The short film "Wandering: New York" by filmmaker Morten Rustad gives you an intimate and unpolished look of the famous city.

To see more of Rustad's work, watch his time lapse of Norway's majestic nature.

Brooke Mahan from What’s Up Moms demonstrates an easy way to give your canvas sneakers a customized look.

You need the following supplies before getting started:

1. slip on canvas sneakers
2. fabric (lace or thin fabric works best)
3. fabric glue
4. fabric scissors
5. exacto knife
6. paintbrush

After having seen the wonderful footage "25 Years of Christmas", capturing writer Nick Confalone and his sister coming down the stairs on Christmas morning, I discovered the perfect Christmas music from Vince Guaraldi and his studio album "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965).

Listen to full album:

It's also on Spotify.

Image credit: Album cover via Jazz 91.9 WCLK.

In 1983, video game company Atari buried goods into a landfill in New Mexico. It was suspected that the goods were unsold cartridges of the Atari 2600 game "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982), and since then the game has been known as the worst game ever made.

The documentary "Atari: Game Over" (2014) finally uncovers this urban legend, but it also gives the game's developer Howard Scott Warshaw the credit he is due.

I don't play video games myself, but despite this, I found screenwriter and director Zak Penn's documentary to be an absolutely exciting watch.

Watch the full documentary:

Or you can watch the documentary for free over at Microsoft.

Todays links cover everything from bottled air from Canada to how to make the coolest holiday cake.

• From The New York Times – "The Art of Turning Around an Airplane".
• A Canadian company sells bottled air from Banff and Lake Louise to China.
• Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson hit with a copyright lawsuit regarding the TV series "Ballers".
• This must be one of the best looking cakes ever made – the Plaid Lumberjack Cake.

Here is today's links:

• How to make a leopard milk bread.
• DailyTekk's list of the 100 best, most interesting blogs and websites of 2015.
• Illustrator Christoph Niemann's witty illustrations of the "joy" of flying.
• "More time being, not doing!" – Sanctuary Spa's campaign encourages young women to cut down the to-do-list to live a more fruitful life.

Featured image: From Christoph Niemann's visual diary Red Eye.

Jeff Zwart became the 13th driver to ascend the summit of Pikes Peak with his 800-hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car in less than ten minutes.

And I can't post this without mention the classic short film "Climb Dance" (1989) directed by Jean Louis Mourey, when driver Ari Vatanen drove up to the summit of Pikes Peak during the 1988 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

Via Autoweek.

When this orangutan is demonstrated a magic trick, his response is just heartwarming.

Via Boing Boing.

Visit Armenia in the Fall by watching photographer Michael Bartikyan's beautiful footage. Music by Tigran Hamasyan and the track "Longing".

Via Holykow.

After having had to walk for two days every month for six years, just to be able to check his emails, Mahabir Pun in the Annapurna region in Nepal, thought it must exist a much better solution. With a dream of creating a wireless network, he sent an email to the BBC News to ask for advice and assistance, which gave him the resources he needed to finally be able to connect his village to the internet.

Since then, he's been instrumental in establishing wireless networks in remote areas, something that has had a positive impact on health, education and the trading of goods.

"Hiking for Emails" (2015) is a short film by Austrian director Clemens Purner.

Via Devour.

The Tomorrow's Meatball project has come up with fresh and inspiring ideas on how we can produce food in the near future that are more sustainable.

The project is a collaboration between Bas Van de Poel and Kaave Pour from Ikea's Space 10 Innovation Lab, photographer Lukas Renlund, chef and food designer Simon Perez, graphic designer Karin Borring and storyteller Simon Caspersen.

Tomorrow's Meatball is a visual exploration of the future of food - exploring the many ways we could be eating in the not-too distant future. The exploration focus on alternative ingredients, technological innovations and uncharted gastronomic territories, that we need to consider to combat our unsustainable appetite for meat and the explosive demand for more food in the future.

The Mighty Powder Ball – meal replacement in powdered form, which includes all the necessary elements of a healthy diet:

The Urban Farmer's Ball – the veggie meatball:

The Crispy Bug Ball – 1,000 different insect species are eaten in 80% of the world's nations, so why not adopt it more in the West:

Image credit: Via the website of photographer Lukas Renlund.

