Joey Helms lost his DJI drone to a lava fountain while trying to film Iceland’s newly erupting volcano Fagradalsfjall and here’s the footage from its final flight.

Watch the brand new DJI FPV drone crash right into the exploding lava fountain of Iceland’s newest volcano – Fagradalsfjall in the Geldingadalir valley. This unique HD footage provides a rare view right into the volcano’s caldera and lava fountain during one of its geysir-like eruptions.

FPV drones are notorious for crashing, it is part of the hobby. So in an effort to get a unique vantage point and perspective into the crater we flew this remarkably capable drone as close to the lava river and caldera as possible. One of it turned out to be it’s very last flight. At least the goggles record a great 1080p image allowing us to actually capture the last seconds the drone saw.

Hard to say if this was intentional or not but I do wish there was a second drone capturing the crash of the first drone. Is crash even the right word? Melting? Lava…ing? It’s actually surprising the drone even made it as far as it did. I don’t know if you know this, but turns out lava is actually pretty hot.

Keep going for the video. It’s not particularly exciting, but the footage of the lava and volcano are actually pretty nice.

Source: Geekologie – Drone crashes into Icelandic volcano while trying to film eruption

Sorry for the lack of updates. Turns out I went to a place that didn’t have internet and I was unprepared because what kind of place doesn’t have internet? Anyway, here’s a video of a woman defending her dogs on Memorial Day by pushing a bear off her fence with her bare hands. Or should I say bear hands? No. No I should not.

@bakedlikepie

My cousin Hailey yeeted a bear off her fence today and saved her dogs. How was your Memorial Day?! (WTF?!) #ohno #badass #brave #fight #bear

♬ Oh No – Kreepa

Source: Geekologie – Woman defends her dogs by pushing a bear off her fence

I don’t know why you would ever want to, but this is a video of Master S. Kamaraj showing how to throw an axe like a boomerang. I mean, the last thing I want to happen when I throw an axe is to have it come back at me. I literally can’t think of anything I’d want less, unless the axe suddenly exploding in my hand like a grenade was also an option.

Keep going for the video, as well as one of him doing the same thing with a double-sided axe. He even catches them in his hand because if you’re going to do something crazy you might as well fully commit.

Source: Geekologie – How to throw an axe like a boomerang

Because society continues to eat itself, NFT whale 3F Music bought the “Charlie Bit My Finger” YouTube video as an NFT for $760,999 and will most likely have the original video removed from YouTube.

Origin Protocol, which ran the auction, said in a statement the plan was to remove the original video from YouTube and then for it to be “memorialized on the blockchain.” At the time of writing, the original “Charlie Bit My Finger” is still on YouTube, but it’s unlisted.

3F Music also bought the Disaster Girl NFT for $500,000 and the Overly Attached Girlfriend NFT for $411,000. Considering their tremendous wealth and love of memes it’d be fair to assume they were Elon Musk, but turns out they’re just a Dubai-based music production company. Which is fine, but less fun. Pretty much anything is less fun than a lunatic billionaire who can’t stop talking about Dogecoin.

Keep going for the original “Charlie Bit My Finger” video, assuming it’s still there by the time you read this.

Source: Geekologie – ‘Charlie bit my finger’ sold as NFT and probably to be removed from YouTube

You know how old Kung Fu movies have horrible dubbing where the words don’t match up with the mouth at all? Well Flawless AI is a company trying to fix that problem, using neural networks to essentially lip sync dubbing in movies.

It’s a pretty interesting use of deepfake technology and a nice proof of concept, though the results aren’t particularly great and still in the uncanny valley territory. Also, if you’re watching a movie with dubs instead of subtitles you’re already doing it wrong. The only acceptable use of dubbing is when they edit a movie for TV and have to change the language. In fact, all movies should be edited as if they’re going to air on network TV. I present Exhibit A:

TheMalibuArtist is a drone operator who shoots footage of great white sharks off the coast of California. Well turns out he has a bunch of footage because apparently great white sharks are godamn everywhere. From The Los Angeles Times:

Researchers had long wondered how sharks, beyond the rare bites that make headlines, behave around people. Were they curious? Were they skittish? Or did they just ignore them?

