It had to be done sooner or later.

Base jump from the burj dubai, its interesting to see what an advantage the wingsuit gives you in getting out of the area.

-121.470870°

Via Chris Saul

Every Commercial Flight in the World in 72 seconds

This video by the Zurich School of Applied Sciences shows all the flights in the world over a 24 hour period in 72 seconds.

Physicists in Government Now That is Change.

Obama has selected Steven Chu the Nobel Prize winning physicist to be energy secretary. This marks a fantastic shift from government cronyism to employing people with real skills and intelligence. I only hope that these appointments will do as much good as the appalling appointments by the bush administration did harm.

Steven Chu - wikipedia

View from my office this week.

Yay Paypal

Paypal has finally done something good! I started a dispute with them after my recent disastrous hosting experience with burtonhosting.co.uk and they have managed to recover the £60 I paid them for their non existence service. Thank you paypal.

Peter Schiff gets the economy spot on while pundits laugh at him

This is a remarkable compilation of videos mostly from Fox News with Peter Schiff predicting the economic crisis in 2006 and 2007 while various pundits mock him. It’s very powerful and well worth watching for an insight into the hubris and stupidity that got the economy in this situation in the first place.

Ben stein is spectacularly off base, showing that not only is he ignorant on issues of science he is a total idiot when it comes to the economy. I can only hope that he was heavily invested in the financials that he rated so highly and he lost his lunch. Most of these guys should lose their jobs, stat!

Egyptian Hulk

This man may be the best bullshitter ever.

Egypt's strongest man generates 260 Horsepower never sleeps and is banned from working because he is too powerful. Oh and he has sex 15 times a day. Seriously after watching the interview I think this guy has just read the hulk comic and said, mmm that looks fun. I will pretend to be the hulk.

Look like he is being interviewed by the Egyptian Richard & Judy...

Via Kotke

Sarah Palin - The gift that keeps giving.

The caption writer had a field day with this one.

"Gov. Palin Apparently Oblivious To Turkey Carnage Over Her Shoulder"

Via The Daily Dish

Iphone test post

Quick test of wordpress for iPhone on the new host.

New Host!

The site has been down for a couple of weeks because my last host burtonhosting.co.uk took my money but didn’t actually provide any hosting services. They don't respond to emails and the phone seems to be disconnected. They of course still have their billing systemsup and running and will happily take your money.

I have had to go through the excellent services of tucows to get my domain unlocked and transferred over to my new host hostmonster.com. The guys at hostmonster seem very professional and responsive and so far the service is excellent.

I am not going through paypal's resolution center to try and get my money back for the hosting that burtonhosting.com so singularly failed to provide.

Test Post

This is a test post on the new server.

Most improved iPhone application

One of the things I really wanted on my iPhone was a good application for viewing my google reader feeds. The iPhone optimised google reader site is pretty good but when Phantom Fish came out with Byline a native iPhone application that synced with reader I jumped at it. Unfortunately v1 was pretty sparse and I quickly went back to using the mobile web interface. This week Byline v2.0 was launched and wow has it improved. It is orders of magnitude better than v1 they are barely recognizable as the same application.

There are some very neat touches

• A built in browser so you dont have to open pages in safari.
• Support for youtube video. Clicking a video opens it in the youtube player but once the video is complete it returns to the RSS reader
• It is fast and intuitive with great icons throughout.

Byline is probably the best $3.99 I have spent in the app store so far. You can check it out here

That about sums it up.

Best purchases of the year

1: Amazon Kindle

I bought an Amazon Kindle as a birthday present to myself in March and it has been the smartest purchase I made all year. As a device its not perfect the page buttons are awkwardly placed and its not that comfortable to hold but despite these shortcomings I find myself reading far more now than I did before. A good book is only a few clicks away. When someone suggests a book to me I buy it there and then and find time to read it later. It's light easy to carry which makes it perfect for traveling. My carry on weight has dropped substantially now that I am not lugging books and magazines.

Update On the flight back to the UK my Kindle developed a fault. The display is now shifted halfway across the screen making it impossible to read.

2: Sennheiser HD595 Headphones.

Fantastic sound with fantastic comfort. I will happily sit reading with these on listening to music for hours at a time. My apartment is very bare and the concrete floors and ceiling make it very echoey so any speaker system sounds horrible. For personal listening you would be hard pressed to do better than these.

3: My big ugly brown leather couch

It's big it's ugly and it's cheap. On the other hand I can sleep full length on it its leather and did I mention its cheap.

4. iPhone (on probation)

Ys I do have an iPhone yes its very good, but I haven't fallen in love with it yet.

This is why Obama is different

This is a very impressive speech by the Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Seeing a white labor union man so aggressively and directly attacking racism is a profound endorsement of the candidacy of Barack Obama. If you have 7 min I heartily suggest watching the video.

Via Andrew Sullivan

US Politics Watch

I have become rather addicted to possibly the most exciting US election race in my lifetime. The twists and turns from the primaries through VP selection to now would each in their own right made this a special election cycle. Combined it is a total roller-coaster. On top of all that we are possibly witnessing the ideological failing of the Republican Party. The party of small government is currently impotent in the face of the free market.

Here is some recommended daily reading to keep you up to date with the unfolding drama.

• Talkingpointsmemo.com - The definitive left wing political blog
• Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish - Great commentary regularly updated.
• themudflats.net - Alaskan blogger focusing on Sarah Palin and the scandals in his state. The comments alone on this blog are worth visiting it for.
• Jon Taplin's Blog - USC professor with great insight into the economic issues. Also well worht checking out his very prescient work on the economy - The Cost of Empire
• Swampland - Time magazines political blog

Now thats a big lens

Someone is selling a canon 5400mm, F14 lens on ebay, apparently only three were ever made. The picture below has a canon SLR attached highlighted in red.

My favourite question to the seller, "Can you provide this with a 2x teleconverter?". Current price $55,000 USD which with the way the stock market is going will be roughly the entire value of General Motors.

Ebay Link Via Ken Rockwell

How to land a 747

I think i will print this off and keep it in my carry on just in case.

1. Get on the radio, and tell whoever's listening that you are landing a 747.

The rest is here

No words can express the horror..

but a video can...

Is this what she was talking about...

Too close to the truth

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.