world war ii - Gizmodo

posts about #worldwarii more →
Photos From an Alternative Earth Where Superheroes Existed
Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
Now the Gear Will Start: The Gadgetry of World War II
WWII Mine Blown Up Spectacularly in Front of English Beach
WWII Star Wars Action Figures

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Xagest
10/15/09

In reply to Photos From an Alternative Earth Where Superheroes Existed
There's something about spandex that's just... well, awesome #superheroes
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jkrell
10/15/09

In reply to Photos From an Alternative Earth Where Superheroes Existed
The more I look at these, the more they piss me off. Vader is in the same exact pose in both pictures in which he is features. Plus, his light sabre is fake -- one of those plastic kids toys.

Also, in the bigger one with Batman, why does he look like a lard ass? #superheroes
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lostarchitect
10/15/09

@jkrell: Yeah, they're sloppy as hell. #superheroes
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lostarchitect
10/15/09

In reply to Photos From an Alternative Earth Where Superheroes Existed
Hello, intro sequence to Watchmen movie. #superheroes
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suburbancowboy
10/15/09

@lostarchitect: Came here to say this.
The beginning of Watchmen is one of the best movie intros I have ever seen. #superheroes
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Pope John Peeps II
03/25/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
Actually that remote control tank was so well-known that a canadian world war 2 cartoonist wrote a panel about it in one of his editorials.

I can't remember who it was, but he drew the sort of "beetle bailey" of Canadian wwII comics.
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Nick
03/24/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
all very interesting, but i am still disappointed. there was not one instance of the obligatory "ze Germans" anywhere in the article. and zer vas every opportunity for it as vell.
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Monty
03/24/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
Since we are going down this slippery slope, I suppose you could add Kamikaze pilots and suicide bombers to the list of remote controlled war weapons, too. Depressingly unfunny jokes aside, this is a wonderful reminder that the concept of eliminating humans from the war equation has long been a goal, but clearly has never truly worked. I look forward to the day when we could eliminate war from the war equation.
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jrghoull
03/24/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
oh, i totally forgot, giz, thanks for posting the article yesterday. I wanted to read that book and you posting an article about it made my process of getting it from the library a million time easier.

so again, thanks

as for my actual post

technology is a crazy thing. You know the first rudamentary steam engine was created in the days of ancient rome? If the king (i think it was Caesar, but i could easily be wrong) had had some more imagination, they could have had basic cars back then.

had history gone a little differently, providing we didn't blow ourselves up in the process, I think we could have been substantially farther ahead in technology than we are right now.
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
03/24/09

@jrghoull: So The League of Extraordinary Gentleman could have happened!?!?!
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Iron Gossett Jr.
03/24/09

@jrghoull: If you look at the Antikythera mechanism found in Greece it makes a case for even more advanced ancient technology yet to be discovered.
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
03/24/09

@RealTomatoKetchup: So even more advanced watches?
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
03/24/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
Also, IIRC, BF Skinner or someone of his ilk designed a bomb guided by "flying rats" AKA pigeons. Except for how absurd it sounded, they were damn accurate.
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kingofmars
03/24/09

@Single-n-Bitter_GitEmSteveDave: I was also going to mention BF Skinner and his bird brained bomb. It's a shame that they didn't trust the weapon enough. Maybe it also took too much time to train the bird as well.

IWhile not quite a robot, I heard that the Germans used remote controlled missles with telescopes on land for guidance. If the missle went to far right, they would send dashes to steer it to the left, to far left, send dashes. The Brits found the signal and just loaded it up with dashes, even when they were supposed to be dots.
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
03/24/09

@kingofmars: They had a program in the early 80's/late 70's to use pigeons strapped to the bottom of Coast Guard/Navy helicopters to spot people lost at sea. It sounded absurd, but they had an amazing success compared to people in the helicopters w/the birds. The program was dropped cuz it sounded so far fetched.

Sometimes things are woo-woo, like Reiki and Homeopathy, but other things, which sound so "out there", like treating wounds/injuries with leeches/maggots or spotting people with pigeons, are dead on, once you get over the giggle/puke factor.
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kernow
03/24/09

@Porntipsguzzardo_GitEmSteveDav...: I was also going to mention that as well as the bat bomb, designed by an american dentist horseshoe bats had small incenduary bombs strapped to their backs the idea being that when dropped from a plane in a specially designed housing the bats would fly out over a japanese city, roost in buildings and explode setting fire to them. The idea worked but the A bomb came along befor it was deployed.
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
03/25/09

@leotris: It was actually deployed in a test in a abandoned US military base. Supposedly they weren't meant to arm the napalm bombs, but they did by accident and caused massive damage. I know the bease did burn due to the bats, but I've never heard which version is true, the accidental or the intentional.
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
03/24/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
Anyone else think that boat in the first picture looks like one of the current lines of routers?
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Crim Law Geek
03/24/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
What about the V1 and V2 bombs?
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Wilson Rothman
03/24/09

@Crim Law Geek: I mention them, but I went with the Fritz because 1) it's less well known and 2) it's got radio-controlled fins!
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strider_mt2k
03/24/09

@Crim Law Geek: They are the first things i thought of too, but Wilson did REALLY well with these others.

Good stuff, Gizmodo!
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crabbygeek
03/24/09

In reply to Unmanned Warbots of WWI and WWII
Why don't I have any of these for COD5...
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Hello Mister Walrus
03/24/09

@crabbygeek: So you could pretend to be a guy pretend-controlling a plane?
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