Links for March 30, 2014

During the 2012 London Olympics, David Burnett shot with a 4x5 large format camera. I wouldn't want to see all sports photography like this, but it gives a wonderfully different feel to the games. Article

Stephen Fry narrates an excellent video on how humanists find happiness in life. Video

Jennifer Raff does an excellent job of linking to credible material debunking the excuses the anti-vaccination crowd use to justify their social crimes. Article

A pitch perfect generic video which could be just about any marketing video put out these days. Video

BaselWorld is on this week, so there will be plenty of watches in the list. We start out with a dead beat second chronograph from Arnold & Son. Article

This is why vaccination is important: India declared polio free. Article

I love the simple elegance of this watch from H. Moser & Co watch. Article

I would love to see beautiful murals like these in Montreal appearing around Ottawa one day. Art doesn't need to be contained within an art gallery or museum. Article

Documentary on the dying neon sign industry in Hong Kong. Article

I don't know if the end goal is to fire this pottery, but the video footage of the patterns is stunning and mesmerising. Video

My favourite architectural photographers, Doublespace Photography, spent some time in Hong Kong and mainland China recently. They've started posting photos from the trip on their blog. Article

Why not add a bit of whimsy to your next reno project with some smiley face screws. Article

I've heard good things about this series of books by Kate Ascher. The latest is The Way to Go book about transportation. Looks like a great series of books to help explain the world to kids. Article

St Petersburg is on my list of must see cities primarily because of the Fabergé work on display. In Focus shows off some of the city's beauty in St Petersburg from Above. Article

I don't travel as much as I used to, but I recognize some great tips on becoming a better traveller from Michael Lopp. Article

Etienne Lavis shows us what the world would look like if outdoor ads were replaced with classic art. I would be so happy if we could make this happen in real life. Article

It takes less than 9 minutes between the time the solid rocket boosters light, and the space shuttle reaches orbit. But of course you don't just jump in a space craft like that a few minutes before launch. How do astronauts spend the hours leading up to launch? Article

I'm a sucker for cushion shaped watches like this Longines Heritage watch. Article

I'd never heard of Strandbeests before this video from Adam Savage. I must dig into them further… Video

More watch porn in the form of a chronometer from L.U. Chopard. Article

This is an interesting watch feature I don't think I've seen before. The Hermès L'heure masquée has a hidden hour hand which presents the proper hour when a button is pressed. I'm not sure how useful it would be in practice, but it leads to a clean dial. Article

Occasionally accidents happen with fountain pens. Some good tips on removing ink stains from carpet and wood. Article

I have no problems with my 12lbs house cats jumping on me and playing, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about a lion doing the same thing. I love the incredible footage we can get using GoPro cameras today. Video

Multi peer connectivity is a new feature in iOS 7 which has been introduced with little fanfare. You would think a feature with this little media attention would be uninteresting, but this one has the power to dramatically change the way we connect to the Internet in areas with little or no exisiting infrastructure. Thanks to this feature, devices can use a nearby device to create a mesh network until it eventually reaches an Internet connection. Article

Unlimited resources are often the bane of creators. A blank page can be death to a writer. An unlimited source of materials can cause a jeweller to be unable to create new work. Often being forced to work within tight constraints leads to innovative ways of creating incredible things (I'm always amazed at what people are able to write in 140 characters on twitter). Article

I linked to one of the sketches for this online class about lettering last week. The course is now available to take. Article

One principle in New Zealand talks about reducing school yard injuries by removing rules. Article

Derek at Veritasium explains the recent discovery of gravitational waves at the start of the universe. Video

And people think cargo pants go overboard…

16 immigrants share the surprising things they learned about America. You'll find many of the usual things we think of (large meal portions, big cars and houses), but there are a number which surprised me. Article

This is hardly new, but Dieter Rams' 10 design principles is always worth linking to. Article

A stunning photo collection of manhole covers in Japan. Article

How google responds to search warrants. Video

As I mentioned last week, I'm addicted to Threes. Here's what went into making it. Article

I remember watching many of the games when Deep Blue bested Kasparov at chess back in the 90's. Now a computer has beat a high ranked human at Go for the first time. This is an incredible achievement considering the level of complexity of Go compared with chess. Article

A great use of iBeacon to automatically take attendance in class. Article

I came across these wonderfull mechanical belt buckles from Roland Iten. Article

Previous link posts can be found here