interesting : The Art of Non-Conformity

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XLV

I. Around the World

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling -- Emilie’s new TEDx talk on becoming a multipotentialite
The Forgotten Houseboat Hotels of Kashmir -- Photographs from the lost golden era of tourism in Kashmir
Historical Photos of New York City from the Public Library -- Click on an interesting vintage photo, and the site shows you where it was taken on a map of New York
You Don’t Have to Be Excited to Stay Committed -- "Things that bring you the greatest joy are often not that fun while you’re doing them."
Smart Ideas for Instagram Photos -- How to improve your on-the-go snaps and shared experiences
The Age-Old Cynicism Surrounding the Dream of Book Writing -- "Younger people aren’t interested in passive consumption-they want to engage, respond, create"

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Where Airplanes Go to Die: High-Res Photos Show An Airline Graveyard in the Mohave Desert

Photographers Andreana Scanderbeg and Alexander Sauer went to a desert in the American Southwest and found an airline graveyard.

They call their project Decommissioned, and it features images of many of the planes long after their useful life.

How do these images make you feel?

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XLIV

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Cat Cinema? It's a Thing -- Can you think of anything better than going to a movie with your feline friend?
Memorable Ways People Have Quit Their Jobs -- Thinking of quitting your job? Here are some fun ideas
Conquer Your Daily Tasks -- An app that turns your To-Do list into a game
Self-Esteem Might Be the Wrong Answer -- There might be an even better option
Looking for a Literary Agent for Your Book? -- See also: The Unconventional Guide to Publishing
Did You Double Check that Address? -- Ten stories of packages being delivered to the wrong address

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XLIII

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Virtual Tour of New SAS Business Class Cabin -- The Scandinavian carrier updates its seats and shows them off in this fun "street view" tour
The Ultimate European Road-Trip -- Using open-source Google Maps data, you can customize this trip to suit your own style
Base Jumping off the World's Second Tallest Tower -- Watch crazy people jump off a building in Dubai
One Bike One Year -- One woman’s solo journey by bike to collect stories about water and climate change
9 Ways to Live Life on Offense -- Including #4: "Say yes to the scariest stuff"
Cost Obsessions Around the World -- Interesting Google searches by country

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XLII

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

10 Travel Hacks The Tourism Industry Doesn't Want You To Know -- Featuring comments from me and several other experts
Be a More Productive Writer While Also Achieving Balance -- Lots of contrarian advice here. I still like my to-do lists, but I appreciate this perspective
Traveling to Cuba? Book one of the 1,000 listings available on Airbnb -- While you’re waiting for the Park Hyatt Havana to open, here are some alternatives
How to Be Funnier -- A new film from FiveThirtyEight
"Live free, die hoppy" -- One man’s quest to visit every craft brewery in the U.S.
Winston Churchill’s Guide to Life-Work Balance -- Including a morning whiskey in the bath and a daily uniform of pink silk pyjamas

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XLI

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Momentum -- A new community from longtime friend Jenny Blake
Traveling Is Exhausting -- Alyssa’s notes on adventuring through Europe
27 Sites with Royalty-Free Stock Images -- Tons of photos for your blog posts or social media
My Creative Burnout -- The author of “How to Survive Creative Burnout” navigates a setback
When Is Cheryl’s Birthday? -- A math problem from Singapore (aaaah! so difficult)
The Secret to Never Being Frustrated Again -- “You don’t get frustrated because of events. You get frustrated because of your beliefs.”

Profiles

The Amazing Marriage Adventure: Liz and Ryan Bower’s Quest

Liz and Ryan Bower are wedding photographers who believe in the marriages they document—and not just that first special day. They noticed that champions who might share the realities of life-long partnerships seemed to be few and far between.

They decided to hop in an RV and find true stories of loving marriages to share from every state of America.

We are millennials, story-tellers, wedding photographers, and dream believers. Most of all, we believe in helping to create amazing marriages that stand the test of time.
Our love of love dates back to our teenage years. We were high school sweethearts with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion to live a more meaningful life. So we started a photography business, Liz and Ryan. Six years later, and after 100 weddings captured, we realized there is a lot of hype surrounding weddings, but not a lot of hype surrounding marriages.
This eventually led to our quest: The Amazing Marriage Adventure. For 2015, we are living in an RV and traveling the U.S. to document at least one married couple’s story in all 50 states. Along the way, we’ll host couples' coffee-shop meetups to encourage community and truly open the lines of communication in celebration of marriage.

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XL

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

5 Secrets of a Successful Ted Talk — Hint: Being a famous person has little to do with giving a popular talk
Hacking Weight Loss — What Jeff learned from losing 30 pounds
10 Places to Go Before They’re Gone -- Don’t miss Madagascar! I once stopped off in every domestic airport on the island/li>
Changing Perceptions of Time While Dying (Video) -- A Stanford neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with lung cancer in his mid-30s reflects on the experience
The Most Aspirational Miles Award -- Use your Virgin miles (a lot of them…) to book travel on Richard Branson’s Necker Island
Gifts for Highly Productive People -- My choice would be: more iPhone cables. I leave them everywhere!

