N97Geeks ran their unit through a harsh regime of durability tests, starting with a key'n'coin scratch test, followed by a cereal dunking and water submersion tests. As you can see in the video of the latter test above, the N97 doesn't take too well to water, sort of like any other smartphone.

To its credit, at no point did the N97 seem particularly fragile, I guess. From the looks of it, these guys are looking to finish off their already-crippled $700 phone by testing other edgy theories (Will it break when you smash it? Will it melt when you melt it?, and they're taking suggestions. Have at it. [N97Geeks—Thanks, Paul!]

Rob Bushway had only just taken his Kindle 2 out of the box when he dropped it about three feet onto a solid hardwood floor. The result, as you can see, is a persistent blotch in the upper-right-hand side of the screen. In the spirit of eBook/e-ink evangelism, I feel like we should call this an eStain, or an eFold, but it does pretty much ruin the brand-new device. Luckily for Rob, Amazon Amazon's partner, Service Net Solutions, has (rather tellingly) included provisions for one accidentally destroyed unit in each extended warranty, so he should have a free replacement unit by the end of the week.

Generally speaking, extended warranties are a terrible value. But consider just how easy it looks like it might be to damage this slim new Kindle, $70 to protect $360 doesn't seem like a terrible deal. [Slashgear]

The building that caught fire was the Rem Koolhaas designed companion to the CCTV angular marvel. Named the Television Cultural Center, it was supposed to be a more lighthearted companion to its hulking sister. Besides a 300 room luxury hotel (The Mandarin Oriental), it would have also held restaurants and spas, recording studios and a 1,500-seat theater.

The design was equally as fascinating as the CCTV headquarters (nicknamed Big Underpants or Big Hemorrhoids by the Chinese public). The Office of Metropolitan Architecture, Koolhaas' firm, drew inspiration from giant termite mounds.

The first four floors protruded from the building's facade like randomly-arranged boxes and the entire building was to be wrapped in a unique titanium zinc alloy. OMA had chosen the material, ironically, because it would "endure time better than other metal buildings."

Right now the official story is that the Mandarin Oriental, which was located at the top, caught fire from the myriad of fireworks set off to mark the Lantern Festival. Beijing usually bans the fireworks from its downtown area, but eases restrictions during the Spring Festival period (we really, really love our fireworks). But did you see how that building burned? Has anyone ever seen a skyscraper light up like that without... you know, being hit by a jet?

But what weirds me out the most is the government response. This notice went out to news websites, BBS and blogs telling moderators to stop reporting on the CCTV fire. That means posting no more pictures, videos and only using the officially-sponsored Xinhua report.

Why? Some say it's because the CCP doesn't want anybody to know about it until they've determined the cause of the fire – having millions assume that Beijing was under terrorist attack would be damaging to the country's harmony. But wouldn't a "The CCTV building caught fire last night. Cause is unknown, but terrorism is unlikely" blurb solve that?

I know I'm living in a country that doesn't find anything wrong with censorship. And sometimes, considering the scarily huge masses of people they have to deal with, I can understand why. Nonetheless, my jaw's really on the floor right now. I never thought that something this newsworthy, and this hard to hide, would get the silent treatment. I eagerly await what they government say when they finally hold a press conference on it.

The pictures are from Flickr user fuzheado. Here's another amazing gallery of the TVCC building by Ai De Ke.

Everyone has a story about fixing a gadget with tough love, but this is kind of extreme. Depending on your history with flat panel TVs, this video will be either cathartic or nerve-wracking, but with the endless shouting arguments going on in the background, the maniacal glee with which our subject takes a metal bat to his television and the inexplicable success of the whole endeavor, well, it's hard not to feel like you've witnessed something significant. NSFW for language. [NoWhereElse—Thanks, Steve]

I really don't know if this photo is staged or not. And quite frankly, I don't care, because knowing—and loving—dogs, this is how things should be. At least, if we are talking about Jones here. Screw training, lips be damned. [Dark Roasted Blend]

The inventor, going by the name Advanced Engineering, is selling 4- and 8-story kits that both support rebuild and re-implosion. He says he's run out of funding to ship the product, but before his site went down due probably to intense interest, he was still selling a few kits for around $60. We hope he gets enough cash money to keep making these toys, it's a great idea and we're sure he'd have a market for it. [Boing Boing Gadgets]

We'll have lab coats and goggles, but also whipped cream and berries. And I think we'll sacrifice a gadget or two come this Saturday to the gods of user interface design or battery life because clearly, asking companies to improve such things have by and large gone unanswered. We may do even more than a few if you've got some particularly interesting and hated ones you want to puree, but no promises!

[Read more about our Gizmodo Gallery here and see what else we'll be playing with at the event.]

[Thanks to REED ANNEX and thanks to our benefactor gizmine.com]

Gizmodo Gallery
Reed Annex
151 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002

Gizmodo Gallery Reader Meetup
The reader meetup takes place across the street from the Gallery, at a place called The Annex (not to be confused with REED ANNEX where the gallery is hosted.) The address is 152 Orchard Street and we'll be there at 9 PM SHARP on Friday December 5th.

Gallery Dates:
December 4th-7th

Times:
12/4 Thursday
12-8

12/5 Friday
12-8

12/6 Saturday
11-8

12/7 Sunday
11-4

Here's a look at a handful of different tests and what each one tries to accomplish.

