2006 - 41 comments

Explosion & Fire in Downtown San Francisco Just happened. Could be a gas line - at this point, no one knows.
posted by echolalia67 on Aug 19, 2005 - 106 comments

Police evacuate Birmingham centre
West Midlands police have evacuated the second largest city in England tonight as a precautionary measure. Sky News are reporting that a series of controlled explosions (I heard on Sky News TV that one of these was on a bus, but this may be innacurate) have been carried out in the Broad Street area. I hope that any and all UK MeFi-ites in Birmingham are keeping sane through out all this.
posted by tomcosgrave on Jul 9, 2005 - 61 comments

Major Incident on London Underground reported. Anyone have any further information?
posted by Cobbler on Jul 7, 2005 - 712 comments

"On March 18 [1937] students prepared for the next day's Inter-scholastic Meet in Henderson. At the gymnasium, the PTA met. At 3:05 P.M. Lemmie R. Butler, instructor of manual training, turned on a sanding machine in an area which, unknown to him, was filled with a mixture of gas and air. The switch ignited the mixture and carried the flame into a nearly closed space beneath the building, 253 feet long and fifty-six feet wide. Immediately the building seemed to lift in the air and then smashed to the ground. Walls collapsed. The roof fell in and buried its victims in a mass of brick, steel, and concrete debris. The explosion was heard four miles away, and it hurled a two-ton concrete slab 200 feet away, where it crushed a 1936 Chevrolet. Of the 500 students and forty teachers in the building, approximately 298 died. Some rescuers, students, and teachers needed psychiatric attention, and only about 130 students escaped serious injury. -- From the Handbook of Texas Online. (Other accounts, personal recollections, and photos .)

It was one of the worst disasters in Texas history. With Texans' love of superlatives, why is this a story no one tells? [more...]
posted by mudpuppie on Mar 18, 2005 - 35 comments

Men In Black

CNN, Aug 4: Clashes between police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul left 12 Iraqis dead and 26 wounded, hospital and police sources said Wednesday. Rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire as well as explosions were heard in the streets of the city.

A first-hand view of events.
posted by bonehead on Aug 9, 2004 - 8 comments

The Little Mermaid Explodes. This is only the latest in a long series of indignities suffered by Denmark's national symbol. Why are people so into this sort of thing?
posted by alms on Sep 17, 2003 - 21 comments

Whatever you do, don't touch anything, especially the walls! [note: flash]
posted by crunchland on Aug 3, 2003 - 25 comments

"The morning started again with a series of four mortar shells exploding with a muffled thump in the ocean behind our hospital..." Reports from Monrovia, Liberia by Dr. Andrew Schechtman, a volunteer with Medecins Sans Frontieres -- graphic but compelling.
posted by serafinapekkala on Jul 31, 2003 - 11 comments

Attention D.C. residents- remain going about your business and please ignore the continuous explosions coming from Dick Cheney's house. [more]
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Dec 10, 2002 - 87 comments

The good news is that there is no religious war, the bad news is that a time bomb blast killed 7 in a Russian market; 14 Christians were killed in Indonesia; a 5 year old killed and three other under 15 injured in Israel. All in one day.
posted by semmi on Apr 28, 2002 - 10 comments

Short Clips of Historical Nuclear Weapons Test Films from the DOE OpenNet Database.
posted by kliuless on Nov 5, 2001 - 14 comments

Rapatronic photographs are eerie when you realise what the subject matter is. They leave me with a hole in my guts - the way I felt the time I experienced a total solar eclipse, only in this case the aftertaste is negative, rather than positive wonder. More here.
posted by southisup on Aug 30, 2001 - 17 comments

K....A....B....O....O....M....! Rolls Royce is recalling five of their 2000 and 2001 models after discovering a design flaw can cause the cars to EXPLODE. While only 539 vehicles are affected, 408 are in the US. The flaw was discovered after a technician put the first tank of gas into the $360,000 (!) vehicle, started to drive it and hit the switch to roll up the windows. The explosion blew out all the windows and damaged the convertible top and the interior.
posted by crunchland on May 13, 2001 - 13 comments

Watch the Kingdome Fall.....must hurry I know some have posted it here before, but watching a stadium crumble starting at 11 a.m Eastern time would be something to tune into. This is the ESPN link that requires Real Player
posted by brent on Mar 26, 2000 - 5 comments