In this episode of "Design Matters", Debbie Millman interviews blogger Jason Kottke. A great listen whether you are an aspiring blogger or a seasoned one.

Here is another audio interview with Jason from 2009 on the Canadian radio show "Spark".

"Opening" is the title of the visual album by Christopher Willits. You find more details of Christopher's work here. 11 minutes in and I start getting goose bumps.

I'm one of thoose people who loves the look of a well used journal. This one is Nick Cave's from 1984 which he used for jotting down new words to learn and remember, all in alphabetical order.

Featured image: Nick's notebook "Sacred and Profane", 1985. Via the photo gallery of Nick Cave – the exhibition.

Via @loretobgude.

A wonderful little video illustrating the life of a travelling snowboarder:

Via @btoddrichards.

"Who Owns Yoga?" is a new yoga documentary by Al Jazeera reporter Bhanu Bhatnagar. Yoga is gaining popularity throughout the world and Bhanu explore it's commercialisation. For example, it covers the insanity of YogaGlo’s patent application.

Another great documentary on the same topic is "Yoga, Inc." (video link).

Via YogaDork.

This is a wonderful comic strip called "It Never Ends". However, I can't find the name of the illustrator.

Via @GavinHoole.

This is sort of a combined blessing and nightmare to me, so many films I want to watch! National Film Board of Canada has one of the greatest selections of free streaming movies I've seen. The quality is great and the selection of films seems to be very unique.

Here, a small sample of what they're offering. The Art of Eating (1976) highlights one of the biannual dinners of a leading international gastronomic society at Club Prosper Montagné:

Additional great resources are SnagFilms and Culture Unplugged.

Featured image: From "The Art of Eating".

This beautiful image was taken by Geralyn Shukwit while on travel in Peru:

They were jumping rope when we came down the dirt road, we stopped to ask a question and the next thing I knew... kittens! The light was magical as it reflected off of the lagoon nearing on sunset, a small fire burning in the distance, their father tending to the recently planted potatoes... the kids couldn't have been happier to entertain us as we photographed these simple moments of their lives.

Via @indisecreet.

Norweigan hero of the day! A duck was walking on a frozen lake and suddenly got trapped under the ice. Fortunately, ice bather Lars Jørun Langøien was close by and jumped in to save it.

The critically acclaimed documentary series "The Norden" (2014) takes a closer look at the Nordic welfare model and the Nordic society, from an outsider's point of view. I find this series extremely interesting, especially since the observer is from abroad, which makes you reflect on certain things that otherwise would risk go unnoticed.

Some of the facts about my neighbouring countries surprised me. It wasn't that long ago I learned that the Norweigan police force doesn't carry a gun, like the British police.

Watch the complete series below for free.

The Norden – Police (full episode):

The Norden – Nordic prisons (full episode):

The Norden – Religion (full episode):

The Norden – Gender (no excerpt available):

The Norden – "Breaking the Cycle" (full episode):

Want to Stay Connected?!

If you found this post helpful, you might want to consider following our RSS feed or sign up for the free daily email that contains all the posts published during that particular day, or for our free weekly newsletter that includes some of the best posts during the week and exclusives.

Stella Artois' video series "Perfectionists" is beautiful storytelling. Here, an animated portrait of Wimbledon's official trophy engraver Roman Zoltowski:

And "Sandman", portraying Royal Liverpool's Head Greenkeeper Craig Gilholm's work with the sand traps during the 2014 Open Championship:

Featured image: From "Sandman".

How would some of our former famous political leaders look like as hipsters? Illustrator Amit Shimoni might give us a clue in his series "Hipstory".

Winston Churchill:

Nelson Mandela:

Featured image: Mahatma Gandhi

Via Metro (SE).

Warren Buffett's holiday gifts have been sent out together with a nice holiday card of a bench pressing Buffett:

Every year, See’s Candies ships out boxes of their candy as holiday gifts on behalf of Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has owned See’s since 1972. The boxes come adorned with amusing photographs of Mr. Buffett (at least in the two years yours truly has covered Berkshire and its chairman).

Last year, it was a photo of Mr. Buffett dressed as Walter White, a.k.a. Heisenberg, the character on “Breaking Bad” who was played by Bryan Cranston. The photo came complete with a fake photoshopped beard and a hat that said “Honorary Heisenberg.”

This year’s box has a photograph of Mr. Buffett pretending to bench-press what looks like 200lb, according to some of the newsroom’s regular bench-pressers. Beneath the photo is the caption: “Working off a few pounds after eating my daily allotment of See’s candy.” Yeah, right.