Via Lady Danger.

As of today, 53,254 supporters have signed a petition at change.org, urging NASA to send Mr. Trump into space and leave him there. The whole thing made me laugh, and I'm pretty sure Trump feels the same way about it.

Featured image: "Albert Siepert Points Out Highlights of Apollo 10 Liftoff to Belgium King and Queen" on May 18, 1969. Via NASA on The Commons.

How can someone possibly eat 100 pieces of sliced bread in one sitting? For passionate eater Kinoshita Yuka, this seems like an rather easy challenge.

Via Mashable.

Everyday, this poor mail carrier has to fight off a crowd of angry turkeys by waving a stick.

Kitten Bowl III returns to the Hallmark Channel on February 7th 2016. And contrary to NFL's Super Bowl, Hallmark's game gives you the opportunity to adopt the players and give these bundles of cuteness a new home.

Featured image: Kitten Bowl 2014 via CBS Sports.

Via Rumiram.

By using a drone, photographer Nansen Weber was able to capture some unique footage of the Northwest Passage and Arctic wildlife during his four weeks stay. The footage is accompanied by Matthew Morgan's wonderful piece "With the Wind".

Via Holykaw.

Watching Daniel Csobot's captivating time lapse of flowers opening is time well spent. Music by Daniel Gautreau and the track "Digital Heartbeat".

Robert Capps interview with actor Leonardo DiCaprio for Wired is an entertaining and important read. Find out more about harsh weather conditions during the filming of his latest film "The Revenant" (2015), DiCaprio's close encounter with a shark when diving in South Africa, and his passionate work for the environment.

I once was talking to Naomi Klein, who to me is one of the most powerful voices in the climate movement. She wrote a book called This Changes Everything, and it's about capitalism versus the environment. And look, everyone loves money, I love money—we live in the United States. This is a capitalist country. But ultimately we've locked ourselves, through capitalism, into an addiction to oil that's incredibly hard to reverse. I'm making a documentary about this, and I asked Naomi to give me something I could say that would help people understand what they need to do. She told me there isn't one thing that an individual can do. That whole greenwashing movement, buying a hybrid (which of course can't hurt), recycling, this and that, it's not going to cut it. This needs to be a massive movement on a global scale. And it needs to happen now. This year, 2015, is going to be the year people look back on and say we either made the right choices or we didn't.

Image credit: Photography by Dan Winters.

Via Digg.

From Retronaut, a photo series of lumberjacks in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Before the advent of modern chainsaws and logging machinery, the hard work of the lumber industry was done by men known as lumberjacks.

Working out of remote camps, lumberjacks developed a process and division of labor to transform a mighty tree into kindling by hand.

"Fallers" did the actual job of felling a tree with axes and saws. Once felled and delimbed, a tree was either cut into logs by a “bucker,” or skidded or hauled to a railroad or river for transportation. Sometimes chutes with flowing water called log flumes were built to transport logs down mountainous terrain.

Featured image: "Three lumberjacks pose by a large Douglas fir ready for felling in Oregon" in 1918. Copyright Corbis.

A new artwork from Banksy depicts Steve Jobs as a refugee. The mural can be seen in the Calais refugee camp, and refers to Jobs heritage as the son to a Syrian migrant.

The piece reference the late Apple co-founder's heritage, as he was the son of a Syrian migrant who moved to the US following the Second World War. The anonymous artist released a statement alongside the unveiling of the artwork, saying: "We're often led to believe migration is a drain on the country's resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world's most profitable company, it pays over $7bn (£4.6bn) a year in taxes – and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs."

Via @vittorpia.

As part of the hashtag #ChallengeRichard, entrepreneur Richard Branson wrote a letter to his younger self at age 10.

Your imagination is one of your greatest gifts – this will become more and more apparent when you enter secondary school. You will face many challenges, and often feel like you don’t fit in and that you can’t always keep up. Don’t let this hold you back. Use your imagination to find inventive ways around it. Your ability to think differently will become one of your biggest advantages in life – taking you places where most straight-A students will never go.

