Jimmy Hall

Found a link to this YouTube clip on the Derren Brown Blog. It’s a video of the highest man made point in the world.   The point is at the tip of the radio mast at the top of the Burj Tower in Dubai.  Apparently, it’s more than half a mile high at 2,684 feet (818 metres) and a bit wobbly.

I found the whole thing gut-wrenchingly awful to watch, especially when he pokes the camera over the side.  However, there’s no denying it’s a wonderful piece of engineering and the whole project cost an absolute forturne ($4.1 billion).  It’s estimated to be completed in early 2010.

I’ve spent a lot of time in my life looking at religions and trying to find one that sits conveniently inside my world view. It turns out that most of them are a little bit involved for me. Too much praying, too much abstinence and almost of all them take themselves too seriously. Imagine how happy I was when I found this video.

“If we all lived a little bit more like The Dude. If we all brought more Dude into our lives, then the world would be a better place.”

Perspective is a funny thing - especially when used by someone clever to mess up your brain.  This is exactly what artist Patrick Hughes has been doing for the past 40 years. 

Hughes is the inventor of a visual technique called reverspective.  It’s a difficult concept to describe and I don’t pretend to understand it in the slightest.  However, I’m more than willing to give a half-baked and underwhelming explanation.  Fundamentally, he builds corrugated canvasses (zig-zagging towards and from you) and paints reverse perspectives on them.  So a point coming towards you would have have something that looks like it’s going away from you painted on it.  The result is unnerving and a little odd, the best way to understand is to have a look at the video on his site. 

Sometimes you look at something and it makes you go, “Wow!”. I think this qualifies.

Anyone that knows me just a little bit will realise that I’m more than slightly obsessed by aquariums – so this post is something that gets me very excited.  It’s hard not to just sit back and be impressed by the sheer size of both the aquarium and the fish in there (I believe the really big ones are whale sharks).  I understand Jon Rawlinson recorded this at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan.  That’s another place to put on my to-go list.

Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.