You've seen the commercials - the insurance spokesman describes a staged accident, where a car abruptly pulls in front of another car and immediately brakes - often resulting in a rear-end accident which is almost always the fault of the innocent driver.

Here's a story from Down Under (that's Australia) that delivers us yet another unique example of IP video surveillance in action, and it involves puppies.

David Markham works as a breeding manager for Guide Dogs Victoria. He and his staff look over 25 litters a year, and must pay special attention to dogs who are expecting, monitoring them closely for about five days before their due-date, and that includes night-watch.

Hip hop mogul Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons is known for many things. A pioneer of modern music, reverend and bona fide family man, Simmons' life has been shared with MTV audiences for three seasons now in the hit reality show "Run's House."

Warfare has evolved rapidly over the last 50 years - the advent of airplanes, submarines and atomic weapons has forever changed the way that wars are fought, and has made strategy, intelligence and espionage into essential battlefield weapons. One of the latest developments in this new, distant type of war? Unmanned aerial drones.

While investigating the cultural implications of public video surveillance, a group of Canadian high school seniors came across a most interesting scenario: a man taking out his "road rage" on a cyclist - punching him so hard he lost a tooth.

We've discussed how awesome video surveillance is for protecting almost any environment - from schools to businesses to research environments, it's one of the most surefire ways to protect nearly every type of building. But paradoxically, some areas are so secure and so sensitive that video surveillance isn't just inadequate, it could actually wreak havoc.

School buses in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana will have a new flair come September. No, it's not snazzy new seats or a bold departure from the ubiquitous yellow paint job, but a system of video surveillance cameras.

Usually, when parking a car in a lot at a mall, you get the standard security reminder: hide your belongings, lock your car, take your valuables with you. These are thought to be the best way to prevent break-ins, car theft, and expensive repair for things like broken windows. However, a rash of unusual crimes around the Washington, D.C. metro area has made parking lot security officials think twice about the standard precautions.

Apartment surveillance cameras are becoming more and more popular - property managers and landlords install cameras to protect the building from vandalism and break-in, and help keep their tenants and their belongings safe. Even better, as IP video becomes a more widespread and realistic surveillance solution, apartment surveillance systems have become more and more complex, capturing more images that were never visible before.

Worries over stocks, bonds, and a sagging housing market have peppered the news of late, and economic forecasts have been gloomy for nearly every industry - except video surveillance. Investment kingpins over at The Motley fool have predicted that the video surveillance market may be in for a boom.

Over at The Consumerist, editor Ben Popken describes a situation reoprted by a reader who lost her cell phone while conducting business at a local credit union.

Watching game footage is one of the most important strategies for football teams - it allows them to predict offensive and defensive moves, prepare strategies and anticipate the cohesiveness of their opponent. So important is the footage of opponent games that teams often hire cameramen to film the games for future research. One cameraman, however, may be in trouble for recording too much.

Ten years after the fatal crash that killed beloved Diana, Princess of Wales and her companion, Dodi Fayed, the cause of Diana's death is still extremely controversial. Many accuse Diana's driver, Henri Paul, of being intoxicated - which explains the deadly crash. Now, surveillance footage from the Paris Ritz-Carlton, where Diana and Fayed were staying, has shed new light on the argument over Paul's sobriety.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has ordered that Blackwater convoys transporting private contractors, supplies and weapons around Iraq be monitored by video surveillance after several controversial incidents involving Blackwater contractors in Iraq.

The scene: an El Cheapo convenience store in Charleston, South Carolina. Off-duty police officer and mayoral candidate Omar Brown swings by El Cheapo to grab some snacks - a seemingly normal stop on a normal day off work. Brown never tasted the chemically sweetness of his snack cakes, however. Before he left, he had shot another man, Antonio Rivers, seven times. After the smoke cleared, controversy began to boil over. However, Brown has been cleared of any charges. Why? El Cheapo's comprehensive surveillance system.

Intrepid employees at a Wood Village, OR Papa Murphy's restaurant helped end a two-week robbing spree - by fingering the thief after he tried to rob their store again. Thanks to a combination of physical evidence on surveillance cameras, the suspect's license plate number and some quick thinking, Papa Murphy's employees identified Robert James Peart as the thief who had struck their store, as well as several other pizza chains and tanning salons in the days since October 21.

Go go gadget cigarette machine. Leave it to the wildly creative folks of Japan to come up with a product this thought-provoking. Kyoto-based vending machine maker Fujitaka Co. has found an entirely different use for facial-recognition technology. The company has developed a cigarette machine equipped with a tiny camera that can analyze facial features to determine if an individual is too young to purchase smokes.

Vending machine designers have struggled for years to stay one step ahead of would-be snack food cons; adding features that make pilfering candy and sodas difficult and not worth it for the petty thief. A string of vending machine break-ins and thefts in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania has prompted major action from Coca Cola - who's pulling out all the stops to find two men suspected of major vending machine theft.

Drusillas Park, a 15 acre small-animals zoo in the UK, recently added a series of Optex IP cameras to protect its animal tenants, which include meerkats, owls, gibbons, otters, and attractions like a Thomas the Tank Engine train ride.

