Amazing CCTV footage of a Turkish man who narrowly escapes a collision with a truck and a train.

File under "Lucky".

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by stinkyplum.

This is a surreal and gruesome yet fascinating sight: a massive fire engulfing the newly built 40-story Mandarin Oriental hotel in the CCTV Complex in Beijing. You can watch the top of the building exploding as fire consumes the entire structure.

CNN has an article compiling first-hand reports from its citizen reporters:

The blaze erupted in the final hours of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration as people set off fireworks across the city.

Xinhua reported that Beijing residents were supposed to stop selling and lighting fireworks by midnight. iReporter de Villeneuve said she
suspects many people in the city were trying to use whatever remaining fireworks they had before the deadline.

"We have been seeing fireworks for the past two weeks. I have to say this is quite a surprise," she said.

iReporter Rice said he was watching fireworks nearby when he noticed that fireworks were being set off near the buildings.

"Then we looked closer and saw the flames come from the top of the building," Rice said. "Soon became apparent that the building was on fire."

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

Link

From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by Muppetmaker.

David Dunnico has an interesting Flickr photoset where he photographs the ubiquitous CCTVs (and their signs) in Manchester, England as an ongoing art project: Link – via Accordion Guy

William Betts is like the modern day Seurat – In his "Surveillance" series, he makes paintings from digital photographs using his own specially-designed machine to apply dots of acrylics onto canvas. The result is a grainy image akin to the blurry still images of a surveillance CCTV: Link – via The Zeray Gazette

Computers are programmed to analyse the movements of people or vehicles in the camera frame. If someone is seen lurking in a particular area, the computer will send out an alarm to a CCTV operator.

The operator will then check the image and – if concerned – ring the police. The aim is to stop crimes before they are committed. If a vehicle is moving too fast or slow – indicating joyriding or kerb-crawling, for example – a similar alert could be given.

Link

I admit I had to look up kerb crawling

Old man goes nuts at a car wash because he lost his glasses according to police report. And the whole thing was captured by CCTV. Link: Youtube