Mental Floss' article lists 10 interesting facts about the making of the classic financial film "Wall Street" (1987), starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen in the lead. The film earned Douglas an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and it was fortunate that he didn't decide to leave the project despite director Oliver Stone's method of bringing out the best in Douglas acting-wise:

"As a director, he really tests you," Douglas said. Around two weeks after shooting had started, Stone showed up at the actor's trailer and asked "Are you on drugs? Because you look like you've never acted before in your life." Mortified, Douglas took a look at some footage they'd already shot. Yet, after diligently reviewing it, he could find nothing wrong with his performance. "I came back to Oliver and said … 'I think it's okay," Douglas remembers. "Yeah, it is, isn't it?" Stone replied.

Eventually, Douglas wised up to his boss's overly critical act. "Basically, what he wanted was to ratchet up that much more nastiness in Gordon Gekko," Douglas explained. "And he was willing … for me to hate him for the rest of that movie just to bring it up a little more."

And that famous "Greed is good" quotation by Gordon Gekko was actually inspired from a commencement speech at Berkeley by stock trader Ivan Boesky:

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good" finished just ahead of "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" from The Godfather: Part II. Gekko might as well have been quoting Boesky: At a 1985 commencement address given at UC Berkeley, the trader said "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."

Newsweek later reported on the speech—and made a telling observation. "The strangest thing, when we come to look back," the magazine argued, "will not just be that Ivan Boesky could say that at a business school graduation, but that it was greeted with laughter and applause."

Featured image: Gordon Gekko via Jake's Old Hollywood World.

Each July, the Santa University gathers a group of aspiring Santas for a 4-day training. The univeristy is run by The Noerr Programs and is located in Arvada, Colorado. The Santas get educated in various subjects such as media training, ethics, how to pose and take great pictures and how to stay healthy.

Via Digg.

Madrid-based hairdresser Alberto Olmedo has a rather unique style of styling his customers: he uses swords and fire.

Via Holykow.

Bruce Campbell in Portland lives in a converted Boeing 727 that was formerly used in traffic by Greek airline Olympic Airlines until the mid-60s.

Via Digg.

In my post "Transcendental Meditation and the Alternatives", I previously linked to an excellent article published on Examiner.com called "An alternative to Transcendental Meditation". In the article, author and meditation teacher Wayne Purdin talks with former TM teacher David Spector, who runs the Natural Stress Relief organization. Since 2006, NSR has assisted meditators around the world by offering an inexpensive way to learn effortless mantra meditation via a distance and online class.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, the article disappeared. Recently, I discovered to my delight that it had been posted in its entirety to the Yahoo Group discussion board Fairfield Life, so respectfully I re-publish it here as well.

Some readers think that I am a proponent of Transcendental Meditation. And I've received email from TMers accusing me of putting TM in a bad light by allowing negative comments about it. They're both wrong. I am an objective reporter. In this article I will objectively report on an alternative to TM, called Natural Stress Relief (NSR).

You might ask, if TM is so great why do we need an alternative?

Unfortunately, TM has developed several aspects that prevent many people from being able to learn. Its course fee has become prohibitively high ($1500.00 for adults, $750 for students and $375 for children under 18), and it includes nonessential elements that many find to be religious or mystical, and therefore objectionable to some people. The need for an alternative was clear, and a nonprofit group in Italy called Istituto Scientia, led by physics researcher Fabrizio Coppola, got together in the late 1990's to develop a comparable technique that did not have these objectional aspects. By 2003, Istituto Scientia was offering their own course, called la Tecnica Naturale Anti-Stress (TNAS) in Italian, and Natural Stress Relief in English.

In 2006 David Spector, a former TM teacher, was inspired to help. David founded Natural Stress Relief, Inc., an independent nonprofit corporation, to produce and distribute the NSR learning materials in hardcopy and CDs throughout the world in cooperation with Istituto Scientia. Since 2006 nearly one thousand individuals have learned NSR Meditation through NSR Meditation/USA.

