#death rays

[irregularincidents]

On the run up to the Second World War, there was an amount of anxiety in Britain about the Germans having a potential technological edge over the British, much as they had had in the First World War initially with the use of zeppelins and bomber aircraft.

The solution to this, in the 1930s at least, was the British Air Ministry offering a £1000 prize for anyone that could invent an energy projection weapon that could kill a sheep at 100 paces.

Now, despite English inventor/crank Harry Grindell Matthews (main image) claiming to have invented a death ray that could ignite gunpowder and "incapacitate" enemy troops from four miles away all the way back in 1923, he ended up not presenting anything useful for the competition.

Instead a pair from the Radio Research Station, Robert Watson Watt and Skip Wilkins (after concluding that it would require too much energy to actually create a death ray that works like they do in science fiction) were inspired to create radar instead, which both gave the British an edge over German bomber planes once the technology was perfected in the 1940s and actually had peaceful applications , such as with civilian passenger aircraft.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, both the Germans and the Japanese were also experimenting with death rays of their own, with the Japanese allegedly being the most successful with their experiments with directed microwave weaponry. The Ku-Go, as it was supposedly called, was ultimately not created (obviously) by the end of the war, but it did reportedly make a lot of rabbits, mice and such very unhappy.

[selwyngrimm]

Here's a drawing from a German workbook from college.

[skjam]

Comic Book Review: DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #22: Secret Origins of Super-Heroes

Comic Book Review: DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #22: Secret Origins of Super-Heroes edited by E. Nelson Bridwell “Secret origins” are a big part of the superhero genre. Since, back in the day, most superheroes had secret identities, just how exactly they’d come to gain powers or the motivation to fight crime was also a secret to the public. But we readers got to be in on the secret, creating a…

[vampyfrnk]

this is my favorite clip to ever exist.

[diana-andraste]

Autoportrait au nu mort, Man Ray, 1920

[chronivore]

[w1lmuttart]

Enough guilt you can make a bouquet out of it

[syn4k]

you only die once! when you do, make sure to make it as intentionally traumatic for everyone else around you as possible!!

[themeeplord]

Blessed with two minds.

Cursed to never use them.

[classichorrorblog]

Bloodbath At The House of Death (1984)

[madcat-world]

A Sound of Thunder - Unita-N

[sparklejumpropequeen1949]

8 year old me is crying for a hug

[themcrarchive]

3/25/2014: MCR release their compilation album May Death Never Stop You, including the Attic Demos and the previously unreleased song “Fake Your Death”. This song would not be played live until #MCRLA5 on 10/17/22.

[ruporas]

i killed. i murdered. i'm nothing like these sleepy people here… nevertheless, you can actually be grateful? bastard… i’m saying… thank you. because you spilled blood, you saved all of these people’s lives. i couldn’t have done it without you. (ID in alt)

[jesncin]

what are either of you guys favorite queer hcs for your favorite characters (if you have any ofc)

I have a cursed current fav queer headcanon:

I like to think Johnstantine had a massive crush on Ray Monde when he was young, and is embarrassed about it once he got older. Ray keeps gently turning young Constantine down but still takes care of him on the occasional times Constantine's homeless.

This probably isn't a popular hc but a friend of mine who I'm calling a Constantine Scholar had a similar hc so it counts now!!

[erinsangel]

rip misa you would have loved lana del rey.