A Supercut of Epic Movie Explosions

From Screen Junkies - watch full screen. List of movies below the video.

Movies used:

Fight Club,
Lethal Weapon 3, 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), 
The Mask, 
Face/Off, 
Die Hard with a Vengeance, 
Independence Day, 
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, 
The Dark Knight, 
Transformers: Age of Extinction, 
Tropic Thunder, 
The Expendables, 
Guardians of the Galaxy, 
Star Wars, 
Return of the Jedi, 
Die Hard, 
Django Unchained, 
Caddyshack, 
V for Vendetta, 
Dr. Strangelove, 
Ghostbusters, 
The Lord of the Rings: 
The Two Towers, 
Robocop (1987), 
Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 
The Terminator, 
Speed, 
Oz The Great and Powerful, 
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 
Mary Poppins, 
Rio, 
Paul, 
The Theory of Everything, 
Neighbors, 
The Croods.

Friday links

Here's what happens when you crack your knuckles, including the researcher who cracked the knuckles in one hand only for over 60 years to see if he'd get arthritis. Related: The Science of Knuckle Cracking.

How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology

The legend of Blackbeard’s silver-plated skull. Kind of related: The Swashbuckling History of Women Pirates.

April 22 is Earth Day: here's the story of the co-founder who killed then composted his girlfriend.

Inside the FBI’s Colossal Pre-Computer Fingerprint Factory.

Artificial Heart Update: A simple artificial heart could permanently replace a failing human one.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed 80% of San Francisco, that time Kansas locked up more than 5,000 women and girls for having STDs, why it's almost impossible to throw a 110 mph fastball, and "T'was the eighteenth of April in seventy-five": the midnight ride of William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (and Paul Revere).

April 22 is Earth Day: here's the story of the co-founder who killed, then composted, his girlfriend

Nicknamed the Unicorn Killer because his last name means "one horn" in German, Ira Einhorn (wiki) jumped bail and evaded arrest for 23 years, but eventually the "she went to the neighborhood co-op to buy some tofu and sprouts and never returned" story fell apart.

Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the "composted" body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.

When his girlfriend of five years, Helen "Holly" Maddux, moved to New York and broke up with him, Einhorn threatened that he would throw her left-behind personal belongings onto the street if she didn't come back to pick them up.

And so on Sept. 9, 1977, Maddux went back to the apartment that she and Einhorn had shared in Philadelphia to collect her things, and was never seen again. When Philadelphia police questioned Einhorn about her mysterious disappearance several weeks later, he claimed that she had gone out to the neighborhood co-op to buy some tofu and sprouts and never returned.

At the time of his arrest, Einhorn had a kind of
crazed Colonel Sanders thing going......

It wasn't until 18 months later that investigators searched Einhorn's apartment after one of his neighbors complained that a reddish-brown, foul-smelling liquid was leaking from the ceiling directly below Einhorn's bedroom closet. Inside the closet, police found Maddux's beaten and partially mummified body stuffed into a trunk that had also been packed with Styrofoam, air fresheners and newspapers.

After his arrest, Einhorn jumped bail and spent decades evading authorities by hiding out in Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and France. After 23 years, he was finally extradited to the United States from France and put on trial. Taking the stand in his own defense, Einhorn claimed that his ex-girlfriend had been killed by CIA agents who framed him for the crime because he knew too much about the agency's paranormal military research. He was convicted of murdering Maddux and is currently serving a life sentence.

Understandably, Earth Day's organizers have distanced themselves from his name, citing Gaylord Nelson, an environmental activist and former Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator who died in 2005, as Earth Day's official founder and organizer. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Sen. Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day in the spring of 1970 as a way to bring national awareness to the fact that, at the time, there were no legal or regulatory mechanisms in place to protect the environment. About 20 million participants at various Earth Day events across the U.S. made Earth Day a success, and in December of 1970, Congress authorized the creation of a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues — the EPA.

More at NBC and Reason.

Wednesday links

T'was the eighteenth of April in seventy-five: The midnight ride of William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (and Paul Revere).

The Forgotten Nazi History of ‘One-Pot Meals’.

Dorothy’s ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Ruby Slippers On Sale For A Whopping $6 Million.

On April 18, 1906, an earthquake and fire destroyed 80% of San Francisco: here's a documentary, Library of Congress footage of the destruction, and side by side film of Market Street four days before the earthquake compared to afterward.

Why It's Almost Impossible to Throw a 110 MPH Fastball

Kansas locked up more than 5,000 women and girls for having STDs.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include Spring cleaning, 19th century style, a 1940's booklet to “assist male bosses in supervising their new female employees" entitled "Women are teachable", and predictions for 2018 from various times in the 20th century.

April 18, 1906 - the earthquake and fire that destroyed 80% of San Francisco: documentary and footage

San Fran City Hall

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake (wiki) struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated"moment magnitude" of 7.8 and a maximum "Mercalli intensity" of "XI" ("Extreme"). Severe shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. As a result, about 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high in the lists of American urban disasters.

Below is a side by side comparison of trolley car trips down Market Street taken 1. on April 14, 1906, four days before quake and fire, and 2. shortly after. Check out the lack of traffic regulation - the trolley car is on a track, but there's no rhyme or reason to anything else - no traffic lights, no lanes, and no rules: 

Library of Congress (silent) footage of  the quake itself:

And, lastly, a recent documentary on the disaster:

Want more? Check out Google images of the earthquake.

Monday links

How To Dress For Success And To Get A Man: A 1967 Guide. Related, "Women are teachable": 1940's booklet to “assist male bosses in supervising their new female employees"

Spring cleaning, 19th century style.

FBI recovers stolen Chagall 30 years after theft.

Microsoft has made its internal training courses for AI available to the public.

Predictions for the Year 2018 From the 20th Century

Shoplifter uses Play-Doh to cover up security camera lens, leaves perfectly pressed fingerprint behind.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include tax-related stuff (history, cartoons, links, Dave Barry, Sci Fi tax revolts, the tax implications of the zombie apocalypse, and the 1967 cartoon version of The Beatles "Taxman"), and the anniversaries of Lincoln's assassination and the sinking of the Titanic (with eyewitness accounts of each).