Via @PreetaTweets.

One of the weirdest things I've ever seen! Thieves in India stole a sacred cow and drove away with it in the backseat of the car.

The photography exhibit "Underground: 1966" displays eight large-scale New York City subway photographs, taken by photographer Danny Lyon in 1966.

In 1966, photographer Danny Lyon returned to his hometown of New York City after spending years documenting the Civil Rights Movement in the South and motorcycle gangs in Chicago. Once back in the city, Lyon took his mother’s advice: "If you’re bored, just talk to someone on the subway." Using a Rolleiflex camera and Kodak color transparency film, he started taking photographs of New York’s commuters and its dingy, fluorescent-lit train stations.

Now, eight of Lyon’s large-scale subway photographs are on view for the first time in Underground: 1966. The show, hosted by MTA Arts & Design, will be up for a year at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station in Brooklyn, seen by the 40,000 people who pass through the transit hub every day.

"Man":

You find the rest of the pictures here.

Featured image: "Dekalb"

Some caring parents prepared a kit with treats and earplugs for a fellow passenger when taking their one-year-old daughter for her very first flight. Some say the story is old news, but a similar event happened back in 2012 when parents of twins handed out sweets and ear plugs.

Via Metro (SE).

Jacques Sayagh is a homeless competitive bodybuilder, working out on the streets of Paris. I wish him well!

The music playing is "Digital Versicolor" (video link) by Glass Candy.

Via @ManFlowYoga.

Simply said, Michael went from being a goverment lawyer to becoming a surf fanatic, and then finding his true calling in yoga. An inspring portrait of finding the courage to try out something new.

Via Yolanda Padrón.

Swiss rock climber and mountaineer Ueli Steck speed climbs the Eiger in the Swiss Alps. Here, ice and snow comes into the equation, so this is a real adrenaline rush:

Via @jackschwager.

The Coca-Cola ad you probably never will see being aired on television:

Via @homestretchfit.

Related:

• The Experiment: Ten Cokes a Day Diet for 30 days
• Watch What Happens When You Boil Coca-Cola

Amusment park Liseberg's roller coaster Helix, is the longest and fastest coaster in the park.

The track is almost 1,4 km (4500 feet) long and the ride lasts for almost two minutes. Along the track are two launches where the coaster is accelerated using Linear Synchronous Motors (LSM). It will be the first multi-launch coaster in Europe. The ride will include six inversions, four airtime hills and plenty of drops, turns and twists.

With speeds up to 100 km/h (62 mph) this new coaster will be the fastest one in the park. It will also be the most technologically advanced coaster in the park. It’s manufactured by the German company Mack Rides Gmb.

Take the ride (don't forget to view in HD):

Power Hungry is the latest photo series from Henry Hargreaves and Caitlin Levin. By demonstrating how access to food has differed between the rich and poor throughout the ages, they want us to take some time to reflect on these major imbalances:

We want people to literally and figuratively sit down and look across a table to see the glaring disparities between the “haves and have nots.” The world has clearly changed tremendously in just a few short decades. Swathes of the world’s people, once routinely afflicted by sweeping hunger, have more regular access to food than before. Indeed, even some poor populations now face a greater threat from obesity than from starvation.

Yet tremendous imbalances exist in places both far away and closer to home. Many throughout the world are still forced to survive on the most meagre of meals, or nothing at all, while a powerful few lavish in absurd culinary luxuries.

Ancient Egypt – "Power":

Ancient Egypt – "Hungry":

Via Metro (SE) and Neatorama.

Neal Unger loves skateboarding and by skating, his well-being increases in many different ways, e.g. deeper stillness, creativity and strenght and better relationships. Truly inspiring!

Here is Neal's YouTube channel.

In Kim Leuenberger's photo series Traveling Cars Adventures, toy cars find themselves in various dramatic settings.

Riding at Durdle Door:

Featured image: "La Vie En Rose".

It's more to exercise than the release of endorphins. Leo Widrich has written a great article about exercise and how it boost your brain at the same time. And the best part, even gentle exercise lets you reap the health benefits. I exercise daily, and reading about the scientific findings, spur me on to continue.

A recent study from Penn State university shed some light on the matter and the results are more than surprising. They found that to be more productive and happier on a given work day, it doesn’t matter so much, if you work-out regularly, if you haven’t worked out on that particular day:

"Those who had exercised during the preceding month but not on the day of testing generally did better on the memory test than those who had been sedentary, but did not perform nearly as well as those who had worked out that morning."

