Link Love

I would like to experiment with a new post category: link love. You might have seen this category on other blogs already. For me it's always fun to read what articles and posts other bloggers enjoyed reading. I hope you enjoy reading my link favorites, too.

Have a look at my potpourri of links I enjoyed reading in May & June:

• Tips and opinions on how to tell if an appartment has adequate soundproofing before moving in by the readers of apartment therapy. Obviously this is a very important question when you are looking for a new apartment. I myself remember living in several flats where I couldn't sleep because my neighbors have been partying and inviting people over all the time. Hence, choose your neighborhood and neighbors well. If you move in next to a drummer who enjoys drumming on the balcony, you won't have a lot of fun in your new apartment. This is a real life story since I once was viewing an apartment for rent while a drummer was drumming on the balcony of the neighboring flat. Of course I didn't rent that specific apartment. ;-)
• Stepcase Lifehack describes 19 ways to fall asleep fast.  
• Yes and yes have published tips on how to broadcast body confidence. Great article. I like it a lot and highly recommend reading! In addition, my experience is that doing a lot of sports is also a great way to broadcast body confidence since it helps you with building up the muscles you need for keeping up a good posture. Doings sports properly yields a great posture and straightens the body - you literally can't have a bad posture anymore. Furthermore, you start to feel great and love your body because sports makes you feel every inch of it. Hence, you not only broadcast body confidence but literally have it. :-) 
• Leo Babauta the guru of time management describes in his blog zenhabits 20 small actions to create a fit environment. He has some really great advice and got me into registering at Fitocracy myself as well. I am testing it at the moment.
• Amy describes how she stays healthy while travelling. 
• BBC2 has broadcasted the show The Men who made us fat and the Guardian wrote an excellent article on food addiction and why our society is endangered by obesity (yes, sugar and junk food is highly addictive and this is why it causes obesity). Very interesting and highly recommended in this context is the blog of Sarah Wilson who has quit sugar. 
• At My Life All in One Place a really nice travelling journal print out for personal sized and pocket sized Filofaxes is available. Enjoy and organize your holidays! :-) Btw: it doesn't have to be a Filofax, there are plenty of customizable calendars where Filofax refills fit as well. See the German sizing and hole spacing guide of Filofax (in German) and compare it with your customizable calendar. 
• This is an interesting blog on daily routines of writers, artists and other interesting people. Ever wanted to know how they organized their days? Have a look here. ;-)
• Adulting is a cute blog giving advice on how to become a grown up person. 
• E-Book lovers and digital librarians, here is the perfume for you: Paper passion. ;-) 
• Smart people are especially prone to stupid mistakes and stupid. Considering the huge amount of stupid mistakes I am making all the time, I must be incredibly smart. ;-) By the way, "Thinking, fast an slow" by the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahnemann seems to be a really great book and is already on my To-Read list for some time. Now it moved a bit up in the queue.
• While surfing, we all come accross the 404 http error code from time to time. There are also plenty of other http error codes. In June, a new one has been proposed by the XML creator Tim Bray: error code 451 for "Legally restricted". This might be useful for detecting whether a site has been censored by a court or government. Especially when you are a hacker. ;-) Don't mind the joke, I agree with the fact that increasing transparency is always a good thing. Have also a look at the announcement at boingboing. 
• Here are three things you need to know about photo tagging in facebook! 
• Quirky has just relased a new modular storage system. Isn't it incredibly cute and lovely? I wish products from Quirky would be available in Europe as well, look at how cute their other products are.
• Here is a very interesting article on trolling or just being rude by the Guardian.
• I love Real Techniques Brushes and have a couple of them as well. Now there are new ones available as shown by Getting Cheeky and Essiebutton. The Expert Face Brush, the Setting Brush, the Blush Brush and the Shading Brush are now on my brush wishlist. However, since I own around 100 to 200 brushes, I am currently not allowing myself to buy any brushes soon again. But I keep a wishlist and dream of these brushes at night. ;-) 
• Another thing on my beauty wishlist is this eyeshadow palette by Soap & Glory: raves by Essiebutton and Getting Cheeky. Some day ... ;-)
• At Squeaky Swing I stumbled upon a really a cute knitted laptop bag. It's a design by the blogger herself. What an inspiration! I should really knit more myself, too. 
• Orgasms due to abs workouts? Really? Although I have never experienced orgasms while doing workouts myself, this was not the first time I came across this topic. In a book by Benita Cantieni, I already read about orgasms while doing pelvic floor workouts. The author associated this phenomenon with the pudendal nerve (Pudendus Nerv in german) which apparently some people can stimulate by proper pelvic floor training. Interesting. :-)
• End of June, there was a Bobbi Brown blogger event in Munich. See reports by Magi and hearttobreathe. This is the only blogger event, I had fun reading about. The guys from Bobbi Brown even offered a Yoga session in order to show the bloggers that the makeup stays during sports. By the way, in my aqua running course I am attending each week, I also wear the Bobbi Brown Gel eyeliner. The one by Bobbi Brown and the waterproof gel eyeliners by Essence and Zoeva are the only ones that don't disappear or smudge all over the face while doing sports in water. :-)
• A mentor-led accelerator program for start-ups called Springboard currently takes place at Google Campus London. Springboard is a 13 week programme where the founders receive intense mentoring and business support. TNW publishes a video series following three startups taking part in the Springboard accelerator. Have a look at the videos here. I found them interesting and motivating. :-) 
• 3 forum recommendations for the bad times when your computer is not working as it should e.g. because it has got infected. 
• Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia & Wikia) has launched an online campaign against the extradition of  Richard O'Dwyer to the US for his search engine for streaming and downloading tv shows (typically programmes not yet available outside the US). See also this article by the Guardian. Julian Assange has recently lost his extradition case, but he is not a UK citizen and with Richard O'Dwyer it is pretty clear that he has not violated the copyright law since he has not made any copyrighted content available himself but only provided the links to such content through his search engine. Linking content actually shouldn't be prosecuted as long as the links are deleted upon request which Richard O'Dwyer seems to have done. Here is also another article by the Guardian on Richard O'Dwyer.
• Stepping out of our comfort zones keeps us youthful, flexible and happy. Stepcase Lifehack provides inspiration on how to step out of our comfort zones. Since stepping out of our comfort zones often involves more social interaction, these tips on remembering people's names might be useful, too. :-)
• Stepcase Lifehack has also published 24 quotes on creativity. Enjoy! :-)
• The European Union has launched a "Women in Science" campaign last Thursday and one of the videos uploaded to Youtube is highly controversial. Actually, since the video aimed at getting attention which it obviously managed to do, maybe we should not take it that seriously. The profiles on women in science are really very well made and inspiring, hence, it's obvious that the EU isn't that shallow minded as it comes across in this specific video. I had a good laugh while watching it and believe it or not, somehow I do like it alltogether. It's light, it's fun. Come on, it's not that bad (considering the context). ;-)