Hasta La Gadget!

What do you do when you are deployed in Afghanistan and you have way too much down time? Sounds like a good problem to have in Afghanistan. Well, Redditor b3tarded is there and made the most of his or her downtime by creating a Mario mural. They could have read books, or slept, or got into some trouble. Instead they created a great piece of geek art.

The scene included pipes, bricks and even the timer. They did a pretty good job, given the limited resources on hand. It likely also helped to cheer up a bunch of other soldiers.

You are a true geek sir or madam. Awesome job.

[via Gamefreaks via Nerd Approved]

Shocking video of a US Army infantry outpost hit the web today, showing an airstrike gone awry. The soldiers are waiting for the strike to take out a group of Taliban soldiers, when a 500-pound bomb explodes just a few feet from their outpost. A 500-pound American bomb.

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Some might say that nothing can truly prepare one for the atrocities of war. From the chaos of screaming civilians and injured soldiers to the horror of exploding everything, the experience must be nothing short of horrific. And it’s this Hollywood production company’s job to reproduce it.

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This is why we can’t have nice things. Recently declassified video footage from Northern Afghanistan shows that piloting a drone isn’t nearly as easy as it seems, even when it’s still on the ground.

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It’s been a few years since news of Prox Dynamics’ Black Hornet mini-copter has swung our way. But now it appears the wee reconnaissance drones have moved out of the prototype phase and into the war zone. As part of the British government’s £20 million contract with the Norway-based outfit and defense contractor Marlborough Communications, 160 of these camera-equipped spy copters have been commissioned, with a portion of those units employed by troops stationed in Afghanistan. That might seem like a huge sum to pay for a fleet of remote-controllable war toys, but these 4 x 1-inch copters do present a definite advantage: they can deliver full video and stills, ably maneuver in high winds and help navigate troops past “insurgent firing points” and open terrain. All of which has the Ministry of Defence quite pleased, even prompting one Minister to call the fleet of Black Hornets a “key component” of the MoD’s current budget. That’s not surprising really, considering the governmental arm’s plans to pump nearly £20 billion into the development of similar tech for its ISS (Information Systems and Services) and ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) programs. So, as of today, we have mini copters with cameras. But, tomorrow always brings the promise of lasers…

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Via: Associated Press

Source: Ministry of Defence