It’s interesting to see a range of new streaming services emerge, each specialising in a particular niche. Wondrium focuses on “engaging, educational content through short form videos, long form courses, tutorials, how-to lessons, travelogues, documentaries, and more”. Some of the content is also available for free on YouTube, but with cringe-worthy commercials interrupting every video now, the value proposition of these new streaming platforms isn’t all that bad.

Listen to a growing archive of natural soundscapes from around the world. It’s a beautiful way to learn more about each location’s unique fauna. For example, listen to a group of singing Indri (a type of lemur) in Madagascar or a group of wolf pups howling across a lake in Sweden.

I love the simplicity of this little project, injecting a thought-provoking question into the tool you’re already using. “This free calendar schedules one thought-provoking question per day to help in all areas of your life from your career to your own personal growth.”

I spent a bit of time today playing around with this tool that ‘reads out’ almost anything you throw at it (pdf ,doc, pages, even epub). You can choose from over 100 voices in 16 different languages that don’t sound bad at all.

Movement →

Taking back our public spaces

I’m convinced that the future of our cities lies in reclaiming public spaces by prioritising walking and cycling and discouraging private car use. This new title on urban mobility promises its readers a ‘red pill’ experience: a totally new way of seeing public spaces. “Making our communities safer, cleaner, and greener starts with asking the fundamental questions: who do our streets belong to, what do we use them for, and who gets to decide? Join journalist Thalia Verkade and urban mobility expert Marco te Broemmelstroet as they confront their own underlying beliefs and challenge us to rethink our way of life to put people at the centre of urban design. But be warned: you will never look at the street outside your front door in the same way again.”

Creative Doing →

Practical exercises to unblock creativity

Herbert Lui is curious about how creative work gets done. He spent a decade researching and in conversation with practicing artists and creatives of all kinds and then published his findings in a new digital compendium titled Creative Doing. “This collection of exercises, mental models, and true stories from prominent artists will guide you through your blocks and find the unique creative process that works for you.” Friends of DD enjoy a $10 discount. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

I love reading pieces like this because asking bold, ‘out there’ questions about the future not only offers great insights into the status quo (which this piece does in droves), it really helps broaden our horizon to imagine better alternatives. “What would happen if people across the world suddenly stopped flying completely? A world of no flights would present some serious logistical challenges, but could also open up the door to huge changes to other, lower-carbon forms of transport. We are unlikely to ever cut out aviation completely, and we likely wouldn’t want to. But posing this hypothetical question opens up the door to what we could be doing far more of to reduce aviation’s heavy impact on the climate.”

Clicking on a link that leads to a no-longer-existing website can be frustrating and is, sadly, part of the everyday web experience. I appreciated this piece on thinking and caring about longevity when we build things for the web. “When buildings are torn down and rebuilt, the ghost of the old building is often visible in the new one – strangely angled walls and rooms, which make sense only in the context of the space as a living organism. On the web, there are no such restrictions: when a website dies, it leaves no sign of its past self behind. ... People switch platforms and providers and break links without a second thought. It pains me to see people build websites with no feeling of obligation to them – when you put something out into the world, it is your responsibility to care for it.”

Writer Will Stephenson gives in to the FOMO and puts some money in Bitcoin. Then he travels to Miami to attend one of America’s biggest Bitcoin conventions to see what the fuss is really about... “The most hypnotic thing about Saylor is his unwavering confidence in Bitcoin’s supremacy in every imaginable respect, something he emphasizes by never blinking as he makes ever-grander claims on its behalf. Underlying his arguments is the sense that you’d have to be, on some level, ridiculous or self-sabotaging to disagree. ‘Bitcoin fixes everything’, he said. It ‘fixes governments’ and ‘synchronizes the world’. It returns freedom and property rights to the human race. It is hope itself – a moral imperative. Defining it, he often reverted to curious figurative language. ‘You can think of it as a plant life’, he said. ‘I put my monetary energy, my life force into it, and I let it live for the next thousand years.’ The full implication of this seemed to strike him. ‘What’s wrong with being rich forever?’ he asked.”