Simon Beck is a map maker who's proving that maybe snow storms aren't so bad after all.

Beck, an Englishman with a background in orienteering map-making, uses a snow storm as an opportunity to make art — with nothing but an expedition compass and a pair of snowshoes.

Beck typically makes his mind-blowing designs in France, where he lives during ski season, and documents them afterward on his popular Facebook page. But sometimes he'll give fans a glimpse into his process, which requires a keen eye, extreme precision, and attention to detail.

Here's how he does it.

Beck plans out the pattern on graph paper.

When he gets into the snow, he surveys the site and judges where the major points of the design should be, and starts at one of those points, walking to the center of the design.

From the center, Beck calculates the distance to the other points and walks out and back from the center to the other points, using either pace counting or a measuring tape to determine the number of steps he needs to take. 

Each piece is composed of a series of lines, geometric shapes, or arcs and curves, which Beck shades in to fill in the pattern.

Each piece takes about 10 hours on average to complete, though "some are a little unfinished, if my feet get cold or hurt too much," he writes on his Facebook page.

Beck estimates that he's walked more than 40 kilometers to complete some pieces, which only last until the next heavy snowfall.

Beck likes a level, untracked site with a uniform snow depth of about nine inches of powdery snow to make sure his art looks best in photographs, which he takes from either an aircraft or a ski lift.

Here's the finished piece, taken from high above the slopes.

You can find more of Simon Beck's artwork on Facebook.

SEE ALSO: This Giant Replica Of China's Largest Bank Is Made Completely From Ice

Join the conversation about this story »

We asked some of our favorite analysts, traders, and economists across Wall Street for the best books they read over the past year.

The responses vary — from works of fiction to nonfiction titles, both new and old.

Some deal with finance, but most don't, at least directly.

Brenda Kelly, IG Markets: "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman

"I don’t know what can be gleaned from my choice of book but I really enjoyed 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' by Neil Gaiman. This was before it was made book of the year, might I add. I think it was a well-deserved accolade. I'm generally a fan of the dystopian and fantasy-themed novels. It evokes memories of my childhood (good and bad) and I think that’s the intention – you remember the way you thought as a child. It's a book I'll read again."

—Brenda Kelly, chief market strategist at IG Markets

Find it on Amazon »

Barry Ritholtz, Ritholtz Wealth Management: "The Success Equation" by Michael J. Mauboussin

"The inability to distinguish between luck and skill has a huge impact on investors. They think they can select a stock that will outperform an index. Sometimes they can; most of the time they cannot. But distinguishing when it is the result of skill and when it's random is beyond most investors' abilities. Same with choosing a hedge fund or mutual fund manager — what is perceived as an ability to make a good decision turns out to be mostly random."

—Barry Ritholtz, CIO of Ritholtz Wealth Management

Find it on Amazon »

Peter Tchir, TF Market Advisors: "Animal Farm" by George Orwell

"I re-read Animal Farm. I have this growing fear that we are reverting to a system that we tried to escape. A little far-fetched but can’t shake this feeling that something is wrong and what made this country great is being eroded bit by bit."

—Peter Tchir, founder of TF Market Advisors

Find it on Amazon »

In 1985, two British climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, became the first people to ascend the west face of Siula Grande, a 21,000-foot peak in the Peruvian Andes.

What happened next is one of the most remarkable and inspiring survival stories ever. It's also an extraordinary example of self-reliance, decision-making under duress, and force of will.

One of the climbers, Joe Simpson, wrote a book about the experience called "Touching The Void." In 2003, the story was made into a movie directed by Kevin Macdonald. The movie was narrated by Simpson and Yates, with actors re-enacting the events in Peru and the Alps.

Using screenshots from the movie, I've told an abridged version of the story below. You can also buy the book or movie here, or watch the movie on Netflix.

The approach to Siula Grande is a two-day hike from the nearest road.

The climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, establish a base camp about 4-5 miles from the mountain. Then, early in the morning, they set off...

DAY ONE...

Over the course of our lives, we only get a few thousand weekends. The most successful people know better than to squander them by laying around or scrubbing the floors.

In her book, "What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend," time management expert Laura Vanderkam outlines how to make the most of this sacred time off from your harried workweeks.

She outlines how you can take control of your weekends by planning ahead, being selective with your time, and finally indulging what you love most.

The first step to controlling your weekends is making conscious choices.

