Some incredible big wave surfing during Big "Animal" Thursday in Nazaré, Portugal:

Via @jordisoler.

Photographer POP SNAP "dusted off" some Kodachrome slides that had been stored away for decades and began the cumbersome work of digitizing them. In the photo series "The Pop Snap Chronicles (1976-82)", the images consist mostly of buildings and structures and the majority of the them were shoot in Vancouver and California.

Vancouver – 1977:

Vancouver – January 1978:

Faversham apartments, Vancouver – January 1978:

Featured image: Kodachrome classic cardboard frame for 35 mm slides. Copyright by flickr users borealnz and FraserElliot via kirpi.it.

Via @hillcake.

Here's the story about the groundbreaking work of Bell System (AT&T/Western Electric) and their developement of the Picturephone, a invention we today take for granted when using a service like Skype. I had no idea that this device was used by the public as early as 1964.

Here is the debut of the first commercial Picturephone service in Pittsburgh 1970:

Via Boing Boing.

Upstate Diary met up with one of my favorite graphic designers, Woody Pirtle, to discuss various aspects of his professional life and the design industry:

UD: With all this new technology and software that is available for everybody now — do you think that it's still necessary to get a formal education in design?

WP: I do think that it's still a necessity. With continuing advancements in technology and the importance of ever emerging social media, it is crucial to master the tools and principles of design. That said, the availability of a keyboard doesn’t make one a designer. I think that in today’s world it is increasingly important for a young person pursuing a career in design to learn the history and development of graphic design. And, it is equally important to become familiar with the work of pioneers that have been instrumental in establishing the state of design today.

Woody's well-sorted desk:

Photo credit: Kate Orne

Via @pentagram.

I great drum session…playing the iPad:

Via @jordisoler.

I can get enough of seeing the work of climber Alex Honnold. Here he climbs the route called Heaven at Glacier Point in Yosemite. More details of the climb can be found here.

The music playing is "The Future Is Cold" by Vagabond.

Located in New York City, Streit's matzo factory produces 40% of the nations matzo, a unleavened Jewish bread that reminds me of the flat bread Swedish tunnbröd. Having been located in the same building since 1925, the documentary "Streit's: Matzo and the American Dream" by filmmaker Michael Levine will be a very unique and historic document since Streit's is about to relocate to a plant in Bergen County.

A great complement to this feature documentary film is the "short-documentary" by Martha Stewart visiting the factory:

Featured image: "A photo from the Streit's archives of an early Streit's Matzo billboard on what appears to be West 181st Street in Manhattan. The billboard advertises "Salty Moon Matzos," a poppy and onion matzo, and the first flavored matzo ever created." Via the documentary Facebook page.

"Snow Rocket" is a beautiful winter image by photographer Julian Rad.

Via @SheAHow.

Writer Austin Kleon sat a personal record last year by reading 70+ books. This is his advice on how to become an avid reader:

1. Throw your phone in the ocean
2. Make a budget, buy books you want to read, make a stack of them
   that you walk past every day (library is great, too, of course)
3. Carry a book with you at all times
4. If you aren't enjoying a book or learning something from it, stop reading it immediately (flinging it across the room helps give closure)
5. Schedule 1 hour of nonfiction reading during the day (commute / lunch break is good)
6. Go to bed 1 hour early and read fiction (it will help you sleep)
7. Write about the books you read and share with others, as they will send you more books to read

Via @jordisoler.

In "Sounds of Paragliding", sounds are used in a very tranquil way when capturing the flight of paraglider Théo de Blic.

Via @anyavp.