Evolution seems to be the rasion d'etre of the entire cosmos. That idea is reflected in a lot of individual adventure sports; progression for both for the sport as a whole and the individuals who practice that sport is what it's all about.

In skateboarding, I still think a "simple" rail slide is a crazy trick, but now any top level skateboarder will throw in some kind of kick flip combo on the way onto and off of the rail. It's on the mega-ramps, though, that the sport is really progressing in new ways:

I built www.familytreeland.com for some friends of mine so they could document and share their love of snowboarding / surfing / skating / music / photography / videography all in one place.

This is their latest "lifestyle" piece filmed around opening day at Whistler:

FT Webisode 1 from Family Tree on Vimeo.

Robert Thurman is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University. He was one of the first American Buddhist monks of the Tibetan tradition and he has studied with and become a close friend of the Dali Lama. Being the father of ultra-hot Umma Thurman also adds to his impressive biography.

I have seen Thurman speak a couple of times and he is an extremely entertaining and informative speaker. The slideshow below is a comic-form adaptation of one of Thurman's lectures on buddhist mythology. It's pretty wild stuff that, while mythological, could quite possibly exist in realms of possibility

(You can also download the pdf of the comic by clicking the attachment link below... it might be a little easier to view it that way.)

Robert Thurman's Buddhaverse Slide Show

Whomever synced up the music to this was a genius

It's still early days for this sport; the skis look budget and the skill set isn't there; but you can definitely see the potential in what these guys are trying to do.

This is obviously going to be a pretty specialized sport with the jet ski requirement but, with a paddle, it could become more popular (like stand up paddle surfboards are now). There looks to be good potential with the kite surfing/ skiing too.

Sport can progress quickly... mountain biking didn't really get going until the late 1980's and look at it now at the: red bull rampage

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

I put my comments below this video so I wouldn't influence your experience of it.....

I've watched it three times now and have teared up every time; it is incredibly sad. But, there is a message and a beauty in the sadness that makes this video something special (it won best video at the 2010 Vimeo Awards).

Of course, the message of unconditional love as taught by the life of Oden is an important aspect of the video. But, for me, the power of this video is in how it forces the viewer to confront emotion, particularly sadness. Our society tends to be hyper-masculinized; promoting the hero as a stoic warrior archetype and, genrally, teaching us to hide our emotion and feelings. Sometimes, though, the difficult emotions need to be brought to the surface. By observing them we can begin to find the truth, goodness, and beauty hidden within them.

In the case of Oden, the truth was that he was in pain and needed to be put down. There was a goodness to Oden's owners doing the right thing despite the grief it caused. And, there was beauty in Oden's life and message being recognized, appreciated, and passed on to anyone watching this video. If the owner, as he put it, "John Wayned" it and put the dog down without feeling the sadness, then the lessons of truth, goodness, and beauty would have been missed.

10 world surfing titles is an amazing feat that will probably never happen again but coming so soon after the untimely death of 32 year old Andy Irons, it doesn't seem that important. R.I.P. - Andy Irons

Perhaps you can find something interesting on PopURLS .

I got both Jamie T albums; 2007's "Panic Prevention" and 2009's "Kings and Queens"; a little while ago but just got around to giving them a listen today. I like both albums a lot; it's a little bit of rap, rock and brit pop all mixed up.

Check out this song called Eath, Wind and Fire, from the "Kings and Queens" album:

You can find the torrents here .

(If you need a refresher on using torrents, check out this post

This was taken by an amateur photographer with a telescope, a web cam, a high end filter, and some image processing to manage the lighting. It turned out pretty well I'd say:

Check out his website.