“So far it looks like sharks just don’t care,” said Lowe.

“The surfers can’t see them, the swimmers can’t see them. But we can now see them from the air. And in those cases the sharks just don’t seem to change their path,” Lowe added. “Sometimes they’ll swim right under a surfer, but they don’t circle back. They just keep going.”

So turns out this kind of thing has always been happening, it just wasn’t until we had drones that we could actually see it. Judging by the videos, it seems like every time you step onto a California beach you’re about 100 meters from a great white shark. Which is really just another way of saying I’m never stepping into the ocean again.

Keep going for some of TheMalibuArtist’s videos (or check out all of his videos on his YouTube page), including one where a great white shark follows a family for 10 minutes, one where a surfer unknowingly touches a great white shark, and one where a giant great white sharks swims incredibly close to a surfer.

Source: Geekologie – Drone footage shows California’s great white sharks are everywhere and closer than you think

Because the internet ruins everything fun, YouTube skeptic and debunker Mick West released this video explaining that the pyramid-shaped UFO video released by the navy is actually probably just bokeh from a night-vision camera.

New reference footage from night vision monoculars (including the military standard PVS-14) demonstrates pretty conclusively that the supposed flying pyramid UFO actually looks exactly like a slightly out of focus light in the sky – quite possibly just a plane, as the ship was right under a flight path for LAX.

Some of the other lights are identified as Jupiter and some stars.

I don’t think that means the Navy got it terribly wrong. This was initially unidentified (with the UAP Task Force Investigates), and they maybe even thought it was a triangle for a few minutes. But it’s not. It’s just some lights in the sky.

We’ve already established that the military is filming UFOs with their lowest quality potatoes, so it makes sense that all of these UFO sightings are just misidentified video artifacts. It is extremely telling that even in the modern age not a single UFO video has been shot with more clarity than a Game Boy Camera.

Keep going for the full debunking video. His case is too solid so I’m willing to accept this UFO video isn’t real, but obviously all the other ones are.

Source: Geekologie – The pyramid-shaped UFO was probably just bokeh

This is a video of a bunch of teens leading a high speed chase in Florida before coming to a crashing stop on the highway.

Police were called Wednesday for a report of a Fort Lauderdale home being burglarized while people were inside. They got away, but not before police were provided with a description of their vehicle. When cops caught up to the getaway car and tried to pull it over, the suspects refused. Video of the chase shows police vehicles hanging back as the driver appears to make a sudden right turn – across three lanes – and hit at least one other car, barrel into a guardrail and strike an SUV before overturning and spinning to a stop.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department said five juveniles were taken into custody from inside the car.

When I first watched the video I assumed it was just a lone driver, but then the police just started pulling people out like it was a clown car. The best (worst?) part is how the police literally throw the kids from the car after it crashes. I have no sympathy for them because obviously they put everybody on that freeway at risk, it’s just crazy that they probably got more injured during the arrest than their car accident that sent them flying and spinning upside down.

Keep going for the full video. The crash happens at about 0:50 and then everything after is pretty much just fuel for online fighting so I’ll keep my mouth shut.

Source: Geekologie – These teens lead a high speed pursuit that ended in a rollover crash

Google recently announced Project Starline, a video chat booth that uses computer vision, machine learning, spatial audio, real-time compression, and a specialized light field display system to create a life-size 3D holographic representation of the person you’re chatting with. In other words, they took FaceTime and threw a bunch of money and research into it to create the illusion of having somebody sitting on the other side of a window from you.

The current setup is only for use in Google offices since it uses custom-built hardware and highly specialized equipment, but the results look extremely promising for the future of video chat. And by the future of video chat I obviously mean porn. Connecting with loved ones is great and all but, I mean, c’mon. Let’s be real here.

Keep going for the full video and check out the official Project Starline announcement for more. Although I don’t know if it’s their color scheme or what, but all of their demo footage makes it look like family members visiting each other in prison.

