An Insane First-Person BASE Jump into a Crowded City Street [Video]

By Brian Barrett Oct 14, 2011 2:20 PM 29,026 68

Thank goodness there are so many certifiably insane people in this world. That way the rest of us don't have to strap a camera to our helmets, ride up dozens of stories on the outside of an elevator, and plummet to near-certain doom in the middle of a busy Spanish city on a busy afternoon. Like these guys did.

For reference, these gentlemen are BASE jumping from the Gran Hotel Bali in Benidorm, Spain, a 610 ft. monster of a tower and the second-tallest building in Spain. I'm honestly not sure which would be more terrifying: the part of the elevator ascent where you're high enough up to die but too low for your chute to work? The descent into the street not knowing if a truck is around the corner? Or that one guy's facial hair? [SISTF via TDW]

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How Michael Bay Captures His Most Insane and Incredible Chase Scenes (KERBLOOOMMM) [Video]

If you've seen a Jerry Bruckheimer or JJ Abrams film—like, ever—you've witnessed the handiwork of the Russian Arm. You can thank this robotic, gyroscopicallly-stabilized camera crane for filming some of the most famous car chases in the last three decades.

The Russian Arm was developed by Filmotechnic—which was started in 1990 by Academy Awards Winner Anatoliy Kokush—as a robotic mobile camera crane. It's mounted on the roof of a vehicle to film tracking shots—those of moving vehicles from a moving vehicle—at virtually any angle. The Russian Arm keeps the camera steady while travelling at high speeds, across uneven pavement or off-road using a unique spring and strut design that eliminates camera shake and vibration.

Weighing 300kg in total—including 24kg camera and counterweights—the Russian Arm is comprised of an swing arm and a gyro-stabilized head as well as a mounting platform. The arm can swing freely around the perimeter of the vehicle, as low as a one foot from the ground and as high as 14 feet. The arm itself is about 12 feet long, though a 16-foot option is also available. The head can also pan 360 degrees (in six seconds), tilt along a 200 degree axis and roll along a 270 degree axis.

This entire system is most typically mounted onto a modified Mercedes ML55 AMG with setup and installation usually only requiring about two hours. These SUVs are known for their performance and handling, allowing for a top speed of 115 mph with this system strapped to the roof.

The camera crew—a precision driver, an operator to control the crane arm via joystick, and a technician—all ride in the chase car. The filming director communicates with the camera crew using an iCom system, a secure 50w walkie system that prevents other walkies in the area from listening in on the conversation.

On-board, images from the camera are displayed on one of eight monitors—5 for video assist and another 3 "witness" LCD monitors. The video is recorded and played back using the car's NDT 200 DVR and can be wirelessly transmitted over a range of 300 meters back to the base.

As you can see from the video below, the Russian Arm is a fantastically popular piece of equipment. It's been used in fils like Iron Man 2, Transformers, Mission Impossible 3, The Fast and The Furious, Incredible Hulk, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and by virtually every major automaker. The Russian Arm has even won Academy Awards.

[Filmotechnic - Filmitechnic Canada - Arrimedia]

Monster Machines is all about the most exceptional machines in the world, from massive gadgets of destruction to tiny machines of precision, and everything in between.

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Companies: Please Stop Calling Things "HD" Because It's Driving Me Completely Insane [Rant]

HD is our decade's extreme. People know the two letters well—and they like them!—because of HDTV. That's fine, because HDTV actually means something: certain, set lines of resolution. But "Swiffer HD Clean"? I feel like screaming blood.

Swiffer makes fine cleaning products. My floors get dusty. Maybe yours do too. Great. They clean up the dust. I like that! And hey, if they want to improve the ability of their floor cleaning stuff to clean floors—attaboy! But calling their new line of rags and whatnot the "HD" series is asinine. Aside from being untruthful (what definition has been increased? Is there an embedded LCD on the mop handle?), and completely incoherent (HOW CAN A CLEANING PRODUCT BE HD?), this kind of terminology abuse makes everyone dumber. It cheapens the word. How cheap? This cheap:

"The new and improved Swiffer Dusters clean better than a dry dust cloth and are coated with Dust-Lock™ Adhesive that combines textured dusting strips with thousands of dust locking fibers to clean better than a regular dry cloth, even in tight and hard to reach places"

It's like I'm seeing clean with brand new eyes!

"Swiffer is going beyond traditional methods to deliver a clean so extraordinary that the definition of clean as we know it has been elevated to the idea of ‘High Definition."

No. NO. Whoever wrote that should be thrown into a bag of mud.

Words have meanings. High definition may be vague, but it does mean something: an increased level of resolution conducive to an appreciable jump in sensory input. Or something along those lines. But it has some technical basis, when used in the video realm.

What's HD about Swiffer? Absolutely nothing. What's HD about Intel HD graphics and audio? Absolutely nothing—nobody would point to these as paragons of computer audio-visuals. HD Radio is one of the biggest frauds ever pushed upon people with ears, a sad stretch by a fading medium to con customers into buying something they don't need.

Companies will try to sell things, because that's what they do. But bandying around the HD label insults and confuses the people who might buy them. Go ahead and use dumb buzzwords—but don't taint words that actually signify something. We need those.

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