Eating dogs for fun and fame

A first-person view of a hotdog eating contest. It's unpleasant looking, but who am I to judge another's hobby? I was amused at the end when he kept saying, "it hurts, it hurts".

 

Washing dishes

With the holiday feasts over, it is time to wash dishes. Above is a video somebody made by putting a GoPro into a dishwasher. There are a surprising number of videos of the inside of dishwashers. I picked a short one because, well let's be honest here, even by my somewhat sketchy standards these are some pretty damn boring videos.

And of course, if you don't have a dishwashers, you'll want some Lux detergent to be easy on your hands when you wash dishes the old fashioned way.

An eagle's view of a flight

Freedom Conservation is a group, operating out of France, that breeds birds of prey and teached them to hunt before releasing them to the wild. They've attached cameras to some of the birds to create amazing videos of the birds in flight.
  

Close encounter with a meteor

Anders Helstrup, a Norwegian skydiver, had a couple of GoPro cameras mounted on his helmet when he did a jump. When he reviewed his video (seen above) he saw something zoom past him as he fell. Slowed down, and studied by a geologist, it appears he caught a meteor whizzing past him at 300ph.

You can read about it in the Universe Today article Norwegian Skydiver Almost Gets Hit by Falling Meteor — and Captures it on Film (via Slashdot).

I wonder how many meteors have almost bonked me and I just haven't been playing close enough attention?
 

Superman finds a GoPro

Gee... I wouldn't want anybody to think I'm slacking off in my blogging, so here is one of my beloved GoPro point-of-view videos. Enjoy.
 

Scene from a trombone

David Finlayson of the New York Philharmonic, a trombone and a GoPro camera. What could be finer this Tuesday morning?
  

Sprinting cheetah and chicken steadycam

Above is a series of shots of cheetahs sprinting at 1200 frames per minute. What's amazing is how steady it holds its head as it runs. It reminded me of the below video, which I've ran across from time to time while looking for my beloved minicam videos, of a chicken being rigged as a steadycam.

Sushi-go-round

A bit of random video with some music added gets turned into a nice little film of a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
  

Riding bulls

Reproduction Curtis pusher

The above videos are a couple of test flights of a Reproduction Curtis pusher biplane. It is amazing to see what a contraption the Curtis pushers were -- looks absolutely terrifying to fly.

It's based at a Florida attraction called Fantasy of Flight. I've been there, and it's one of the nicer tourist attractions in Florida. It's near Polk City just off I-4 between Tampa and Orlando. If you're vacationing in Florida and like this sort of thing plan to spend a good part of the day there if you decide to visit it.
 

Remind me never to land at this airport

The title of the video asks, "Most difficult landing in the world - Bhutan?" It certainly looks like it is a contender. The airport is Paro in Bhutan. Visual rules only, no instrument approaches. The pilots had to overfly the airport and head a up a valley where they did a tight 180 degree turn as they bled off altitude. Then there is a tight zig-zag to line up and drop onto the short runway.

Pretty much of a white knuckle ride. Then again, the bus ride there probably isn't any less terrifying.
 

On Knife's Edge

Knife's Edge is the name of a ridge of Capitol Peak in Colorado. There is an 1800 foot drop on either side of it. A comment to the film says the lens makes it look worse than it is. That may be, but even accounting for lens distortion that's a terrifying looking ridge to traverse. 
 

Broadsides

The above video is of an RC controlled man-o-war from the age of sail firing a broadside. The RC ship is called the HMS Surprise, which is a bit odd since it is flying an American flag. I can only assume the RC crew are a pack of scoundrels flying a false flag for nefarious purposes. Shame on you Jack Tar. Shame, shame, shame!

For comparison, below is a video of the HMS Victory firing a rippling broadside (which is how most broadsides were fired back in the day). Unfortunately they felt they had to create more smoke than the cannons firing put out, which is a shame because it needlessly distracts from what is an impressive display. 

If you like this post you might like my earlier post RC carrier ops and naval battle.

RC carrier ops and naval battle

Hahaha.. some great stuff. These videos are put together by a father/son team who call themselves Rapidnadion. They have a lot more videos of their models in action at their site including subs, helicopters shooting rockets, a steam tug and a Titanic model that breaks in half and sinks. I wonder if they're planning an RC iceberg for it? I hope so.
 

Summer surfing

It has been a while since I've done a mini-camera post, so I figured it was about time I rectified that oversight. Looking around I found a pretty good surfing video. Of course it is entirely coincidental that it features two bikini clad surfer babes, Enjoy.
 

When tornado and train intersect

The first minute of the video is mundane, but then the wind comes.

 

White water in Chile

Well, these guys are nuts. They're kayaking down narrow chutes of  rough water and over water falls. The video is 33 minutes long, and there is a heap of swearing in it, but it is well worth watching at least a part of because -- like I said -- these guys are nuts.
  

The Sailing Pond at Humber Bay

Continuing my fascination with mini-cams, above is a rather nice video of a season of sailing radio controlled sailboat models by the Metro Marine Modellers in Toronto Canada. It was put together by StevePenney34 (there are more of his videos at the link).

Rigging

In harm's way

As we enjoy this Memorial Day weekend it is well to remember that, sad to say, one by one other names are being added to the list to be carved into marble. In the above video a convoy in Helmand Province, Afghanistan is being shelled by mortars. It is sobering footage.