I recently talked with David about NSR and this is what he had to say:

Q. Doesn't NSR violate copyright law? Aren't you guilty of plaigarism?

A. We have copied no written or copyrighted TM material except for very brief and attributed quotations from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of TM.

Q. When I became a TM teacher, I had to sign a legal document promising not to teach it outside of the TMO. How did you get around this?

A: When I graduated from 8 months of teacher training in residence with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1972, our group was asked orally not to teach TM outside of Maharishi's organizations, and I have not done so. My last TM teaching was done in 1974. I was also asked not to reveal that pledge, but you did ask a direct question and I believe that only an honest answer is ethical.

Maharishi was certainly very concerned (as am I) about what he liked to call "the purity of the teaching", but he was at the same time supportive (at least in the early 1970s) of people teaching the simple, natural, effortless, and effective technique of transcending to as many people as possible. He taught us that this knowledge is no one's property but that it comes to us from the long and freely available Vedic tradition passed from teacher to student in India. He said we should enlighten the world, whether we called it TM and worked through his organizations or whether we called it something else and worked independently of his organizations.

An early example was Deepak Chopra, a disciple of Maharishi who decided to form his own organization and teach his own techniques based on the same Vedic tradition of effortless enlightenment. Maharishi reluctantly approved his doing so and Deepak is still helping the world today. Another example is the Advaita Meditation organization, which is teaching mantra meditation independently with the blessing of the current leader of that Vedic tradition in South India at Sringeri (Maharishi was a disciple of the leader of the same tradition in the north of India at Jyotir Math).

Q. What do you say to critics who accuse you of being in it for the money?

A. Natural Stress Relief, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation registered in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The NSR organizations are not only nonprofit, but volunteer as well. The officers receive no income from sales of the NSR learning materials or from their personal support services. Indeed, our prices are a small fraction of what we could charge; they are only what we have found necessary to publicize and produce the NSR materials.

Q. Is NSR identical to TM?

A. NSR is not the same as TM. For example, NSR is self-learned from a manual and a CD, while TM is learned through personal instruction from a teacher. We only state that experimentation and experience have confirmed that it produces similar results (decreased stress, increased intelligence, creativity, ability to focus, etc.) as TM.

Q. What research has been done on NSR and how does it compare with research on TM?

A. NSR has been available to researchers for only 6 years, as compared to 51 years for TM. In spite of our newness, we have published two papers in peer-reviewed psychological journals. In addition, we have several unpublished studies (including a current longitudinal STAI study with N=45). All of our studies produce virtually identical results as the published studies on TM. Our research measurements include EEG, GSR, STAI, and a standard psychological inventory (SISA) showing the growth of self-actualization.

Q. What do you say to critics' claim that NSR is "watered-down" TM?

A. Not so. NSR contains a complete technique for experiencing transcendental consciousness (restful alertness) in the very first session, as reported by our clients. It also contains much of the other essential knowledge brought to the West by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, including an explanation for various kinds of experiences that can occur during the practice.

Q. When I asked Denise Gerace why TM was so expensive and if one could learn TM from a CD, she said that the TMO provides meditators with a lifetime of free instruction and checking by highly trained professionals at TM centers around the world. Also, TM teachers can instruct each person at their own pace.

A. That's correct. When people ask me what they should learn to reduce stress and improve their life, I nearly always mention TM. I recommend TM over NSR when they can afford it, can travel easily to a TM center, and are not alienated by the unnecessary mysticism. We are here to offer an acceptable alternative so everyone can learn how to transcend thinking. We are not here to criticize the highly effective instruction system of TM.

Q. But do you offer any kind of instructional support for the people who learn NSR with a CD?

A. Unlike TM, we actually offer a free, online forum in which we answer client questions about experiences related to NSR. We also offer optional private email, phone, and online consultations for small additional fees. Those who participate in the support program have very good results in terms of increased understanding and, for those few who have the need, the clarification and resolving of any difficulties related to the practice of NSR.