Liquids

Nokia places a phone under a bunch of needle-sized water dispensers and then lets it drip all over the phone, which tests for resistance in situations like rain, or splashing from a pool.

The humidity simulation, which tests the durability of phones in up to 95% humidity, is helpful in determining if a phone will hold up in particularly damp areas like South and Central America, where gadgets don't have the longest lifespan.

Nokia also tests how the phone reacts to various liquids, creams and gels (lotions, hand sanitizers, etc...), since stuff like that tends to accidentally spill while sitting in a purse or backpack with the phone.

Sturdiness





Tests for bending and twisting are pretty straight forward and self explanatory. Still, you can't help but cringe to see a phone placed in such an unnatural position. Nokia says when you have your phone in your back pocket and you sit on it, it's susceptible to bending.

One of the cooler stress tests that exists is the Drop test—not only because it uses a giant friggin' machine, but also because they record the drops using a camera that can record 100,000 frames per second, which is 3,000 times faster than the normal video camera. The videos are then analyzed frame by frame, determining the degree to which a device becomes distorted upon impact. Check it out.

When Nokia drops a phone, they drop it from about the height of a shirt pocket onto concrete, since that's a likely scenario for dropped phones. They also attatch a phone under a steel device that pushes down 100 newtons of force.

Wear and Tear

Nokia has a series of wear and tear stress tests, when gauge the phone's ability to take bumps, scratches from daily use. Dust testing involves throwing a handful of phones in a dust filled box and letting everything co-mingle. How much dust gets inside? And do buttons stop working when foreign substances get under the surface? This is where you find out.

They also let phones roll around in a bunch of pieces of hard, pointy plastic to see where it might scratch, scuff or crack under duress. These pieces are like plastic chocolate chips and bite-sized pyramids, and they're pretty sharp. This phone met an unfortunate demise in the name of quality control.

***

Other weird tests include rubbing a piece of denim up against a phone to test the effect of friction when the phone rubs up against your clothes and subjection the phone to temperatures ranging between -40 and 185 degrees Fahrenheit; this determines whether or not the phone can survive in the most extreme conditions on earth.

When testing is finished, they have a battery of analytic procedures to determine how well or how poorly a phone held up. This includes analyzing a phone under electron microscopes, 3D X-rays and X-ray Spectroscopes to check for any related damage; possible micron-sized soldering cracks, component failure or any breakdowns in the materials.

As you can see, these tests aren't lightweight by any means, and most of my Nokia phones over the years have been pretty durable. What about yours? [Nokia on Giz]

* See? The dogs too.

In fact, I can already imagine Facebook's status worldwide:

"Jason is taking off his pants as he watches the city turn into flames"
"Jesus is trying to repent quickly of all his sins and having his last Margarita"
"Brian is liveblogging the incoming tsunami. It's cool"
"Mark is trying to finish Mario Galaxy II before the asteroid hits"
"Adam is looking for his bong"
"Matt is reading the NYT. Wha'?"
"Benny is looking for Tracie for a last snog"
"Strider is commenting in Brian's liveblog"
"Lindsay Joy is watching her Lego minifigs melt"
"Curves is keeping it cool, like always"
"OMG Ponies is OMG"

Have your own favorite California earthquake video or your future Apocalypse Facebook status? Post it in the comments.

Jesus Díaz: How the heck did you get your hands on a giant industrial robotic arm?
Aaron Rasmussen: My friend had it for his company, and it was caught in some sort of accounting limbo. So he agreed to let us use it if we didn't break it. We had to give it back after, sadly. That robot goes for about $70,000.

JD: OK, so that was free. What about the cost for the whole project? I saw that you "rented" (buy and return) an HD camera for free from Fry's...
AR: The total cost was actually only about $1,000, or about $1,220 if you count the camera that gets hit by the bowling ball:

• Truck rental: $716.13
• Gas for truck $72.86
• Bowling Balls $60.00
• The pig entrails, water for us, carrots, watermelons, eggs and such came to around: $100
• We found scrap parts for the catapult arm
• We traded computer services for the heavy equipment (Skylife and tractor).
• The RV camper van was a junker from a friend of a friend.

Looking at the full video, it seems like the best way to spend a weekend and $1,000 with friends. I personally can't wait for some kind of laser arm version. [Mana]

They want to see video of you destroying your old keyboard in the most gruesome way possible or how you would go about destroying it via drawings, renderings, etc. Upload the video on the YouTube and submit the entry to Razer. They will be giving away five Tarantula keyboards. Hit the linkage for all of the details and specifications. – Travis Hudson

Tarantula Tradeup [Via ubergizmo]

The posting of this video does not reflect Gizmodo's stance towards Apple products. No worries, we are still Apple fanboys.

Nuke an iPod Nano [Gadgetizer]

Thanks to Mark for this very, very sad picture of a broken HP Tablet PC. It was shipped to Mark and the shipper decided to send it via U.S. Priority Mail ... in an envelope. It is kind of neat to see how much damage the USPS can do to an unprotected laptop.

Also thanks goes to SanDisk for sponsoring this contest and providing the 2GB Cruzer Titanium flash drives.

SanDisk Indestructible Giveaway [Gizmodo]