Hasta La Gadget!

A fire in Valparaíso, Chile has destroyed more than 2,500 homes, left 11,000 people homeless and killed at least 15 people. It’s an unfathomable tragedy that has destroyed an entire community. This drone footage from Skyfilms attempts to show the extent of the damage caused by the fire’s wrath. It looks like a set of an apocalyptic movie, only it’s real people and real lives on the ground.

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Dragons are a staple of fiction and are found in books, video games, and movies. The fire-breathing dragon is something that never existed as a real animal, but you can have your very own flying dragon.

After seeing Rick Hamel’s amazing remote-controlled dragon, Hammacher Schlemmer is now offering it for you to purchase.

This dragon can do more than fly, it can shoot 3-foot flames out of its mouth. That can’t be legal. The flying dragon has a 9-foot wingspan and can fly at up to 70 mph. Power comes from a tiny turbine engine and the dragon is controlled by a 2.4GHz radio. The flame that shoots from its mouth is made using a propane tank. At least the propane tank can’t shoot flames while the dragon is flying. The flames are only for the ground.

I can only imagine the fiery explosion that will result from a high-speed crash of this thing. If you have $60,000 lying around, the flying, flame-breathing dragon can be yours.

[via Nerd Approved]

There are all sorts of things you can do with a flying drone aircraft or quadcopter carrying a camera. You could do the obvious and chase your dog or cat around the house. You could have it follow your significant other around to make sure they’re not causing trouble.

One thing I would not have thought of doing with a camera-packing drone is send it into the caldera of an active volcano. I would expect the hot gas and flying molten lava to destroy the drone in short order. I would be wrong, at least in this instance. Recently, Shaun O’Callaghan’s DJI Phantom quadcopter drone carried a GoPro into an active volcano on Tanna Island in Vanuatu.

You can see in the video that lava and gas are flying everywhere and going all around the camera and drone. I can’t believe the thing survived, but Shaun says the drone says no harm came to it or the camera during filming.

[via DroneHire]

Here’s a fun trick for pyros (which is pretty much every human ever). As a candle poofs out and leaves a smoke trail, you can re-light it again by igniting the smoke trail. The fire burns down and hits the wick and boom, let there be light.

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At one point in time, camping was truly about getting away from it all and only relying on nature for everything you needed. But these days, most new camping gear pertains to keeping your smartphone charged. Not Francesco Faccin’s Re-Fire kit, though. It’s designed to make camping a little more rugged again—by letting you start a fire using nothing but wood and elbow grease.

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