It's so easy to plop down on the couch on a Friday night or Saturday morning and watch TV, but falling into these routines will suck away the few free hours you have. Instead of doing something by default, choose to decide how your time is spent. 

Vanderkam writes, "In a world of constant connectivity, even loafing time must be consciously chosen, because time will be filled with something whether it’s consciously chosen or not — and not choosing means that the something that fills our hours will be less fulfilling than the something our remembering selves will likely wish we’d elected to do."

Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend

Make appointments for yourself, even if it's only to read a book.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee says you need to have a plan for the weekend, setting specific hours or minutes aside for activities you want to do.Then you have to commit. 

Huckabee advises: "If you know you want to read a book, then get the book out and have it set aside and make plans to read it. Say it's going to be at 1. When that starts, get on it. Don't wait until that afternoon, then think — could I read? Or listen to some music? Or take a walk? Then you'll sit about wasting an hour of what little time you have figuring out what to do with the rest of it."

You have to be disciplined and commit to the decisions you make. 

Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend

Planning actually makes weekends happier, and unlocks a key mechanism of joy.

Vanderkam cites Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert's 2006 book, "Stumbling on Happiness." In it, Gilbert argues that "the greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real." 

Gilbert is talking about anticipation. Anticipation accounts for a huge chunk of happiness, which comes from thinking about the events we plan. Vanderkam writes, "As you look forward to something good that is about to happen, you experience some of the same joy you would in the moment. The major difference is that the joy can last much longer."

Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend

The most popular messaging app in South Korea is called KakaoTalk. It offers an array of free call and text messaging services. It also has the ability to share photos, videos and other information. 

KakaoTalk launched March 18, 2010 and gained by 57 million registered users by August 2012 while it jumped to 130 million registered users as of December 2013.

According to The Chosun Ilbo, the app sends and receives 3 billion messages per day. On top of that, Mashable reports that KakaoTalk is expected to earn $200 million in revenue for 2014. As part of their strategy for the new year, the company plans on expanding to emerging markets like Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The app is available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows. 

Once you download the app, it will ask you to enter your phone number.

The app will send you a text message with a verification code. Type in the four digit code.

Enter your name for your official account.

Sure Mark Wahlberg is a successful actor, having starred in big-time hits like "The Departed" and "The Fighter," but the Boston-bred star didn't earn his high school diploma until just this year.

Back in September, Wahlberg penned a column for the Huffington Post, explaining his motivations for finishing his degree.

"For almost a year, I've been taking classes and studying any chance I could get - on the set, traveling for work and at home," he wrote. "It has been both humbling and challenging, but I'm happy to report that I am officially a high school graduate, having received my diploma this summer."

And Wahlberg isn't the only big name who didn't graduate. 

In fact, Walt Disney himself didn't finish high school, even writing a letter to his school principal saying how "disgusted" he was with his education there.

There are many more actors just like Wahlberg and Disney — stars who left high school and found huge success in Hollywood.

Jim Carrey dropped out of school to help support his family.

He may be one of Hollywood's most famous comedians, with big-name hits like "Liar Liar" and "The Truman Show" on his résumé, but Carrey's life wasn't always such smooth sailing.

Growing up in poverty in Ontario, Canada, Carrey and his siblings worked as janitors at a local factory. When Carrey's mother fell ill, the aspiring actor dropped out of school to help care for her.

Though his family ended up taking residence in a VW bus for awhile, things picked up and the family relocated to Toronto, where Carrey began performing on the local comedy circuit. 

At the age of 18, Carrey found his first credit with TV series, "The All-Night Show."

Charlie Sheen earned his high school degree this year.

Sheen attended Santa Monica High School (alongside buddies Sean Penn and Rob Lowe), but his poor grades and attendance got him expelled just a few weeks before graduation.

But the now successful "Two and a Half Men" actor made sure to earn his degree — just this year, actually.

Instead of taking classes to finish up his remaining few credits, the now 48-year-old Sheen told TMZ he got his credits because of charity work he did for the school. 

Sheen said he bothered to do it because he wanted to beat "a lifelong habit of never finishing things."

Christina Applegate dropped out of high school and found success on "Married ... with Children."

Hollywood runs in Applegate's veins — her mother was an actress and her father was a record producer, so it isn't a big surprise that the "Anchorman" star decided to pursue acting at a young age, too.

