How China demolished a 118-meter building in less than 15 seconds

On a beautiful Sunday morning in Xi’an, a city in the northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, something incredible was about to happen, a 118-meter building was about to be demolished. The building had 26 floors that was later reduced to zero in just 13 seconds.

“The operation worked quite well. For one thing the building collapsed in the correct direction and for another thing it fell down at a low height and was fully exploded. Both the noise and trembling of the demolition were under controllable range,” according to a statement by demolition expert Zhao Fuxin.

“A bar is located only seven meters away from the building and it hadn’t been affected at all. There wasn’t even a piece of stone dropping on the bar. I’m quite satisfied with the operation. It worked well,”

How the M-16 works and what it can do.

This Scarlett Johansson Robot is the Creepiest Thing Ever

The Mirror reports a 42 year-old man named Ricky Ma has built a $50,000 humanoid robot named Mark 1 from scratch. He’s not revealing the name of the Hollywood actress it was modeled after, but one look at the robot immediately gives it away: Scarlett Johansson. I would be curious to find out what Scarlett Johansson herself thinks of this robot lookalike. If I was the real Scarlett Johansson, I imagine it would be hard to go to sleep at night, knowing that a robotic doppelganger sits or stands somewhere in Hong Kong, eyes never shutting. Equally disturbing would be the idea of this lookalike robot responding to Ma’s incessant commands with a canned, programmed, “Hehe, thank you.” The future, er, the present, just got that much creepier.

Ricky Ma is a product and graphic designer and when he began building his robot, had no in-depth knowledge of coding, robotics or electromechanics. He taught himself everything about robot construction as he went along, which took about a year and a half. He admitted that it was incredibly difficult to build all the parts from scratch. Ma said,

      “During this process, a lot of people would say things like, ‘Are you stupid? This takes a lot of money. Do you even know how to do it? It’s really hard.'”


He built Mark 1 in near total isolation and told Yip he didn’t know anyone else who was currently building a robot in Hong Kong. He also told the Reuters journalist that few in his city understood his mission to build a robot. Ma admitted that he has been obsessed with building a robot since his childhood. He said he loved animation and cartoons as a child and never quite stopped loving them.

The humanoid robot’s silicone skin covers a 3D printed skeleton and 70% of the body was created using 3D printing technology. Mark 1 responds to a set of a programmed verbal commands that Ma speaks into a microphone. The robot can perform simple movements with its arms and legs, can turn its head and bow as well. Additionally, Mark 1 can create highly detailed facial expressions.