Source: Geekologie – Google’s Project Starline is like a magic window for video chatting

This is a video of a USAF Boeing/Bell CV-22B Osprey 10-0053 landing at Addenbrooke’s hospital helipad for a medical-transfer training operation and then on takeoff literally blowing up the helipad with its rotor wash.

I just wonder what would’ve happened if any of the rubber matting had actually gotten caught in the rotors. Is it like throwing string at a drone where it gets tangled up and basically brings the whole thing down? Are modern helicopters as easy to take down? I’ve seen rotors decapitate heads though so I’m assuming they’re a little more durable.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – A USAF helicopter literally blowing up Addenbrooke’s hospital helipad

A spherical UFO was filmed in San Diego around the USS Omaha in 2019 and that UFO guy Jeremy Corbell got the footage.

This footage was filmed in the CIC (Combat Information Center) of the USS Omaha on July 15th 2019 in a warning area off San Diego. This footage depicts a UAP event series that reached a crescendo with one of the unknown targets entering the water. No wreckage found. None of the unknown craft were recovered.

Like all UFO footage, it’s predictably of terrible quality despite being filmed in 2019 and with military equipment. Is this what the US Navy is working with? Did they not get the memo that cameras are good now? They’d have gotten better footage if they just replaced all their fancy equipment with an iPhone.

Keep going for the full video. I want to believe, but I also want there to be UFO footage that isn’t always just the absolute lowest quality footage ever captured.

Source: Geekologie – Released footage of Spherical UFO filmed in 2019 around the USS Omaha

The 11-foot-8 bridge (nicknamed The Can Opener) is a bridge in North Carolina famous for ruining trucks because of its low height. In 2019 they raised the height of the bridge by 8″ making it 12’4″, but apparently it wasn’t enough because it got a perfect peel last week when it cleanly removed the top of a courier truck. This was the 167th crash since the 11’8″ website started filming the bridge in 2008.

The bridge is so infamous, local rental companies warn truck renters about the bridge and let them know any damage caused by the bridge isn’t covered by insurance. Not that it matters for me, because car rental companies long ago stopped letting me buy the insurance. Why would I buy something if I’m not going to use it? Obviously if you let me buy insurance I’m returning your car banged up and possibly on fire.

Keep going for the full video. It sucks for the driver, but it’s so satisfying to watch.

Source: Geekologie – The infamous 11-foot-8 bridge gets a perfect peel

This is a video of James May explaining a critical design flaw with the Tesla Model S. Basically, even though the Tesla has a giant battery in it that runs the entire car, it also has one of those tiny regular 12v car batteries that powers the doors and hood and pretty much anything else that lets you actually access the car. For some reason the 12v battery doesn’t get topped off by the bigger giant battery so if it dies you’re essentially locked out of the car and the only way to charge it is to disassemble your Tesla because to access the 12v battery you need to pop the hood that’s powered by the dead 12v battery. So there ya go. The reason I’ll never buy a Tesla Model S. That, and the fact that they cost money and I don’t have any of that stuff.

Keep going for the full weirdly mesmerizing video. I could listen to James May talk about anything.

Source: Geekologie – James May explains a design flaw with the Tesla Model S

A graphics glitch caused meteorologist Jennifer McDermed to start multiplying on-air during her forecast and she did her best to accept her new reality in a psychedelic dimension. A very different reaction than the time I entered a psychedelic dimension after taking too many mushrooms and ended up just trying to stab everybody in the room. Look, if they didn’t want to be stabbed then they shouldn’t have morphed into the baby-eating demons.

Keep going for the full wholesome video.

Source: Geekologie – Meteorologist loses it during graphics glitch in the best possible way

Researchers have developed a method of making synthetic images more realistic using neural networks and the results when applied to GTA V are pretty damn impressive.

