A Welsh View

Video: Saudi Car Climber

Haven't Saudi blokes got anything better to do than drift and climb over their cars?

Car vs ?

According to the comments on EnglishRussia the piece of metal wedged in the car is a "cargo compartment door from an “Ikarus” bus". More photos here.

Video: Forklift Truck Operator Takes Down Racking

That racking must have been assembled using sellotape. The forklift operator didn't appear to hit it with much too force.

The New York Times - Photos of 2008

Joao Silver for The New York Times

The New York Times presents its photos of the year including the photo above of a boy in Gori, Georgia standing beside a medium-range Russian missile that crashed through his apartment.

Places I Visited In 2008

Inspired by Kottke.org, here's a list of places that I visited in 2008:-

• Tallinn, Estonia
• Helsinki, Finland (Spent a full day there)
• Edinburgh, Scotland
• London * (3)
• San Francisco, CA
• Monterrey, CA
• Half Moon Bay, CA
• Oxford, England

[One or more nights were spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.]

As travelling is becoming a passion of mine, next year I plan on visiting more places, particularly in the UK. Here's what's planned so far:-

• Bristol, England
• London * (5)
• Telford, England
• Nottingham, England
• Bangor, Wales
• Holyhead, Wales
• Torquay, England
• Yeovil, England
• A yet to be determined road trip in the USA (Sep/Oct)

As you can see, London is a big favourite of mine and given the chance I'd be up there every month. Feel free to add the places that you've visited in the comments.

Video: Moscovites Go Crazy Over Cheap Laptops

That guy at the beginning did a great job of grabbing a laptop and running.

The 13 Most Famous Numbers And Their Stories

The stories of 13 famous numbers including Graham's Number - the biggest number ever used in a mathematic proof. [via]

Video: United States Of Pop

DJ Earworm mashes up the top 25 singles of the year from the US Billboard charts into a single song and video. View the tracklist here. This guy's got some talent. And if you liked the video, he's got more mashups here. [via]

Video: High Exhaust Pipes

Of all the car crazes, this ranks up there as being the one of the worst. [via]

Windows 7 Beta 1 Leaked

Slated to be released at CES in January as with most things digital, Windows 7 Beta 1 has been leaked onto the Internet. If you want to try it out for yourself you can get it at the usual places (#) or you read ZDNet's review (w/ screenshots). [via]

Cute Kitten

As a blogger it is my duty to post cute cat pictures from time to time so here's one of a kitten who's broken his leg. Awww. [via]

Video: Putting Metal In An MRI Scanner

Video: How Christmas Puddings Are Made

A short video from the BBC showing Christmas puddings being made.

Video: Antics Of A Crackhead

Apparently this is what crack can do to you.

Video: 5 Stages of Death

Video: Blending Lighters

Video: Ken Block Shows Off His Driving Skills

[via]

Video: Dead-Stick Takeoff and Landing

I've never heard of a dead-stick takeoff (probably because I'm not a pilot) but here is a good example of one. The pilot rolls pushes his plane off a 1500ft cliff before gliding for two miles.

Thai Woman Sets New Scorpion Record

Thailand's Scorpion Queen, 39-year-old Kanchana Kaetkaew, has set a new world record - by holding a poisonous scorpion in her mouth for just over two minutes.

Kaetkaew completed the record in Pattaya, Thailand and was handed the arachnid by her husband - who, coincidentally, is known as the Centipede King.

She has gone on to begin her second world record attempt: entering a glass compound where she hopes to stay for 33 days and nights along with 5,000 scorpions. That would be one day longer than the current record which she set in 2002. Link

Video: Pro Dice Stacking

The Economist has published an interesting article about how supermarkets analyse its customers and the ways in which they try to make you buy more goods. And if you think the CCTV cameras are there to just catch thieves, think again.

Technology is making the process of monitoring shopper behaviour easier—which is why the security cameras in a store may be doing a lot more than simply watching out for theft. Rajeev Sharma, of Pennsylvania State University, founded a company called VideoMining to automate the process. It uses image-recognition software to scan the pictures from security cameras of shoppers while they are making their selections. It is capable of looking at the actions of hundreds of thousands of people. It can measure how many went straight to one brand, the number that dithered and those that compared several, at the same time as sorting shoppers by age, gender and ethnicity.

Here's a video of the system in action.

Mrs B (aka Chi)

A Boab tree used as a prison on the King River road near Wyndham. Chris&Steve

It may not experience the hottest temperatures on Earth (that record goes to Al 'Aziziyah), but Wyndham, Australia has consistently high temperatures throughout the year making it one of the hottest inhabited places on Earth. The annual average maximum temperature is 35.6°C (96.1°F). The hottest month is November with an average maximum temperature of 39.4°C (102.9°F), and the 'coolest months' of June and July have an average maximum of 31.2°C (86.4°F). In 1946, Wyndham recorded 333 consecutive days of temperatures over 32°C (90°F)!