Having appeared in several movies while still at an elementary-school age, Applegate briefly attended Excelsior High School in Hollywood, dropping out during her junior year.

Applegate was 15 years old when she landed a huge role as Kelly Bundy on "Married ... with Children."

Some people know what they want to do from an early age and focus on it relentlessly.

Others are driven enough to reinvent themselves, changing careers and industries, and continuously push until they find the thing that works.

Billionaire Mark Cuban, for example, faced hardship when he first started, writing in "How To Win At The Sport Of Business" that "when I got to Dallas, I was struggling — sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment." On the other hand, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was a Xerox salesman dreaming of good coffee.

As a reminder that the path to success is not always linear, we've highlighted what Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and 19 other fascinating and successful people were doing at age 25.

Martha Stewart was a stockbroker for the firm of Monness, Williams, and Sidel, the original Oppenheimer & Co.

Before her name was known in every American household, Martha Stewart worked on Wall Street for five years as a stockbroker. Before that, she was a model, booking clients from Unilever to Chanel.

"There were very few women at the time on Wall Street … and people talked about this glass ceiling, which I never even thought about," Stewart said in an interview for PBS's MAKERS series. "I never considered myself unequal, and I think I got a very good education being a stockbroker."

In 1972, Stewart left Wall Street to be a stay-at-home mom. A year later, she started a catering business.

Mark Cuban was a bartender in Dallas.

At age 25, Cuban had graduated from Indiana University and had moved to Dallas. He started out as a bartender, then a salesperson for a PC software retailer. He actually got fired because he wanted to go close a deal rather than open a store in the morning. That helped inspire him to open his first business, MicroSolutions.

“When I got to Dallas, I was struggling — sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment,” Cuban writes in his book “How to Win at the Sport of Business.” “I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation.”

Arianna Huffington was traveling to music festivals around the world for the BBC with her boyfriend at the time.

Before she was Arianna Huffington, she was Arianna Stassinopolous and at the age of 21, she met the famed British Journalist Henry Bernard Levin while on a panel for a quiz show.

The two entered into a relationship and he became her mentor while she wrote the book "The Female Woman" attacking the women's liberation movement. The book was published when she was 23.

For the next few years, Huffington traveled to music festivals around the world with Levin as he wrote for the BBC. Her relationship with Levin eventually ended because he did not want to marry or have children. Huffington moved to New York City at the age of 30. That year, her biography of Maria Callas was published, which she dedicated to Levin. 

She told William Skidelsky at The Observer:

"[Levin] was my mentor. Our second date was to see 'The Mastersingers' at Covent Garden. Our first trip abroad was to Bayreuth to see 'Wagner's Ring.'"

As we head into the playoffs, the majority of NFL teams and fans are already focused on the 2014 NFL Draft.

Using the current "big boards" of six NFL draft experts, we created an expert consensus index of the top 32 prospects in the draft right now.

Those experts are the following: ESPN's Scouts Inc., ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr., CBS's NFL Draft Scout, SB Nation's Dan Kadar, SI's Andy Staples, and WalterFootball.com.

32. Jason Verrett, cornerback (TCU)

Previously: 29th

Top 32's: 2 out of 6 rankings

Top 25's: 1 out of 6 rankings

Thing to know: He got torched by RGIII in his first college game ever (letting up 3 TDs).

31. Kyle Van Noy, linebacker (BYU)

Previously: 31st

Top 32's: 2 out of 6 rankings

Top 25's: 2 out of 6 rankings

Thing to know: He's engaged to Miss Utah!

30. Brett Hundley, quarterback (UCLA)

Previously: 10th

Top 32's: 2 out of 6 rankings

Top 25's: 2 out of 6 rankings

Thing to know: Behind a makeshift offensive line, he failed to grow as much as people thought he would this year.

It's time to start thinking about planing your dream trip next year. So where should you go?

We looked at major developments, cultural trends, and global festivals to find the hottest places to travel around the world in 2014.

From Croatia, the E.U.'s newest member; to Tokyo, the site of the 2020 Olympic Games, here are the best places to travel next year.

Cuba

Ever since Beyoncé and Jay Z very publicly vacationed in Cuba in April 2013, the small Caribbean country has been on the forefront of American travelers' minds.