Q. Dr. Patricia Carrington, a psychologist at Princeton, developed a Clinical Standardized Meditation (CSM) based on TM. She found that TMers who were having difficulty unstressing felt better when their meditation time was reduced, something which TM teachers and checkers were reluctant to do. Can you explain how NSR is related to CSM and why TM teachers are unwilling to reduce meditation time?

A. NSR has no connection with CSM other than that we were also inspired by TM (unlike Dr. Herbert Benson, the inventor of the comparatively superficial or at least simplistic "Relaxation Response" technique, Dr. Carrington was willing to learn and practice TM herself).

TM teachers are taught that TM is all anyone needs, and if they have problems they should have their meditation checked in person with a trained checker or teacher. TM teachers don't like to deviate from what they've learned, which is actually a good thing since they may be tempted to add something that doesn't benefit the student.

However, NSR is not TM. We are free to experiment and find out what works, in the same Western scientific tradition that informed Dr. Carrington's early work in developing CSM. We are finding as she did that the very few people who have problems as a result of practicing the technique of transcending respond well to an immediate but temporary reduction in their meditation time.

To avoid confusion for your readers, I'd like to emphasize that most of our clients receive nothing but enjoyment and benefits such as deep refreshment and alertness from their practice. Persistent problems resulting from NSR have an incidence of roughly one-half percent, which is well below the 9% or so incidence of severe mental illness in the general population.

Q. Do many of your clients learn NSR because of concerns about TM being quasi-religious?

A. Many of our clients choose NSR because they have heard about the puja (ceremony of gratitude) performed during personal instruction in TM and object to it as being religious. We realize that most TM teachers themselves are "high-minded", only interested in helping people. I have found this to be true of every TM teacher I have ever known, both in teacher training and out in the field, associated with many different TM centers. The high prices, quasi-religious programs, and weird projects all come from the top leadership, not from TM teachers themselves.

Q. That has been my experience too. What are some of the other policies of the leadership that have alienated people?

A. The leadership makes inconsistent and irrational policy decisions such as prohibiting the teaching of TM in Great Britain (and only there) from May, 2005 until July, 2007 because they "re-elected Tony Blair as Prime Minister and thereby perpetuated the destructive policy of Britain in the world, including its leading role in the war in Iraq."

They advocate the adoption of Vaastu principles such as the rebuilding of all buildings whose entrances do not face exactly toward true east or true north. They also promote astrology as a science, and Maharishi Vedic Vibration Technology, with its $900 (initial fee per disorder) program to bring "instant relief" for any in a long list of medical disorders through an "expert" whispering Vedic words.

The leadership spend millions on extravagant and impractical world-level projects such as undertaking the building of so-called Towers of Invincibility in 48 countries and fruitless projects to interest world governments in subsidizing high-priced TM instruction for their populations instead of making TM more accessible and down-to-earth so everyone will want to learn it.

Much of the current TM activity centers on its Global Country of World Peace headed by "Rajas" (kings) who frequently wear white robes and golden crowns and who are reluctant to make sufficient changes to their policies to make TM appealing to the entire world population.

"We Ride – The Story of Snowboarding" (2013) is a full feature documentary narrated by actor and skateboarder Jason Lee that tells the history and evolution of snowboarding. In the documentary, which is directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and Jon Drever, you'll see interviews and archival footage of skilled snowboarders such as Todd Richards, Gigi Rüf, Terje Haakonsen and Craig Kelly, and of snowboard pioneers Sherman Poppen, Jake Burton and Tom Sims.

In India, more than four million workers manufacture bidi cigarettes, also known as a poor man's smoke. These cigarettes are wrapped in tendu leaf and are sometimes flavoured with chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon to name a few.

Bloomberg Business visited some of the homes and small workshops where bidi-making took place for their photo essay "Bidis: The Hand-Rolled Cigarettes That Keep More Than Four Million Indians Employed".

Image credit: Photograph by Udit Kulshrestha / Bloomberg.

Poldarium is a tear-off calendar that displays one new polaroid shot for every day of the year. On the other side of each shot, you'll find a short story behind the photograph and information about the photographer.

You can also pre-order it from Amazon.