Fitzroy River. yewenyi

Wikipedia also lists Fitzroy Crossing, Australia as the hottest inhabited place but doesn't give any information regarding temperatures. As an example of how hot it has been this month, at 9am (Fitzroy Crossing time) it was 33.6C and the lowest temperature this month was a chilly 22C (source)

Many websites list Dallol, Ethiopia as being the hottest inhabited place on Earth due to an average annual temperature of 34°C (94°F) was recorded between the years 1960 and 1966. This is lower than the annual average temperature of 35.6°C quoted by Wikipedia for Wyndham.

"Astronaut Karen Nyberg, STS-124 mission specialist, looks through a window in the newly installed Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Discovery is docked with the station on June 10th, 2008."

More stunning photos here.

AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski

More stunning photos from Boston's 'The Big Picture'.

confirmafr

Oymyakon/Ojmjakon/Oimyakon (map) is the coldest permanently inhabited place on earth. Located in Siberia, the lowest recorded temperature here is -71.2 degrees Celsius. According to Wikipedia this is the lowest officially recorded temperature in the northern hemisphere.

The village has a population of around 800 and is located 690 meters above sea level and lies in a valley between two mountain ranges (the reason for the low temperatures). The name Oymyakon means "non-freezing water" because of the natural hot spring close to the village.

The temperature this week is pretty low and the temperature tomorrow is a chilly -63C which based on the stats at Wikipedia equals the record low for December.

There aren't a great deal of images and videos on the net (here's an account of a trip in 1996) but here are two video reports, one from Sky News and the other from RTL.

It's interesting how the school children only get a day off when the temperature drops below -52C yet over here a light dusting can cause widespread disruption. And even though the RTL report is not in English check out the shirt that breaks in two.

Sky News

RTL

A very impressive pod of dolphins.

I can't work out whether the police car is trying to overtake the truck or trying to pull it over. It's the latter, are all police chases in China this boring?

REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger

Boston.com presents part one of the best 'Big Pictures' from 2008. There are 40 in this part and the other 2 parts will follow over the next couple of days. [via]

I haven't seen a view of a hippo from this angle before. You can view a video of new-born Paula here.

The Daily Mail has posted a recording of a family celebrating Christmas together during the First World War. It is the first time that they have been heard in nearly a century.

Eight phonograph cyclinders, made of beeswax and soap, feature the Smith family from Salisbury in Wiltshire singing carols and dicussing 'daddy being away at war.'

The recording was found by Russell Barnes who also found other recordings that were made between 1913 and 1917.

It's interesting to learn that children were getting bikes for Christmas almost 100 years ago.

A video of an icy street in Portland, Oregon.

The tyre ride at the end looks fun. [via]

[via]

I can't make up my mind whether this White Castle burger would be tasty or not. Take a look at what went into it. [via]

No doubt they were inspired by the guy who took a bath in a Burger King sink. You can view some of the provocative photos they took whilst in the sink on the Daily Mail site (SFW).

Beaker is by far my favourite Muppet. [via]

Footage of a Tiger Moth plane striking a cow as it lands in Exeter, England in September. According to this news report, the cow was uninjured.

Technologizer.com has probably spent a lot of time presenting Apple's 31 year history by the patent's that it's filed.

The slow motion shot is amazing. Notice how the frog pounces the instant the bird puts his head down.

20 examples of really thin buildings in Japan. Here's another one that shows how they make the most of the little space available.

Image via Nils Jorgensen

Smashing Magazine has posted 60 beautiful examples of street photography which should provide lots of inspiration for photographers.

Some interesting facts about traffic from the book Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.

An interview with a man who makes sculptures so small that they fit inside the eye of a needle.

StuntFrenchman Henri Rechatin balances a chair on the edge of a 44 meter-high building.

The Science Of Shopping

The Economist has published an interesting article about how supermarkets analyse its customers and the ways in which they try to make you buy more goods. And if you think the CCTV cameras are there to just catch thieves, think again.

Technology is making the process of monitoring shopper behaviour easier—which is why the security cameras in a store may be doing a lot more than simply watching out for theft. Rajeev Sharma, of Pennsylvania State University, founded a company called VideoMining to automate the process. It uses image-recognition software to scan the pictures from security cameras of shoppers while they are making their selections. It is capable of looking at the actions of hundreds of thousands of people. It can measure how many went straight to one brand, the number that dithered and those that compared several, at the same time as sorting shoppers by age, gender and ethnicity.

Here's a video of the system in action.

Brian's First Daffodil

Mrs B (aka Chi)

The Hottest Inhabited Place On Earth

A Boab tree used as a prison on the King River road near Wyndham. Chris&Steve

It may not experience the hottest temperatures on Earth (that record goes to Al 'Aziziyah), but Wyndham, Australia has consistently high temperatures throughout the year making it one of the hottest inhabited places on Earth. The annual average maximum temperature is 35.6°C (96.1°F). The hottest month is November with an average maximum temperature of 39.4°C (102.9°F), and the 'coolest months' of June and July have an average maximum of 31.2°C (86.4°F). In 1946, Wyndham recorded 333 consecutive days of temperatures over 32°C (90°F)!