New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Reynolds has written a whole book about the subject matter titled "The first 20 minutes". To get the highest level of happiness and benefits for health, the key is not to become a professional athlete. On the contrary, a much smaller amount is needed to reach the level where happiness and productivity in every day life peaks:

"The first 20 minutes of moving around, if someone has been really sedentary, provide most of the health benefits. You get prolonged life, reduced disease risk — all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes of being active."

Photo credit: Cycles of Learning

Yep, it's a first! Dean Potter takes his dog Whisper for a wingsuit BASE jump, jumping from the Eiger, Switzerland.

An anonymous narration tells the "love story" about a New Yorker who begin an intimate relationship with his female married boss:

In those first few weeks after moving to Chicago, when part of me already knew I was going to end up sleeping with my married boss, I tried to distract myself by walking around the city. I didn't have a car, or a license, or even an idea, really, of why I'd moved there, except for a job. So I walked across a lot of bridges and ended up in a lot of bars. Every booth was filled with another season's hopeful fans, the waitresses saying: "Don't count on it, but what're you having?"

[…]

Here was my (biggest) mistake: I told a woman I loved her, then I tried to keep her hidden. I wanted her enough to take her, but not enough to let everybody know. I thought if they knew, I'd be fired. Or if I weren't fired, then reviled. Oh, that kid, they'd say, he dragged his personal life into the office and made us all look at it, like a cat dropping off a mole. Looking back, this was all just a way to protect myself. Sleeping with her prevented her from being my boss, which I enjoyed, but if people knew I was sleeping with her, they would think I didn't deserve my job, or my reputation for doing good work. At the same time, I loved her, or thought I did. But that's the thing: In that situation, you can't really know. There's no fixed perspective. You don't know, at work or in bed, whether you're making love to your boss or your lover. In the attempt to maintain control, you have no control at all.

Writer Marianne Schnall sits down with David Lynch to discuss Transcendental Meditation, his practice and the work of his foundation to bring meditation to the mainstream.

Artists don't want to lose their edge and they worry that meditation might take away that edge and make them calm and worthless. This was one of my worries before starting meditation, but I find way more of an edge, way more creativity flowing, way more happiness in the doing, way more energy to do the work. And I say that this transcending every day fuels the work and a very good feeling in life. No one likes to suffer. Sometimes in a romantic way, artists think suffering is part of the art life. But looking a little deeper we see that it is only romantic for others, it's not really romantic for the artist to be starving, cold and suffering in the garret. It's absurd to think suffering fuels creativity. The artist should understand suffering, but the artist doesn't have to suffer to do his or her work. Suffering and negativity kill creativity. So let's get real and experience that treasury within which fuels real creativity.

Tip: See also my post "Transcendental Meditation and the Alternatives".

Photo credit: David Lynch interviewed by Moviechrome (video).

Swedish freediver Annelie Pompe explains how it feels to experience "freediver blackout":

A freedivers blackout looks much worse from the outside than it is experienced from the inside. In fact, it might be worse observing a blackout than having one. My last memory from the dive is only of having a good feeling of strength, swimming up towards the surface and next breath, having been to 131m depth I believed that I was on the way to break a world record. I spent what felt like an eternity underwater. And I obvioulsy spent a lot of oxygen swimming up with the monofin. My legs was obviously filled with lactic acid, but I could handle it. I remember seeing the safety freediver and being happy I was getting close to the surface. This is what’s scary with a blackout. It’s sudden and without warning. I suddenly started dreaming. The dream was just like a dream at night. Physiologically the hypoxia (lack of oxygen) had made my body shut down. As I ascended the lungs expanded and the pressure made the oxygen push back from the blood into the lungs, which makes the probabilty of a shallow water blackout occur near the surface. It’s also more likely to happen if you breathe to much and fast before a dive. What I knew, but was not aware of in my dream-state was the safety freedivers grabbing me and aiding my lifelss body up to the surface.

Next thing I knew I was transferred from the dreamworld to the reality. The sun was in my face. People were watching and talking reassuringly to me. It took a few seconds before I’d realised what happened. I breathed and felt a urge to cough. My chest rustled and I coughed some specks of blood from a lung squeeze. Someone gave me a regulator to breathe oxygen. There was silence around me, and I felt sad to have let the others down. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. It’s all I could do for a few minutes. Dissapointment. And a decision to try again.

Photo credit: Annelie Pompe photographed by Nanna Kreutzmann.

I can't stop laughing watching this! Does this remind you of something? It seems human behavior isn't that human after all. Priceless!

Via Olof Röhlander.

