DIY Weapons of the Syrian Rebels

so this kind of blew my mind. I knew dudes w/o access to fancy tech been jury-rigging crazy homemade weapons since day (literally since the dawn of time I mean) and you've been to see YT videos of people firing homemade rockets for years now but some this shit is still, just like, next and next level

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/02/diy-weapons-of-the-syrian-rebels/100461/

catapults and trebuchets (the latter apparently built using plans from how-to videos posted by American trebuchet hobbyists on YT)




using a smartphone to aim homemade rockets



there's also diy machine shops for mortars (which reminded me of reading about Bougainville in the early 90s, where dudes had lathes in the jungle running on coconut oil. there's actually a fascinating documentary about it called the Coconut Revolution. it's up on YT, here's the trailer and homemade armored cars that put anything from Mad Max to shame, but here's where it really gets into crazy



a console system somehow rigged to control an actual, real-life machine gun. i.e. a simulation of war becoming real again you imagine is the kind of thing would make baudrillard's head explode if he were alive to see it

also, just tbc obviously Syria's a mess, a lot of people are suffering, I don't want to lessen the context. just, like I said it kind of blew my mind a little