Tunnel Trouble, Chuck Norris, Every Android Phone Ranked, and More

This week was all about big stuff, whether it was big, unidentified objects blocking Seattle's tunnel, or big air in the form of extreme stunts. Also, there's a really yucky picture of a hand surgically attached to an ankle at the very end of this article. You've been warned.

S

Bertha, the world's largest tunneling machine, churning through the rock and mud beneath Seattle, has hit a mysterious roadblock—so mysterious, it is only known for now as "the object."

In a new series of incisive Photoshops, artist Anna Hill uses the image editing techniques that are ubiquitous in mainstream advertising to turn herself into a model. The resulting parody ads don't market make up or clothes, but instead, the image-perfecting power of Photoshop itself.

S

There are something like one million Android phones for every person on the planet right now (plus or minus one). Most of them suck. Many are great. Here's the definitive list that tells you which is which.

Underwater missiles that could have hit New York, jet-powered bombers that were nearly impossible to intercept, sub-orbital bombers, vertical launch rocket fighters, or infrared visors are just a few of many in this definitive collection of incredible Nazi weapons. Be happy that those bastards never got to mass produce them.

Remember Jean-Claude Van Damme's split between two Volvo trucks, the ad that wasn't computer generated but an actual stunt? Well, Chuck Norris splitting between two Lockheed C-5 Galaxy with a squad of special forces on top of his hat is CGI. But that doesn't matter, because if Chuck wanted, Chuck would totally do it.

We no longer live on Earth, my friends. We're in some weird world where people can do the impossible. Do you want to fly? You should try. Do you want to spin in the air in both directions? I think you can. Because this insane Superman double backflip bicycle trick destroys everything that should be humanly possible. The rider does a full back flip while fully extended in a Superman pose, somehow re-gathers himself onto the bike and then does another full back flip. All in one jump. Sweet.

Well played. Ad agency Victors & Spoils poked fun of mass media's tendency to turn normal humans into plastic Barbie and Ken dolls through their abuse of Photoshop by, well, using Photoshop in reverse. That is, they took a viral photo of a girl in a bikini that had been heavily altered and added more alterations to the original alterations to transform the skinny Barbie into a fat Santa Claus. The power of Photoshop swings both ways.

Be excited, Earthlings, because science has a surprise for you. Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have devised a way to turn algae into crude oil in less than an hour. That oil can then be refined into gasoline that can run engines.

He's Superman. Actually, I take it back. I don't even think Superman would fly this impossibly close to the ground because it's just ridiculous. Insane, really. That didn't stop wingsuit pilot Brian Drake from zipping mere feet from the ground though. Look at him tear through the gully and marvel at death being defied. So awesome.

Medicine is amazing but sometimes it can look like the darkest corners of Stephen King's brain. This is exactly the case: Chinese doctors saved a man's severed hand by attaching it to his ankle, creating some impossible anatomy in the process.

View the original article here