Spectators watching a Turkish F-16 pilot coming in for landing, got more than they bargained for:

Via Metro (SE).

Australian dad David Richard's Christmas decorations has earned him a place in the Guinness World Records for the largest image made of LED lights:

With 1,194,380 lights making up a 3D image of three Christmas gifts spanning 3865m2, as well as tens of thousands of lights creating a magical backdrop, the display has transformed Canberra’s CBD into a festival of light to raise money for the charity SIDS and Kids ACT.

TV segment from Australian television:

Oh, I'm gonna watch this! PilotsEYE.tv captures the footage of whole flights by placing 6 HD cameras inside the cockpit, getting a nice view of the scenery and interesting behind-the-scenes of how the captain and his first officer work.

The flights are edited down to between 60 and 90 minutes and have english subtitles. Available in DVD and Blu-ray.

In this clip, Captain Hans Klikovich and First Officer Cornelia Ollinge fly from Vienna to Barcelona with an Austrian Airlines’ A321 above the entire East-West route of the Alps.

Trampe is the world's first bicycle lift. It's located in Trondheim, Norway and was invented by Jarle Wanvik. A prototype took form in 1992 and the opening ceremony of Trampe was held on August 18, 1993. It was dismantled in 2012 and replaced by CycloCable in 2013.

Invented in the 90’s by a commuter who grew tired of showing up to work sweaty and exhausted, the Trampe lift, recently upgraded and reinvented as the CycloCable, has already carried over 200,000 bicyclists up this 150m-long cyclist deterrent. The curious escalator has become a tourist magnet as well.

Cyclists who place one foot on the escalator’s angled platform will be pushed uphill at a speed of 5mph. Up to 5 people can use it simultaneously and it is not limited to bicycles, as it can carry basically any small wheeled transport with its owner, be it a kid with scooter or a mother with a baby stroller.

Installing this invention is obviously a great way to boost cycling in hilly cities, but they’ll have to be quite busy – one meter of this elevator costs 2,000-3,000$.

So, it looks like I'm not the only one using a phone that isn't connected to the internet. Well, I don't use an "old school" phone per se, but I choose not to connect it to the internet and many of the popular apps won't function on my phone anyway. It's sort of a smart phone but without the little extra. That makes it easy for me to un-plug from technology and be more present in everyday activities.

It's a constant high-tech race to keep up with the latest smartphone technology. But a nostalgic wave seems to be sweeping over a high-profile segment of the cell phone market, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

Vogue's editor in chief Anna Wintour was seen at the U.S. Open three months ago with a flip-phone model from the early 2000s.

Actress Kate Beckinsale and singer Rihanna were also photographed using the hip accessory. On draft day, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck answered the call from the Colts on his flip phone.

And New York Senator Chuck Schumer likes his flip phone so much he's stockpiling the device.

"Since I like these so much I bought a whole bunch cause I figure they'll stop making them sooner or later," Schumer said. "They may have already stopped making them."

But what's behind this low-tech, high-profile renaissance?

"People are going back to the flip phone because it works, it is functional, you just flip it open. Also, you don't have to get internet on it," New York Times columnist Michael Musto said. "You can actually go out and enjoy whatever you're experiencing instead of taking pictures for Instagram and looking at it later."

Photo credit: Brock Miller / Brock Miller

Via Metro (SE)

Little White Lies presents the 25 best films of 2014 in this 12 minutes long compilation. Edited by David Ehrlich.

Luca Iaconi-Stewart builds a 1:60 model of an Air India Boeing 777-300ER entirely out of manila folders. The work is incredible well done and the details are absolutely amazing.

He’s now spent more than 10,000 hours building an exact model replica — at 1/60th scale — of a Boeing 777-300ER plane entirely out of cut-out manila folder parts. He’s not even done.

[…]

Iaconi-Stewart began work on the model while attending Lick-Wilmerding High School, a private school in San Francisco.

He made models of skyscrapers, but it was the Boeing plane that drew him.

[…]

And so as he was finishing his junior year, in 2008, he began finding photos on the Internet, and the dimensions of the 777 from the Boeing website.

Air India had posted an extremely detailed schematic of the seat arrangements, and Iaconi-Stewart managed to get hold of a training manual for the plane.

[…]

Then, using Adobe Illustrator, he drew out everything.

[…]

There were 303 economy seats, 35 business-class seats, and 4 first-class seats that had to be made.

One first-class seat took 6 to 8 hours to make. Iaconi-Stewart got the making of the economy seats down to 1 hour each.

