There's an initial flash of light followed, after an interim, by the fireball. The question: What's the initial flash of light? (And also: who had an apparently handheld camera trained on the street for no apparent reason at 4 in the morning?)

It's not just vibration (which is hard to isolate from such a lightweight camera), but a lightweight camera has lots of shake if handheld. The wide lens alleviates much of the apparent effect of the shake, however.

I suspect most of the slow-mo scenes were shot in 1080p60 and time adjusted using Motion or similar to make them seem super-slow. GoPro footage lends itself to this sort of super-slow-mo quite well.

I guess my point was missed, FWIW I'm not a luddite who doesn't see any value in handheld technology. I've been through about 6 iPods now and have come to rely on them, for music and for advancing my Spanish and Portuguese through podcasts.

My problem is with the techno-dweebs I know who get excited over any technology advancement. As long as it's newer, faster, shinier, smaller, with better audio/video/storage/bandwidth, etc, than last quarter's model I'm supposed to be impressed when they wave it around and rattle off its specs. Then they use it to look up Brady Bunch trivia or some such garbage.

The smug sense of "I have more computing power in my hand than the Apollo astronauts had" yet they can't construct a fucking correct sentence on their own if their lives depended on it. But I digress. >> ^Quboid:

I wouldn't have thought there'd be so many Luddites on the sift.
@ulysses1904, yes, your non-existent example of exaggerated uselessness is indeed useless. Something useful? How about checking prices and product reviews while in the shop? I can browse my local video store and if I see an interesting movie, I pull out my phone, load the IMDB app, take a picture of the BluRay case and learn all about it.
When I was in Italy a few months ago, I had language trouble when ordering food on one occasion - I pulled out my phone, typed my order into Google Translate and handed the phone to the waitress. That day, the human race was closer to having a Babel Fish than we have been in thousands of years of human development - but hey, it's just a gizmo, right? Who cares?
In fact, come to think of it, even your example isn't useless - that birther nonsense wouldn't have lasted long if everyone with a smartphone could have done that while watching Obama's inauguration.
@CheshireSmile, if that's all you need then fine, although I'm guessing your friends have rubbish keyboards on their phones. I don't need much, but I want loads and why not? If I'm waiting for a plane or something, I like to be able to web browse, check Facebook and Twitter, play games, whatever.
My Samsung Galaxy S 2 probably would not survive falling out the window of a moving car, however this has yet to cause me any distress - just out of interest, how often does your phone fall out of a moving car?

a normally back mounted SCUBA tank with a handheld set of horns would be more appropriate for supermarkets.

>> ^eric3579:

First 5-year-old to break through the matrix -yt


What's that in the background? A guy in a Toys-R-Us smock quietly speaks into a handheld radio, "Code red, aisle 12. I repeat: code red, aisle 12."

>> ^EvilDeathBee:

>> ^Duncan:
If you told me that this interview was staged by Occupy Wall Street, I'd probably believe it. Not because of the points he made, but because he was able to make them. That reporter was unusually polite for Fox News.

Yeah, that's what I thought. If he were being interviewed by any of the more popular Fox "reporters" he would never have gotten a word in


Take note that you're not seeing footage from the Fox camera. This is recorded by someone with a handheld. You're used to seeing Fox interviews that have been recorded by Fox cameras and filtered by Fox editors to make anyone who isn't fringe-right look like they're fringe-left.

My guess is none of Fox's footage of this interview ever sees the light of day.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

AK 47 is a relatively weak rifle to test it with. Compared to a 7.62 NATO which is far more common in the United States it has a maximum 1260 ft-lbf of energy at the muzzle to the NATO 7.62's 2500-3000. And 7.62 NATO is not a heavy load either. A .50 cal BMG (as someone suggested) has 11,000 - 13,000, ten times the 7.62 Russian's energy.


what? i have no idea where you would be using this glass, but i can guarantee you that an AK47 is likely the most powerful HANDHELD firearm you're going to be facing next to an RPG launcher or something. everyone from detroit gangbangers to iraqi insurgents to rebels in the congo have AK47s. the next step up for most of those guys is likely a .50 cal mounted machine gun, and at that point you're boned regardless of your GLASS, because that shit can go through relatively thick STEEL.

Should give him a wide-brimmed gardening hat and some sunglasses.

And maybe one of those handheld electric fans that also has a spray-mister on it.

I'm sorry if I caused any confusion with my comment.
If fact, in looking for the different versions I have confused myself even more (happens more often than I'd like to admit) about the sequence of events.
In the above comment I should have said, "that one" not "this"--referring to the handheld cam shot of a TV screen. That's why it seems that I'm calling the one posted First a dupe--I screwed up.

@UsesProzac I would like to especially apologize to you and Thank You for informing me about this terrible news.

I've been living in Thailand for 4 years, but I'm definitely not a convert to the squat-style toilets. My house has a western style sit-n-s#it. The upside is that almost all western toilets here also have a handheld spray-nozzle hose attachment to serve bidet-like purposes, which I now think I'd miss back in the US. It doesn't fully replace T.P., but it is an excellent supplement in terms of cleanliness.

One more thing about the squat toilets -- imagine all of the difficulties of a squatter: pants placement, tired legs from hovering, lack of optimal handhold locations, etc. and then add on to that being in a moving train being jarred back and forth, going around corners, and lurching with every acceleration change. That experience is hands down my most... exciting visit to the "hong nam" (toilet) in 4 years of being here.

>> ^Morganth:

I see videos like this from time to time - who stands in front of their tv with a camcorder??


Some people do it to avoid copyright issues, though I don't know how well it works.

Companies can scan youtube videos with automated software to catch copies of their material, but I doubt it works when it's copied by a handheld device. This method also allows the user to comment on what they are recording, thereby creating original content which can be considered "fair use" of the included material, or so I've read.

I'm certainly not a lawyer... anyone know more about this?

clearly the better use for a rail gun such as this is to shrink it down (enough that it is handheld) and then hide it in an arena where you can force a group of people to fight to the death.

Hmm, fair enough, but that handheld camera version really needs replacing with this embed

still waiting for the iphone feature that allows you to patch in to any available screen and stream feature-length content from the cloud. That way, if a screen's available, you're not stuck with viewing on your handheld.

I'm sure its coming, if it isn't available yet.

Good point, a hand-held radio is likely a good assumption but not possible.

Bell Laboratories demonstrated the first transistor on December 23, 1947.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio

Regency TR-1 — the first transistor radio (circa 1954)
http://people.msoe.edu/~reyer/regency/

This clip was filmed in 1928! (according to the post.)
So the next thing to ask would be, "Is the footage authentic?"



>> ^Edgeman2112:

Could it be a handheld radio and she be hard of hearing?