Fitzroy River. yewenyi

Wikipedia also lists Fitzroy Crossing, Australia as the hottest inhabited place but doesn't give any information regarding temperatures. As an example of how hot it has been this month, at 9am (Fitzroy Crossing time) it was 33.6C and the lowest temperature this month was a chilly 22C (source)

Many websites list Dallol, Ethiopia as being the hottest inhabited place on Earth due to an average annual temperature of 34°C (94°F) was recorded between the years 1960 and 1966. This is lower than the annual average temperature of 35.6°C quoted by Wikipedia for Wyndham.

The Best 'Big Pictures' Of 2008 Part 3

"Astronaut Karen Nyberg, STS-124 mission specialist, looks through a window in the newly installed Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Discovery is docked with the station on June 10th, 2008."

More stunning photos here.

The Best 'Big Pictures' Of 2008 Part 2

AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski

More stunning photos from Boston's 'The Big Picture'.

Video: Jingle Bells Played with 49 Microwaves

Oymyakon - The Coldest Permanently Inhabited Place On Earth

confirmafr

Oymyakon/Ojmjakon/Oimyakon (map) is the coldest permanently inhabited place on earth. Located in Siberia, the lowest recorded temperature here is -71.2 degrees Celsius. According to Wikipedia this is the lowest officially recorded temperature in the northern hemisphere.

The village has a population of around 800 and is located 690 meters above sea level and lies in a valley between two mountain ranges (the reason for the low temperatures). The name Oymyakon means "non-freezing water" because of the natural hot spring close to the village.

The temperature this week is pretty low and the temperature tomorrow is a chilly -63C which based on the stats at Wikipedia equals the record low for December.

There aren't a great deal of images and videos on the net (here's an account of a trip in 1996) but here are two video reports, one from Sky News and the other from RTL.

It's interesting how the school children only get a day off when the temperature drops below -52C yet over here a light dusting can cause widespread disruption. And even though the RTL report is not in English check out the shirt that breaks in two.

Sky News

RTL

Video: Dolphin Stampede

A very impressive pod of dolphins.

Video: Chinese Police Chase

I can't work out whether the police car is trying to overtake the truck or trying to pull it over. It's the latter, are all police chases in China this boring?

The Best 'Big Pictures' Of 2008

REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger

Boston.com presents part one of the best 'Big Pictures' from 2008. There are 40 in this part and the other 2 parts will follow over the next couple of days. [via]

Hippo And New-Born Calf

I haven't seen a view of a hippo from this angle before. You can view a video of new-born Paula here.

95-Year-Old Christmas Recording

The Daily Mail has posted a recording of a family celebrating Christmas together during the First World War. It is the first time that they have been heard in nearly a century.

Eight phonograph cyclinders, made of beeswax and soap, feature the Smith family from Salisbury in Wiltshire singing carols and dicussing 'daddy being away at war.'

The recording was found by Russell Barnes who also found other recordings that were made between 1913 and 1917.

It's interesting to learn that children were getting bikes for Christmas almost 100 years ago.

Video: Drivers Try To Get Up Icy Hill

A video of an icy street in Portland, Oregon.

Video: Parkour - 1930s Style

The tyre ride at the end looks fun. [via]

Video: Boy Rescued From Safe

Pacman Tattoo

[via]

White Castle Burger Bake

I can't make up my mind whether this White Castle burger would be tasty or not. Take a look at what went into it. [via]

Video: KFC Fires 3 Girls For Taking Bath In Sink

No doubt they were inspired by the guy who took a bath in a Burger King sink. You can view some of the provocative photos they took whilst in the sink on the Daily Mail site (SFW).

Video: Beaker Sings Ode To Joy

Beaker is by far my favourite Muppet. [via]

Video: Plane Hits Cow Whilst Landing

Footage of a Tiger Moth plane striking a cow as it lands in Exeter, England in September. According to this news report, the cow was uninjured.

Apple's History in Patents

Technologizer.com has probably spent a lot of time presenting Apple's 31 year history by the patent's that it's filed.

Video: Frog Catches Bird

The slow motion shot is amazing. Notice how the frog pounces the instant the bird puts his head down.

Really Thin Japanese Buildings

20 examples of really thin buildings in Japan. Here's another one that shows how they make the most of the little space available.

The Beauty Of Street Photography

Image via Nils Jorgensen

Smashing Magazine has posted 60 beautiful examples of street photography which should provide lots of inspiration for photographers.

Container Ship Flexing in Rough Seas

A Picture Says A Thousand Words

Box vs Reality

Some Things About Traffic That May Surprise You

Some interesting facts about traffic from the book Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.

Video: Micro Sculpter

An interview with a man who makes sculptures so small that they fit inside the eye of a needle.

Video: Insane Chair Balancing

StuntFrenchman Henri Rechatin balances a chair on the edge of a 44 meter-high building.