Some of the parts he had to make were literally the size of a pinhead.

“It’s hard to keep up that level of focus day in and day out,” he says. “When you have to create everything from scratch it can be very draining.

“There were times I absolutely hated it. But then I could see the end in finishing the project. But then you get a certain amount of satisfaction in reverse engineering something and making it out of unconventional material.”

The main landing gear works great:

You can see more of the project here.

Via Boing Boing.

I just love "Loop De Li" with Bryan Ferry. Since seeing his performance on Skavlan talk show, I've listened to it numerous times. The sound is a bit low in this one, but look at that setting, magic!

And here's one with "better" sound on Later… with Jools Holland (don't forget to turn the volume down):

You find a great playlist with some of Bryan's live performances here.

Photo credit: Portrait of Bryan by photographer Jason Hetherington. Via The Times.

Eirik Solheim took one year worth of images and made a time-lapse video out of them. I love the tone of blue during winter. Here is the details of how it was all put together.

Via DesignTAXI.

Gawker reports about Kean University's latest purchase: a $219,000 conference table. For all the parents out there and students who've saved up for university, this must make sense.

Reading the commment section, I found this wonderful clip from the movie 24 Hour Party People (2002). "You're paying for design…":

Via reader robNYC.

Dundee plumber Mark Topen was caught by a colleague when dancing to the tunes of Chicane's "Saltwater" (music video). He's doing it really good!

Since the video hit the internet on Thursday it has been viewed more than 9 million times.

Speaking to the Evening Telegraph the 52-year-old said: “I’ll admit that it was a bit embarrassing at first but I suppose that is what is funny about it and I can see that now.

“It’s not something I would do all the time because it can be disrespectful to do it in people’s homes but this house was empty.

“I definitely think that it helps that I have a character where I can get away with it.

“Sometimes the job can be stressful, so it’s good to take the pressure off if you can.”

A personal note: I've seen it stated on different places that he was caught dancing when he was supposed to be working. Since when isn't every workforce entitled rest breaks?

Oh boy, he made me cry as well! A financially struggling family give their son some gifts (Facebook video), gifts that he in a wonderful way express sincere gratitude for.

Boy gets a cutting board for a gift, but yet thanks his mother and says he can't wait to try it out and cut some food with it. Then, although struggling with money beyond belief, his mother saved enough to get him a tablet and his reaction is PRICELESS. #tearjerker

DJ Sancho has updated the footage with the following text:

Due to the incredible response this story has had, I did some research on the identity of this precious 10-year-old kid. So far, we know his name is Santiago and he lives with his parents Miriam and Pablo in the neighborhood of Mara in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. Stay tuned to my page for more about Santiago!

Via Metro (SE).

In an experiment to make us aware of the dangers with overconsumption of sugar, George Prior, 50 years of age from Los Angeles, drank 10 cans of Coke everyday for 30 days.

He not only gained lots of weight, going from from 168 to 192 pounds, but other negative side effects also included a soaring blood pressure, intense sugar cravings and loss of appetite.

As well as the fast weight gain, Mr Prior, a father-of-two, said he feared he was becoming addicted to Coca-Cola after experiencing intense cravings.

While he tried to stick to his normal Paleo diet – a low-carbohydrate diet which focuses on eating lean meats, vegetables and berries – he began experiencing sugar cravings that were difficult to ignore.

'The most dramatic change was in weight: 23lb of gain over 30 days,' Mr Prior, who lives in L.A., said.

'I also seemed to develop a craving for Cokes, or other sugars, during the time I was drinking Cokes.'

'[As a result], I'm urging people to examine the amount of sugar in their diets.

'People need to be aware of the real and powerful damaging effects of sugar on their health.

This skilled yoga practicioner performs his yoga asanas on a…speeding motorcycle! Impressive to say the least.

Photo credit: Barcroft Media.

Via New York Post.

After having wanted to skate on a crystal clear Lake Blanktjärn, in Jämtland, Sweden, for many years, the opportunity finally came for Jonas Landmark. The ice was so clear that he could see fish 11 yards below the surface. A day to remember!

The soundtrack by James Newton Howard for the movie Intersection (1994) is one I've come to appreciate. Not the easiest soundtrack to find online, but now it is to be found on both YouTube and Grooveshark. Enjoy!

Skydivers Fred Fugen, Vincent Reffet together with Australia's leading skydive athlete talent, give us a sense of what it feels like to be weightless. Beautiful footage accompanied to the tune of "She Is" by Alex Khaskin (video).

Produced by Experience Series and edited and distributed by Infinity List.