In the winter, if the conditions are right, you can get a wonderful adventure through some lake-side ice caves. Unfortunately, due to non-existent or unstable ice conditions, the last time you could visit these caves safely was 2015.
The National Park Service, however, has a wonderful website for checking status and learning more about them.
Back in 2016, The Art Institute of Chicago built a life-size rendition of his popular painting Bedroom in Arles to promote an exhibition called Van Gogh’s Bedrooms. The room was available for rent on Airbnb.
It was only offered a very short time and was immediately completely sold out for the whole run, but if you’re interested in an alternative, how about a version in the actual Arles, France?
Slip through a door labeled ‘speakeasy’ in San francisco’s Bayview, and you’ll be transported into a red-carpeted restaurant that looks like it fell out of the 1920’s. What makes this place different is that it’s run for, and by, at risk San Fanciscans ages 16 to 22. The idea spawned from a gang prevention effort in the notorious Mission District. The question the founders asked: “What if we created our own restaurant so we could not only make a little money to keep it going, but no longer be dependent on the state or philanthropy?” Then they could give kids jobs and learning opportunities.
They enroll about 50 students per year in a two year program that teaches them restaurant skills like cooking and serving – and pays them. They then get externships in the hospitality industry. Eddie Blyden is Old Skool’s head chef and director of culinary education. He even encourages them to make their own recipes that are sometimes served as specials.
Old Skool also won a $350,000 grant from Chick-fil-A. The nonprofit just inked a deal to bring on award-winning hospitality group Hi Neighbor, the visionary behind restaurants 7 Adams, Trestle, The Vault Steakhouse and Mama Oakland, as a consultants.
This seems like a much better system than simple handouts as it gives young people a way out as well a real purpose and skills.
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Mike Saxton, the owner of the Portland-based FreePlay Gaming Arcade, has decided to shutter the arcade after just six months of business. Turns out, the business model simply doesn’t work. The arcade needs to make £500 per day each weekend to reach the break-even point, yet it’s making less than half that. Some weekdays he makes zero.
Sadly, I think the retro arcade craze has definitely peaked and is waning. People have full access to games on handhelds, home consoles, and even their phones. Nostalgia runs in waves, and it seems the revival of 80’s and 90’s arcade games has peaked and is now subsiding.
Romano FPV takes his drone on an epic flight from Chamonix (1030m) to Aiguille du midi (3842m) in the French Alps.
In response to Japan’s increasing demographic crisis, Tokyo has introduced a four-day workweek for government employees to improve work-life balance and address the country’s declining birth rate, taking effect from April 2025.
In a country of 124 million, only 686,061 babies were born in 2024. That number is shockingly low, but even worse, it’s a decline of 5.7% from the year before and makes the 16th straight year of birthrate decline. 2024 had the lowest birth rate since records were started in 1899. Experts are citing Japan’s notoriously work-life unfriendly corporate culture, strongly ingrained family role expectations, and rise of younger generations less interested in marriage and having children.
The marriage and birth rates in Japan has dropped so low that economists are warning of a breakdown of the country’s economy as well as social welfare system – calling in to question whether so few young people could care for so many old ones. Japan’s population of 124 million is projected to fall to 87 million by 2070, and have a shocking 40% of the population over 65.
Other countries are also treating declining birth rate as a crisis and making work-week changes to encourage families, marriage, and having children. Notably in European and Asian countries such as Belgium, Germany, Iceland, Denmark, and South Korea.
South Korea is particularly interesting because it went from a birthrate of 1.24 in 2015, to the lowest birth rate in the world at 0.72 in 2023. Shocking government officials and being declared a national crisis. Healthcare, social security systems and economic stagnation are real dangers in low birth rate countries.
And in South Korea, it has gotten so bad it is now a country in which dog strollers outpace the sales of baby strollers.
By passing many reforms to encourage marriage and having children, they have managed to finally turn the tide slightly with 14.9% jump in marriages in 2024. This, government officials hope, will signal more children for an aging and shrinking national population that was shrinking by 120,000 more deaths than births last year. Even with these changes, South Korea’s population, which hit a peak of 51.83 million in 2020, is expected to shrink to 36.22 million by 2072.
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Games Developer Conference is always a load of fun – but if you don’t have enough space in your suitcase to bring your sweatshirt back because you picked up too much swag, you can always get them ordered off the GDC Boldstores website.
Jake Welch has been capturing 3D scans of unique bathrooms (largely around the New York area).
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Ma Chunlin has completed an astounding 5 year project: he recorded the entire Everest north side route in a single take. It’s a breathtaking, astounding technical feat to say the least.
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