Worthy stuff to watch and read - issue 9

3-minute read

Read

  • Ever needed an argument on what exactly is wrong with Comic Sans? Here you go.
  • The Curious Case of iPhone 6+ display. By now it seems that everyone is aware of the downscaling aspect of the 1080p display on the new “bigger than bigger” iPhone. Also, true 1px lines are over.
  • If you ever decide to shout at the London Cabbie on the street, think about all the troubles he had to go through to get the official badge. Incredibly detailed story on the way to The Knowledge - learning every single geographic details within 6 miles radius of the Charing Cross.

A study by neurologists at University College London found that the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for spatial navigation, of a London cabby is significantly larger than those in the rest of the human population—a result of the intense memorization and route-finding undertaken while doing The Knowledge.

  • A very rare book - story of the Sidereus Nuncius work by Galileo, discovered in 2005.

To mimic the process of creating a seventeenth-century book, a forger would have to cut “punches”—individual pieces of lead type—for every character and punctuation mark, in addition to carving woodblocks for ornamental capital letters. All these elements would have to match those used by the original publisher. Then, in arranging the type, the forger would have to insure that the spacing between letters precisely followed the original book—for dozens, if not hundreds, of pages. Who would do all that work, with countless opportunities for error, given that the product would likely fetch only a few hundred thousand dollars? A forged painting could sell for millions.

Watch

  • Scientific xkcd on the orbital speeds and how to shoot things to space
  • Trailer to the upcoming Dreamfall Chapters narrative game, continuing the story of the original Dreamfall and The Longest Journey. They’ve had quite a bit of troubles to get this thing rolling, and now with the help of Kickstarter, the game is set to be released in November 2014. What makes it amazing? Think of quality interactive storytelling, with awesome voice acting.
  • Why you should film your next feature in Finland - showreel by Finland’s Film Commission

More…

Listen

  • Radio Badger podcast episode 03 is live and available for download (mp3, 92mb). Me, @roisiproven and @robbiemccorkell are talking about scary games, Half Life 2 new Oculus Rift edition, world of the onkey selfies copyright, Swing Copter and surprizingly accurate predictions on the Apple Watch device.

Personal notes

  • Got my .london domain - stereo3d.london. The idea is to use it for my (slowly) going hyper stereo timelapsing project of the London cityscapes. So far the project been mostly under the covers, pics and trailer in 3D might turn out around Christmas.
  • In Finland I used to do skydiving to get some kicks. In London I go to the dropzone to get some stress free time.
  • London sometimes feel like a therapy for all those years spent (mostly) without much contact to other people. Your privacy is very well respected in Finland. Then again there are lots of people in London. And things are much easier to happen here too - for every single idea you can find someone who will support it.