I have one of these for my camera. It's a rubberised beanbag filled with little polystyrene beads and a valve and hand-pump to suck the air out. You put it over the wound-down window of your car and the lens on top, suck the air out and lo, you've got an amazingly stable base.
I guess it's much harder to control your descent when there's a dozy great flag hanging off you too. Were those spins for effect or did something on his canopy not deploy properly? There seemed to be an awful lot of tugging on the lines.
You can see live footage of this at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11489439 This includes the occasional live shot of a camera on the top of the capsule being pulled trough the rescue bore-hole. For the majority of the 10+ minute ascent, you can't even see a glimmer of daylight at the top of the shaft.
In the UK there's no way a restaurant could get away with paying its employees less than minimum wage which is currently £5.80 ($9.23) / hour. In the UK it seems to be the norm to pay ~10% if someone does a good job. I rather object to places that charge a compulsory service charge for singles/couples. Just charge more for the damn meal. I was in a terrible Chinese restaurant in Oxford called the Opium Café where the meal was inedible and the staff rude. When I didn't pay the service charge the waitress threatened to call the cops. I told her to feel free and in the end she extremely bitterly let us leave after paying the full price for the meal but no service charge.
@ Kaviani I stand corrected; the neatness is that a newspaper actually a toss about what people say. I'm truly surprised as trolls are just part of the signal-to-noise ratio and I'd expect most geeks to ignore it as such.
Whilst I agree that it's a loss that this man died, this is hardly neat, it's just one person/group reacting against another's reaction. That's the internet, new/neat news please.
After seeing all the loops, for a moment I thought it was going to be like a linear accelerator for balloons. These fans are really rather funky and seem to be appearing all over the place in the UK. Even recruitment companies in Oxford seem to have them now. Though I'll have to wait until they're in the £70 range and not the £200!
I'd tip a concierge at a hotel if they've done a good service like carry my bags or pour me a drink when the bar staff are away.
I rather object to places that charge a compulsory service charge for singles/couples. Just charge more for the damn meal. I was in a terrible Chinese restaurant in Oxford called the Opium Café where the meal was inedible and the staff rude. When I didn't pay the service charge the waitress threatened to call the cops. I told her to feel free and in the end she extremely bitterly let us leave after paying the full price for the meal but no service charge.
I stand corrected; the neatness is that a newspaper actually a toss about what people say. I'm truly surprised as trolls are just part of the signal-to-noise ratio and I'd expect most geeks to ignore it as such.