We present an approach to enhancing the realism of synthetic images. The images are enhanced by a convolutional network that leverages intermediate representations produced by conventional rendering pipelines. The network is trained via a novel adversarial objective, which provides strong supervision at multiple perceptual levels. We analyze scene layout distributions in commonly used datasets and find that they differ in important ways. We hypothesize that this is one of the causes of strong artifacts that can be observed in the results of many prior methods. To address this we propose a new strategy for sampling image patches during training. We also introduce multiple architectural improvements in the deep network modules used for photorealism enhancement. We confirm the benefits of our contributions in controlled experiments and report substantial gains in stability and realism in comparison to recent image-to-image translation methods and a variety of other baselines.

Unfortunately, you can’t actually play the game in this photorealistic mode since it’s only re-rendering the recorded footage. Maybe one day, but until then they need to apply the same methodology to Mortal Kombat because I’ve always wanted to watch video game footage and then throw up. Although finding the footage to train their model is going to be pretty difficult ever since LiveLeak shut down and took all their snuff films with it.

Keep going for the full demonstration video and check out side by side images on their project site.

Source: Geekologie – Researchers use machine learning to make GTA V photorealistic

Reminding me why I never step foot into the ocean, a deep-sea angler fish washed ashore in Crystal Cove, California last Friday. They usually lives in waters as deep as 3,000 feet and it’s super rare for them be found intact, let alone washed up on a shore.

Last Friday morning an incredible deep sea fish washed up on shore in Crystal Cove State Park’s Marine Protected Area (MPA). There are more than 200 species of angler fish worldwide and this particular fish is most likely the Pacific Football Fish. Only females possess a long stalk on the head with bioluminescent tips used as a lure to entice prey in the darkness of waters as deep as 3,000 feet! Their teeth, like pointed shards of glass, are transparent and their large mouth is capable of sucking up and swallowing prey the size of their own body. While females can reach lengths of 24 inches males only grow to be about an inch long and their sole purpose is to find a female and help her reproduce. Males latch onto the female with their teeth and become “sexual parasites,” eventually coalescing with the female until nothing is left of their form but their testes for reproduction. Wild! To see an actual angler fish intact is very rare and it is unknown how or why the fish ended up on the shore. Seeing this strange and fascinating fish is a testament to the diversity of marine life lurking below the water’s surface in California’s MPAs and as scientists continue to learn more about these deep sea creatures it’s important to reflect on how much is still to be learned from our wonderful ocean 🌊

So you’re telling me the ocean is filled with sharks and jellyfish and things that look like this and people still voluntarily go in there? Yeah, no thanks. If you need me, I’ll be in my bed where the only spiky-toothed monster is my girlfriend’s vagina.

Keep going for some more photos from the Crystal Cove State Park Instagram.

Source: Geekologie – Deep-sea angler fish washes up on shore in Southern California

Elon Musk hosted SNL over the weekend and if you managed to miss it, here’s his monologue along with a bunch of other sketches. It goes surprisingly well considering he’s not an actor, has Asperger’s, and is generally just a really, really odd person. He has such a strange communication style and for some reason it lends itself perfectly for comedy. I just wonder if there’s a single person who watched who doesn’t know who Elon Musk is, because they would’ve been very confused. “Mom, why is SNL being hosted by an alien pretending to be a human?”

Keep going for Elon’s monologue as well as a bunch of other sketches.

Source: Geekologie – In case you weren’t aware, Elon Musk hosted SNL over the weekend

On the same day a distracted driving bill was introduced, state Senator Andrew Brenner participated in a government video meeting while driving. While that’s ironic enough, the best part was that he used a Zoom background to try and disguise the fact he was driving. Because, ya know, everybody wears a seat belt at home while taking Zoom calls. Sometimes I even put on a bike helmet too just in case.

This Ohio State Senator thought he was slick, using a Zoom background of his home office while driving… debating a bill for harsher penalties for distracted driving https://t.co/XfangsLaHX pic.twitter.com/r55ti7bsma

— Brody Logan (@BrodyLogan) May 6, 2021

Keep going for some video of his escapades after the jump.

Source: Geekologie – Ohio senator uses Zoom background to try to hide the fact he’s driving