Director Adam Rifkin's new film "Look" opens in limited release on Dec. 14. What makes the film so interesting is that it's shot entirely from the perspective of surveillance cameras. Rifkin got the idea after noticing the number of security cameras monitoring his shopping experience at Target. He decided it to use the film medium as a way to closer examine how video surveillance affects our daily lives.

Time is the crucial element of bobsledding (or bobsleighing, as it is called in the UK). Bobsledders hurl themselves down an icy track in a specially calibrated track, trying to beat the clock and outpace their competitors. UK-based video surveillance company Scryron, known for their intelligent digital video systems used by police and courtrooms all over the UK, has teamed with the British Bobsleigh team to use video surveillance equipment to help improve the sledders' race times.

2007 has been a great year for video surveillance - improvements in technology, widespread applications, and predictions for the future of network cameras. Here are some of our most memorable posts:

It's a good thing that 27 year old Christopher Hague, of Staten Island NY, asked to see the surveillance video from the bar where he was arrested. Hague was taken into custody in 2007 when the NYPD tied him to a leather jacket containing narcotics.

The hardest working man in show business is back. No, James Brown has not done the impossible and risen fron the dead - but a statue of him has been erected in Augusta, GA. Unlike most other celebrity tributes - statues, plaques, memorial parks and benches - the new James Brown statue will be equipped with something that sets it apart from the rest. A security camera inside the statue will take pictures of visitors to the statue and store them on the arts council web site. Visitors to the park will be able to commemorate their homage to the King of Soul forever.

Usually we think of hidden cameras as being squirreld away in buttonholes and cleverly placed in newspapers and briefcases during high-stakes criminal investigations or by spies trying to crack open state secrets. Not so in Philadelphia. THe city has recently announced the introduction of mobile covert surveillance cameras to help control the city's rampant problems with illegal dumping.

Mentioning a "burnout" can mean many things - your friend from high school who spends his days playing video games in his parents' basement, or what your blender did when you got a little too excited about making gazpacho. In Christchurch, New Zealand, however, officials are happier about stopping a different kind of burnout with roadside surveillance cameras.

Teddy the Pomeranian has been missing for over two months and his owner has been looking for him ever since. She came so close to be reuniting with Teddy - until he was dognapped. A surveillance camera stationed in the examining room of a veterinarian's office captured the whole affair.

While used primarily on land, Mobotix cameras are now taking to the seas. In a new partnership, Mobotix will be providing cameras for a man sailing around the world twice. His project is called sail2Horizons. The network cameras will record images and video on board the sailboat at specific times. They will also capture footage as needed with event triggers.

If you watch television on Thursday nights, odds are you caught this remarkable scene from last week's episode of The Office:

Once you're done guffawing and knee-slapping, let's take a closer look at this surveillance setup. What we have here is a standard PTZ camera on patrol (or tour) mode, monitoring a koi pond in the lobby of a large office building. The koi pond might be unique, but the use of video surveillance isn't.

A Visalia, California family's world was turned upside-down over the weekend when a group of young hooligans ran off with their beloved Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer lawn ornament. Thankfully the family had recently installed a video surveillance system for their home, and the cameras were able to capture footage of the thieves in action.

Demonstrating just how diverse IP surveillance camera capabilities are, a Mobotix network camera was installed at the top of the volcano Valahnukur in the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, the same volcano that erupted clouds of ash that closed down airports all over Northern Europe. Fortuitously, the Mobotix camera was mounted just before significant volcanic activity occurred. Anticipating volcanic events, the camera was installed to capture footage of the eruption and share it with the public via a live web feed.

The dramatic footage of the rescue operation for 33 trapped Chilean miners had people across the globe glued to their television screens watching the risky undertaking unfold successfully. While the bulk of the credit goes to the rescue operation engineers, a compact Vivotek camera played a surprisingly large role in the events of the day.

Swedish Space Corporation recently used an Axis wireless network camera in a world record setting experiment. The Esrange Space Center equipped a stratospheric balloon with an Axis Q6034-E PTZ dome network camera and sent it nearly 115,000 feet into the atmosphere. The balloon also carried research tools to gather data and parachutes to ease the landing.

With cattle selling at around $1,000 each and bulls selling for $1,500 to $2,000, cattle thieves have a clear-cut motive for raiding ranches and farms, and stealing as many cattle as they can get their hands on. Just one job can easily turn into a $20,000 cattle heist. In 2010 and 2011, Texas and the Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) claimed losses of $4.8 million in stolen ranch property, including bulls, steers, cows, and calves. Cattle theft is becoming more commonplace in states that boast lucrative agricultural markets. The increase in beef prices and appeal of selling cattle at a hefty profit has been enough to pique the interest of cunning thieves who are well aware that multi-acre ranches aren’t usually protected by sophisticated – or any – video surveillance systems.

In order for retailers to protect themselves against threat, they must be proactive about it by improving their loss prevent efforts. Shoplifting and employee/internal theft are undoubtedly the two most common theft practices. However, it's extremely important for retailers to be made aware of other theft practices happening today, especially crimes that may work against one’s current security system. Grab-and-go theft, flash mob robs, or flash robs have become the theft du jour. Based on previous crime reports, these acts tend to be committed by large groups of young adults who storm retail stores – usually department stores or convenience stores – and stuff pockets or bags with merchandise in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.