Danny Popp Video

Someone pointed me out to an in-car video from Danny Popp's car (Corvette Z06), as he goes from last to first place in his class at the 2008 NASA Nationals Qualifying Race:



If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [youtube.com].

There are some really hairy moments throughout the race -- three abreast through turns, passing with almost no room between the cars, cars spinning out right in front of him... It is really exciting to watch.

Top Gear Mall Chase

What happens if you get chased by bad guys (who are driving a Corvette) through a mall? Watch this and find out [link updated]:



If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [youtube.com].

That is so much fun to watch. I wonder how they managed to shoot that? No mall owner is going to let a bunch of people drive like crazy people through a mall that potentially has to open to customers the next day. That must have been a set, right? But that was a really elaborate set.

Skateboarding Dog

Is browsing YouTube ever not depressing? Here's a video of a dog managing to do what I could never actually accomplish successfully myself -- skateboarding:



I kept expecting the dog to ollie up onto a curb as I watched that video. If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [youtube.com].

Wind Turbine Failures

Here's something for all of the engineers who read this weblog. Evidently, wind turbines are more complicated than they look. Someone sent me a link to this video of one self-destructing:



If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [youtube.com].

It turns out that the control systems on those wind turbines are pretty sophisticated. One part of the control systems are the brake controllers, which prevent the turbines from spinning to fast in a storm, etc. When the brakes fail, the turbine spins out of control, with these results.

According to this article [theregister.co.uk], engineers were called out to fix the turbine, but realized they weren't going to be able to fix it before it self-destructed. So, they climbed down and retreated to a safe distance, where they shot the video.

Linkdump

My latest interesting:

• Telegraph: Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to get life saving anti-sniper device
  
  A new device, developed in the UK, almost instantly pinpoints the location of an enemy sniper, allowing effective return fire to occur more quickly. From the article:

  "The device... works by isolating the crack of the sniper rifle thanks to four microphones, a GPS system and a powerful microprocessor."
  
  "It takes less than a tenth of a second and provides the results in audio and visual formats. It can even send a grid reference via radio to supporting artillery and aircraft."



• Here's a video showing how to use a "controlled" explosion to mount a tire on a rim:
  
  
  
  If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [youtube.com].
  
  


• Snopes: McDonald's Coffee Stirrer Coke Spoon
  
  From the article:

  "In the late 1970s, it became apparent the small pastic coffee spoons at McDonald's restaurants were being used... to measure and snort powdered cocaine as well as PCP, an animal tranquilizer with hallucinogenic properties..."
  
  "The company reacted to the problem by redesigning the stirrer, replacing the spoon with a flat paddle."

Greg Pattillo

This weekend, Heimlich and I will get a real treat. We will get the opportunity to see Greg Pattillo perform. For those of you who aren't familiar with his work, he does this whole freestyle, beatboxing flute thing. It's a lot easier to understand if you just watch one of his videos:



If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [youtube.com].

I haven't actually seen him perform live before, but the videos make it look like he puts on quite a performance. I'm sure that going back and forth between playing notes on the flute and notes with just his mouth is a lot harder than it looks (and it looks hard). Hopefully, he will live up to the hype.

Linkdump

Latest linkdump:

• Top 10 Everyday Things People Do To Ruin Their Cars [ridelust.com]. Lots of interesting tidbits in there. [edit: link fixed.]


• The Next Meltdown: Credit-Card Debt [businessweek.com]. From the article:

  "Credit-card losses are already taking a bite out of lenders' balance sheets. Bank of America, the nation's second-largest issuer behind JPMorgan, revealed on Oct. 6 that roughly $3 billion of its $184 billion credit-card portfolio has soured, a 50% increase from a year ago..."
  
  "Likewise, American Express (AXP), which caters to wealthier borrowers, upped its provisions for credit-card losses from $810 million to $1.5 billion in the latest quarter, a sign that even upscale consumers are having trouble."

  About a year ago, when the stock market really started going down, I pulled almost all of my money out of the market and started buying CDs (thinking this would be the ultimate safe investment). I never imagined that we'd be looking at bank failures a year later. These days, we're looking at silent bank runs [charlotteobserver.com] that can very quickly sink banks. It makes me wonder if a healthy bank could be sunk these days by a media story hinting that it may be in trouble.


• Here's a video of a F-35B Joint Strike Fighter perform a vertical take-off, maneuver while hovering, and then vertically land [youtube.com].
  
  
  
  That is incredible.

Linkdump #597

Here are a few interesting links:

• Here's a video of NBA star LeBron James getting beaten in a game of horse. Some of the shots are incredible!
  
  
  
  If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [youtube.com]. link via kottke.org.
  
  


• The Freakonomics Blog has some interesting graphics [nytimes.com], which simplify the explanations of McCain's and Obama's tax plans.
  
  Apparently, under either plan, you will get a tax cut -- unless you are in the top 1%, in which case Obama will make you pay more.
  
  


• There have been a ton of comments on the new Microsoft ad (the one post-Seinfeld):
  
  
  
  As stated by tons of other people, there is no shortage of problems with these ads. But I think that the bottom line is that as long as the product is terrible, having a good marketing campaign for it is, well... like putting lipstick on a pig. *rimshot*

Autocross

I have mentioned here and there about participating in autocross, which is an amateur form of autoracing that is relatively safe and economical. You are racing against the clock, not wheel to wheel. And whenever I try to explain it to people, I can just tell that what they're imagining doesn't match reality.

Below is a well-produced news segment explaining what autocross is. I need to remember to link to this every time someone asks me to explain autocross.



If the embedded video doesn't work, use this link [racingfilm.com].

Oh, and the 2008 Autocross National Championships [scca.com] is next week.

Car Soccer

My favorite TV show these days is Top Gear [bbc.co.uk], which I probably have mentioned several times. It's a show for car enthusiasts, where they never stop amazing viewers with the crazy shit they think to do with cars.

Someone recently pointed me out to some segments that I missed. They actually put together a soccer match, where they used cars to kick the ball around:



Later, they did the same thing with VW Foxs vs. Toyota Aygos [youtube.com].

Those are incredible! Especially where they spin the cars out to hit the ball with the back end of the car. They look like they would have been a ton of fun to shoot.

Pachebel Rant

Here's a video any music fan would love:



It's a hilarious comedy bit about how horrible the part for cello is for Pachelbel's Canon in D. But the payoff at the end is something that anyone familiar with current popular music would love.

And if you're a classical music geek, you will totally identify with this guy.