During a 10-day long journey through Taiwan, Michael Roselli encountered a chef and owner of a famous fish restaurant, who had accomplished two childhood goals: to own a restaurant and a Harley-Davidson. And several choppers later, he have one of them displayed in the middle of the restaurant!

What happened next, I simply could not handle. The owner walked up to his “dragon” bike, turned on the ignition, and then engaged the starter. This chopper fired up, running during lunch, with patrons mid-bite inside the restaurant, and nobody was saying a word. I was then thoroughly freaking out inside. And outside. Sorry for the cussing.

Via Tjock (SE).

Golf journalist Lorne Rubenstein sits down with Tiger Woods at Woods own restaurant for a rare one-on-one interview. In an intimate and open interview, Tiger talks about his role as a family man, career, physical recovery and what lies ahead.

You've used the term "full throttle" to describe your approach, even in 2008 at the U.S. Open when you were in such pain.

From the very first shot, the first hole, you have to be that way. It's one of the things I was trying to teach Jason Day this year. The first hole is just as important as the last hole, and every shot is exactly the same. So you have the same intent, the same intensity. Nothing changes.

The first tee shot at the Masters is the same as the last?

I am grinding just as hard. So if I have that mentality, I get so worn out mentally, because I'm grinding that hard. Golf is, what, five hours? You're trying to tell me that I can't go out there and focus that hard for five hours, when I've got 19 other hours to recover? That's how I look at it. So I'm going to give it absolutely everything I can, everything I have, for this five-hour window. Let's go. After that, hey, we're done.

Via Digg.

The clothing store Greenspan's in South Gate, California, has served the lowrider community since 1928. The shop started out as a general store, but after World War 2, the founder's son Eddie Greenspan took over the store and started selling vintage clothing from the 40's, 50's and early 60's that people didn't want anymore.

In the 80's, Greenspan's experienced an upsurge in sales and it has never slowed down since then. A true original store!

Via Tjock (SE).

I thought I recognized the work of skilled paper plane model artist Luca Iaconi-Stewart in a recent commercial for Singapore Airlines' Airbus A380. Last year, I wrote a post about his work when he built a 1:60 model of an Air India Boeing 777-300ER entirely out of manila folders. Just amazing!

Via Tjock (SE).

The floopy disk is still thriving business for some. That applies for Tom Persky, president of Floopydisk.com, who's collecting and reformatting used disks so they can be sold to customers like the US government, since the government still use some older systems that make use of the floopy disk.

And another business that still is going strong is the audio cassette tapes business.

Via Devour.

The fascinating Swiss team sport Hornussen is often called farmers' golf. By hitting a small disc known as a "Hornuss" with a top speed of up to 300 km/h, the opponents stand in a field and try to knock it out of the air with wooden paddles. And points are made only if the puck reach the ground unhindered.

And here is another great video presented by Red Bull:

Via Digg.

Featured image: Taken from the Red Bull video.

With the time lapse film "The Harmony of Fall", Enrique Pacheco captures the true wonders of fall. Enjoy the footage from Croatia and Slovenia with relaxing piano music by composer Peter Nanasi.

Via Devour.

In the short film "Blast: Ken Block", director and photographer Jim Mangan, captures rally driver Ken Block's driving through the Utah desert, accompanied by music from Ennio Morricone and Dario Argento.

In the eerie 75-mile stretch of desert between Capital Reef and Goblin Valley, Utah, professional rally car driver Ken Block—who is also the co-founder of DC Shoes—sends engulfing dust clouds swirling through the jagged landscape. Blast, by critically acclaimed American photographer Jim Mangan, captures the chaos and the beauty of displaced dirt.

I'm a fan of Block's Gymkhana series, but this film reminds me more about the classic rally short film 'Climb Dance' (1989) with Ari Vatanen.

Via Tjock (SE).

The documentary "Inside Job" (2010), directed by Charles H. Ferguson and narrated by actor Matt Damon, examines in five parts what caused the housing and banking financial crisis of 2008.

Watch the trailer:

You can watch the full documentary for free over at Vimeo.

Featured image: Taken from the trailer.