03 July 2011

Another YouTube (and Vimeo) kind of Sunday


As I poke around the internet, I'm forever finding cool videos. Here are some highlights I've had bookmarked for a while.

First up are giant bubbles filmed in slo-mo on frigid Stinson Beach. This thing's mesmerizing.









Next up is an ad for an LG vacuum from the UK. Spectacular effects.









Next it's off to India for some of the most spectacular feats of athleticism I've ever seen. Pole gymnastics, who knew?





Then it's off to Prague for the 600 year celebration of their observation tower. This effect is light and video projected onto the facade of the tower and it tells the story of 600 years of not only the tower, but of the Czech people. Fantastic stuff. This is a very tall video and you may have to scroll up and down to follow the action.


The 600 Years from the macula on Vimeo.


And finally, we're off to London for the New Year's 2011 fireworks display. It's the wrong country and the wrong holiday but hey, fireworks are fireworks and this this display beats the pants off of anything I've ever seen. Note to self: Be in London for New Year's 2012.




Enjoy your Sunday.

02 July 2011

Oh give me a home where the reindeer roam

Wednesday's Homes section of the New York Times profiled a cottage on the outskirts of Helsinki Finland.


The cottage in question belongs to a husband and wife team of architects and they built their little slice of heaven for €30,000 ($42,000 US).


They were looking for a getaway and rather than build something far from the city, they built this cottage in a recreational park ten minutes from home.


At 150 square feet, they report that there's ample room for the couple and their two kids to relax and unwind. In their design, they took a page from the boat builder's handbook and built in space to hide everything when it's not in use.


The home sports a high-efficiency fireplace and tatami mats that heat automatically when the temperature drops below 40 degrees.


I love the idea of living in a small space, and a small space on the shores of the Baltic sounds like an ideal get away. It does to me at any rate. What do you think? Could you live in a small space?

01 July 2011

Adventure abounds: finding the wreck of the Atocha


On September 4th, 1622 a flotilla of 28 Spanish ships left Havana, bound for Spain. The flotilla transported the spoils of empire and in their holds were stacked an untold fortune in gold, silver, emeralds, tobacco and indigo. The day after they left, the flotilla was overtaken by a hurricane as it entered the Florida Straights. By September 6th, eight of the 28 original ships had gone down. Of these eight ships, the largest was the Nuestra SeƱora de Atocha. The Atocha was the heavily armed, rear ship in the flotilla and it sunk in 55 feet of water. Those 55 feet kept it out of the reach of Spanish salvage efforts that continued for the 60 years that followed her sinking.

In 1976, National Geographic aired a special on PBS about a dreamer in Key West named Mel Fisher and it detailed his quest to find the wreck of the Atocha in the waters between Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

I remember watching that special as a fifth grader and I remember how it caught my imagination on fire. In Wisconsin, an amateur wreck diver named Syd Jones watched the same show on PBS and had an idea. At the time, Jones was an unsatisfied office worker and a month after the special aired he quit his job and drove to Key West to ask for a job on the crew searching for the Atocha.


Syd Jones just published a book that tells the story of his life as a treasure hunter from when he started in 1976 until his team found the wreck in 1985. Those nine years are filled with long periods of low to no pay, love, loss, history, failure and finally, victorious redemption.

Jones' Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon tells the story of Atocha I've been looking for since I watched that PBS special all those years ago. It's the story of what it was like to be a diver and a captain. It's the story of what it's like to find a half a billion dollars worth of silver, gold and emeralds that had lain hidden for nearly 400 years.

As thrilling as the adventure is, what really hooked me was Jones' ability to give me a front row seat to what was going on behind the scenes. He details the conflicts between the dreamer Fisher and his more pragmatic crews. He describes the clash between the need to do archaeology and salvage at the same time. But more than anything, he tells the story of the people behind the triumph and the long, thankless road they followed to get to the ending they knew was there but couldn't see.

My dad gave me a copy of Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon last Friday and I finished its final, 332nd page 48 hours later. I couldn't put it down and I mean that literally. I can't remember a book that's grabbed me so tightly in a very long time. If you're looking for a great vacation read, I can't think of one I'd recommend more highly.



Happy Canada Day!

via

Happy Canada Day to all my pals above the 49th parallel (and those of you slumming it down here). Congratulations on 144 years of nationhood!


Through the Anthropologie looking glass

What's this?


Quick! Quick! here's another one.


Seriously, what are these things?


Are they powerful statements about class struggle? Nope.


Are they proof of intelligent life on other planets? Nope.


If anything, they're proof of unintelligent life on this planet. In the world of Anthropologie, they are chairs.


They're chairs that cost four grand a pop.

Welcome to the end of empire gang.