Watch these guys drop a giant metal dart from atop a tower onto stuff

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/13/watch-these-guys-drop-a-giant.html

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What is that tower for, really? Did the Australians build a tower in the middle of nowhere for the express purpose of dropping things off it? And videoing the results?

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Yeah, pretty much. It’s some sort of scientific research place and they built the tower for visiting kids to drop stuff off of to study the effect of gravity.

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Oh, okay, fair enough.

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Based on a sign seen briefly in the video: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Discovery_Centre

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  1. I am so in if anyone wants to invite me to do this…

  2. “Gravity Discovery Centre” I kind of a hilarious name if you think about it. But also aptly named, I suppose.

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I understand how more clicks/likes/upvotes equal increased revenue for the presenter and platform and I also understand why tv shows will drag out episodes to cover commercial breaks and repeated viewership, but why in god’s name does this need to be 11 minutes long? I get it; guy drops metal dart off of high places to see what will break. I have about 90 seconds I’m willing to devote to that. Surely there’s a sound reason for dragging it out so long?

ETA: See what I’m talking about? 1:43. That I can handle. https://boingboing.net/2018/08/13/hilarious-video-of-every-paren.html

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Why would Australians build a tower in New York?

EDIT: Oops, different tower. I watched the Letterman video.

Yep, that’s pretty much it. General-purpose science learning within an hours drive of the state capital. I went there for an astronomy night as a teen but we didn’t get the chance to use the tower.

From these video I guess it’s open to private bookings, which is very tempting if I can think of something interesting to drop.

the best giant-dart-based entertainment in human history.

I’m sure the Roman legions would have had something to say about that.

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:point_up_2: This!

0:15 dart throwing, 9:55 frat boy hollering. Less talk, more destroying stuff please!

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Something to do with the YouTube algorithms. Videos over 10 minutes long get ranked higher in the search results, or get more ad revenue. As such, youtubers do anything to pad the time knowing that their viewers will scroll through to the content.

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Gravity Discovery Centre = the whole planet.

I’ve been discovering it my whole life.

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Yeah I was reading something in the papers this weekend that it used to be 3-4 mins and now it’s 10-12. Youtube ‘stars’ are starting to suffer burnout trying to keep ratings and rankings up and as well as everything else now having to make longer vids is additional stress.

Not that I have one iota of sympathy, of course.

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One of the first things you learn as a baby :wink:

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Little by little, gravity begins to get the upper hand, too.

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‘Rod of God’ … love the name.

Wait till Trump sees this, I am sure he will want to lift the CPSC ban on Lawn Darts…

Yeah the Rods from God concept I find neat. In this alien invasion idea, this sort of thing would be the per-invasion soften up.