Cool Stuff of the Week

So I've come across two small things this week.  The smallest things amuse me, hence why the internet meme creation association (I assume there to be a secret cabal where the creation of funny pictures is a high priority, (the IMCA to those of us with an 80's cult classic dance bent)) has my lifelong patronage.  I love encountering the unexpected.  In todays world, where I can accurately guess the outcome of at least 85% of movies after ten minutes, it's refreshing to encounter brilliance in unexpected ways.  The fantastic thing is that prior to the internet, very small groups of people would direct the flow of television and movies - media in general.  Now, one person takes a picture in India, another adds a funny caption in England, a third in Germany photoshops (yes, photoshop has become a verb, (to shop)) in a shark with lasers, and the fourth posts it onto an american board.  Forget unified medical systems, funny pictures is what the internet is good for.

Sheer brilliance.

So anyway.  The two amazing things I done saw.

The first is this.  The pilots evidently forgot to put the wheels down.  Why is this amazing?  Well, due to hollywood, I've been conditioned to think that a plane landing sans wheels, will explode upon impact, usually sending Bruce Willis flying out of the window.  What actually happens is far more interesting.  I don't know how much this plane weighs, but there's a lot of weight resting on those engines.  The casings don't break, collapse or even deform (noticeably, obviously there will be deformation to some extent) enough to send pieces of the interior flying.  I wonder if the turbines are generally okay inside the engines?  Do the blades shatter?  Do they gouge tracks in the casings?  What's the deal with that?  To be honest, I assumed the engines would sheer, essentially forcing the plane to bump over them like errant tyres on a racing car (a sight I've seen at least a dozen times in formula 1, but can't find the correct search in youtube).

I'm genuinely impressed with how well the aircraft coped.  Let's not make the false assumption that landing on anything other than arrow straight, perfectly smooth tarmac will result in the same outcome.  They also emptied the fuel tanks by flying around a bit, before landing.  Is it even a landing?  Landing implies a sense of normality.  I think this is more of a controlled crash, but the outcome appears to be favourable.  I wonder if they can ever repair that plane?  It's probably a junker now.  The same question goes for the runway, the amount of crud kicked up behind the plane suggests there would be three distinct ruts present on the tarmac now.  I guess it could be an auto-guidance system for all arriving planes, the wheels fall into the groove as it were, and are directed to the end of the runway with no pilot input.

The second thing that impressed me, is something I can't show you.  Cans in England have become thinner and thinner, presumably to save on the cost associated with metals the world over.  Cans in Japan however, don't seem to be following this trend.  More accurately, the cans of a specific brand of green tea are so thick that I can't crush them.  In no way am I able to flatten the can.  End on end, or sideways - both are impossible.  Admittedly, with my right hand out of commission I'm not using my strongest hand (I can crush with a force of 81kg's on my left, 84kg's on my right (my local gym recently had a competition to see who had the strongest grip, when I left I was about 8kg's more than the next best; when I came back I had been replaced by someone who was 5kg's less than me.  Foreigners not included, apparently.) but the extra 3kg's won't make much of a difference in this case.

I don't know what it's made of, but it may well be adamantium.