Pedaling Progress: The Dutch Queen Juliana Riding a Bike, 1967

The pursuit of national happiness on two wheels.

In researching last week’s piece on how the Dutch got their bike paths, I came across this fantastic archival photograph from The Netherlands’ Nationaal Archief, depicting the Dutch queen Juliana riding a bicycle during her 1967 visit to the island Terschelling.

Not only is she most certainly not cultivating bicycle face, she is in fact cultivating a national culture of cycling by bestowing upon it the highest degree of institutional approval — something that remains a pipe dream in America half a century later.

To paraphrase Steve Jobs, if a computer is like a bicycle for the mind, a bicycle is like a computer for society — a force of empowerment, a canvas for creativity, a sandbox for design innovation, an agent of cultural change. If only our present-day political leaders would see it that way.

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The Hidden Beauty of Pollination

We’ve already marveled at the macro beauty of pollen, nature’s love-making mechanism. From Louie Schwartzberg’s film Wings of Life — an homage to “the love story that feeds the Earth,” inspired by the worrisome vanishing of the honeybees, nature’s irreplaceable Cupids — comes this stunning montage of high-speed images, revealing the intricate beauty of pollination:

Schwartzberg contextualizes the footage in his talk from TED 2011:

For a related moment of humility, treat yourself to Schwartzberg’s moving and rewarding TEDxSF talk on gratitude — it gets truly extraordinary at around 3:55:

You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day — it’s the one day that is given to you, today. It’s given to you, it’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life, and the very last day, then you would have spent this day very well.”

HT Smithsonian Retina

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Bike Art: Bicycles in Art Around the World

A two-wheel canvas for creativity, or what pedals have to do with pedestals.

We’ve already seen how the humble bicycle can emancipate women (and keep them patriarchy-bound), rein in incredible design innovation, be a manifesto for the creative life, and serve as a metaphor for computers, courtesy of Steve Jobs. But, it turns out, the bike can also be an incredible canvas for art. Bike Art: Bicycles in Art Around the World presents a voyeuristic tour of the lesser-known intersections of art and bike culture, spanning design, performing arts, steampunk, street art, and more through works created on walls, canvases, paper, pedestals, bikeframes, skin and clothing by a range of international artists.

And, of course, what’s a declaration of obsession if not signed by ink? If science geeks can do it, bike geeks can do it:

For more on the fascinating history and far-reaching impact of bike culture, don’t forget Robert Penn’s excellent It’s All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels.

Images courtesy of Gingko Press; thanks, Sharon

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