The Anthropologist: Urnatur

Excellent project over at Anthropologie's online platform to support artists, called The Anthropologist (website, not project..). Urnatur is a wooded retreat in Southern Sweden.

Haerskogen

This has been making the rounds lately and rightfully so. Really lovely.

Creativity by Steve Jobs

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” ~ Wired, February, 1995

(via swissmiss)

Bjarke Ingells

The well known danish architect Bjarke Ingells of BIG has joined forces with Trygheds Gruppen, a Danish insurance company ( I think......) to investigate how to use public space in new ways to encourage exercise.

Check out the video here, I know it's in Danish but you get to see some of his ideas (like the swings at the bus stop above).

Little tea leaf...

An Adelie penguin is caught on camera stealing..... Part of the Frozen Planet program coming soon on BBC TV. Check out the clip here.

(tea leaf is cockney rhyming slang for thief)

Children & Nature Network

I'm a big fan of Richard Louv.... and the Children & Nature Network have a lovely new website. Check it out and sign up for newletters etc. Nice.

The Right Year for Children

The Children's Commissioner for England announces a year of action for greater recognition of children's rights.

"A groundbreaking coalition of children and young people's charities, voluntary organisations and statutory bodies will join forces for a year of action to see greater recognition of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and to press for its systematic use and implementation across all areas of children's lives."

Plus they are holding a competition for children to design a new logo.... they also have a great interactive website for kids to get involved, design their own tree house online and much more.

Interactive play map:England

For all of you in England here is a really exciting development from Play England, an interactive map to find great places to play outside and also to contribute ideas yourself. Brilliant.

I've been saying this for years.....

"Plant a Tree, Boost Your Property Value" over at Good.

Plus, being around trees makes you feel good and that is a good enough reason for me.....

A very sad day

I'm a huge fan of Steve Jobs so was sad to see that he passed away. Me and my apple will miss him and his innovations.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Jonah Lehrer

Really interesting article by Jonah Lehrer over at Wired, on a study exploring curiosity in young children with regards to science and how it's taught.

"When students are given explicit instructions, when they are told what they need to know, they become less likely to explore on their own. Curiosity is a fragile thing."

Also check out his column called "Love is the opposite of underwear".

"Whatever – don’t apologize for your obsession. Just be grateful you are obsessed with something, that you’ve found a goal worth getting gritty over. Because if your goals ever feel tedious, if you find them as unnecessary as that last bite of chocolate cake, then you’re never going to put in the necessary work. Grit requires passion. Grit requires love. And love is just another name for what never gets old. Love is the opposite of underwear. "

Nuf said. I'm gonna keep on keepin' on.