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XXXIX

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

The Most Advantageous Places to Visit with American Dollars -- An updated report highlighting Mexico, Argentina, and some of Europe
The Economics of Busking -- Notes on best practices and how much money you can expect to make
How to Tell the Difference Between Planes — Do you know that there are only two double-decker aircraft? This infographic will teach you how to spot all the major aircraft types
“Disco Dog”: The smartphone-controlled LED dog vest -- Take your dog for a walk and a dance with this fun Kickstarter project
A Man and His Van -- "Adventure is freedom"
Living in an Internet Cafe in Japan -- Depression and Japan's big unemployment challenge

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XXXVIII

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

A Master Comedian’s Advice for Becoming Famous — Steve Martin’s unconventional perspective
Birds That Bring Gifts — Maybe your most generous friends are in your backyard
How to Become a Brunch Buffet Ninja — Learn how to win gold in the buffet game
The Himalayas from 24,000 Feet — Live from Kathmandu, here’s the first ultra HD footage of the Himalayas shot from above 20,000 ft
A tour of the most expensive Airbnb rental in San Francisco — The 10-bedroom mansion will cost you $7,010 a night
How to Cry on Command — Actors use this trick to generate real tears over and over

Profiles

Oregon Woman Learns to Speak Six Languages Fluently

The six official languages of the United Nations are considered the most geopolitically important languages in the world—not to mention that native speakers of those tongues represent about a third of the global population. Emily Liedel decided to learn them all to fluency.

Introduce yourself and your quest.

Professionally, I'm a freelance journalist, translator and language entrepreneur. I write about international affairs, urban issues, food and language. Personally, I'm on a quest to learn all of the official languages of the United Nations (Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese and Arabic - English which is my native language) to native-level fluency by my 35th birthday in 2019. Currently, I speak everything but Arabic, and I'm still finishing up becoming fluent in Chinese. I also speak fluent German and Swiss German (the dialect spoken in Switzerland) so I like to say that German is my bonus language.

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XXXVII

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Crashing the Ivy League -- What one man learned by crashing elite colleges for 4 years
Oddly Priced Routes when Using Miles — Some interesting redemption opportunities for all those miles & points you’ve been earning
Amazing Tea-Pouring Video — Finding talent in unusual places
A Glimpse Into the Lives of Golbi Desert Nomads -- A photo tour of eight Mongolian families living strong on the empty terrain
Cargo Delivery Drivers Get Free Waffles from Waffle House -- File under: I wish I was a cargo delivery driver
Surviving a Tsunami in Indonesia — "It was like the hand of death had come out and tickled us"

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6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XXXVI

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

I’ll Just Put This Here, Where No One Will Read It -- On allowing people to make mistakes (or even to fail)
Buy a Monopoly Set and Get Real Money -- Everyone's childhood dream coming true
If It Doesn’t Serve a Purpose, Get Rid of It -- Advice for industrial design and life
28 (Better) Things No One Tells You About Publishing -- My favorites are #15 and #17. I disagree with #13
Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s Flight Suit Found in Toronto Thrift Store -- How it got there remains a mystery
How Too Many Products Can Hurt Your Business -- A counterintuitive lesson from the precocious Nathan Barry

Profiles

Hiking the 7,910-Mile Triple Crown of American Trails: David Getchel’s Quest

This is a quest case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)

Earlier this week, David Getchel began the second leg of his three part quest to hike the Triple Crown of American trails: the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. Here's how it all began—and what's coming next.

I'm Dave, and I call Northern California home. Originally, my quest was to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (affectionately named the PCT ), a 2,650 mile trail spanning California, Oregon and Washington. Starting near San Diego I hiked through desert, lush forests and mountain ranges, encountering all types of weather. The PCT ends at the US/Canadian border. Most people hike for 4-6 months. There's a little bit of everything: alpine lakes miles from any road, long stretches without reliable water sources, and wide ranging wildlife. But while on the PCT, I decided to tackle the Triple Crown which includes the 2,160 mile Appalachian Trail, a 2,160 mile and the 3,100 Continental Divide Trail.

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Work

One Log Cabin and 800 Yoga Mats: Some Unconventional Tax Deductions from My Life in 2014

My tax return is complicated for a lot of reasons. First, I run several different businesses which all have their own set of accounting. WDS, our annual gathering, has its own legal structure, including a foundation that is completely separate from all my other projects. Last year we started an all-new event that also has its own legal structure.

So yeah, it’s complicated. It takes about 20 hours just to prepare all the info for my accountant, and as with most tax-prep tasks, it’s not usually a fun process. But I do enjoy seeing some of the charges on my statements from the previous year. They remind me of the crazy life I have, and the many fun experiences that I'm fortunate to participate in.

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