Cuba has been off-limits to Americans since the '50s, but it's now easier to visit the small island than it has been in decades, thanks to more relaxed travel restrictions and an increase in tour operators offering legal ways to see the country. That means that more and more Americans are traveling to Cuba now. In fact, the number of Americans visiting Cuba grew by more than 20,000 in 2012 alone.

And tourists who are venturing there are finding that the country remains incredibly beautiful, and often untouched by the outside modern world. 

Bangkok, Thailand

More than 11 million tourists visited Bangkok as of August 2013, and the city is anticipating 15.98 million international arrivals by the end of the year, which would make it the No. 1 destination for tourists in 2013.

That number is bound to grow next year, as Thailand's capital city continues to develop its tourism infrastructure. Several new hotels are set to open in Bangkok in 2014, including the Radisson Blu Plaza Bangkok and the Hyatt Place Hotel.

With its centuries-old temples, modern nightlife and restaurants, and incredible food, it's easy to see why Bangkok is a favorite city for tourists from around the world. The city caters to everyone — and every price point. Whether its from a street vendor or an expensive upmarket restaurant, the food in Bangkok is incredible. There's also a wide variety of accommodations from cheap hostels and budget hotels around Kaosan Road to high-end luxury properties, like the Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok.

Portland, Maine

America's other Portland has been gaining a reputation as a funky low-key destination that prizes quality food and cutting-edge art.

More and more talented chefs have been flocking to the coastal New England city, opening upscale restaurants like Fore Street and Petite Jacqueline. But there's also  great casual fare, like tacos, burgers, and cupcakes from food trucks, and of course tons of lobster. 

Meanwhile, the city's art scene is thriving. That's to be expected, since it's home to dozens of edgy galleries and artist collaboratives, the Maine College of Art, and the Portland Museum of Art, located in the heart of the Arts District. Visit in the beginning of the month to experience a First Friday Art Walk, when artists display their works on the streets and musicians and performance artists entertain the crowds.

Visitors will have no shortage of hotel options, as the city is expecting to open 500 new rooms in the next two years. Until then, stay in a quaint inn like the Pomegranate Inn, which features fireplaces in the rooms and cool art exhibits that change regularly.

Behind every great man is a great woman, as they say. But who stands behind the world's dictators?

In good times and in bad, the ladies of the Dictators' Wives Club sure put up with a lot: corruption, political uprisings, and often other wives.

Some, like Rwandan First Lady Jeannette Kagame, use their position to advocate for important charitable causes in their nations.

Others, like Syrian president's wife Asma al-Assad, are pros at looking the other way and smiling for official Instagram photos.

For this list, we defined a dictator as a near-absolute ruler known for human rights abuses, restrictions on freedom of the press, and oppression of opposition.

Ana Paula dos Santos, wife of Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos

The first lady: A former fashion model, Ana Paula dos Santos knew her husband from her time as a flight attendant on the Angolan version of Air Force One. She now has a degree in teaching and law, and is a member of the International Steering Committee.

A diplomat once described the president and first lady as "a handsome couple, elegantly and expensively dressed, looking for all the world as though they're living in southern California." The first lady received a lot of flack from the public when she announced that her son would be attending the Portuguese school in Luanda because of the "bad quality" of state education — something for which many people hold her husband responsible.

Her husband: During President dos Santos' 34 years in office, he has consolidated all political power under his control. Countless atrocities, including torture and mass murders, occurred under his watch during a 27-year-long civil war. There are still reports of torture and repression of ethnic minorities going on in Angola today.

Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

The Queen Consort: Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa is the first wife of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Aside from being a devoted mother to their four children — one of whom is the crown prince — Ibrahim Al Khalifa is an outspoken activist for women's and children's rights, both in Bahrain and around the world, having addressed the U.N. General Assembly about these issues.

She serves as the head of the Supreme Council for Women in Bahrain, encouraging women to vote in the country, and is also the chief patron of the Society for Women and Children in Bahrain.

Her husband: The country has been run by the Al Khalifa dynasty since 1783. Hamad declared himself king in 2002, previously holding the title of Emir, meaning "commander." After an uprising against him in 2011, Amnesty International condemned the failure of the Bahraini government amidst "spiraling repression," including banning all public gatherings and rallies, revoking citizenship of those who speak out, and torturing both adults and children. In spite of this, Bahrain remains backed by support from the U.S.

Chantal Biya, wife of Cameroonian President Paul Biya

The first lady: Known as a trendsetter (there's even a Tumblr devoted to her famously tall hair-do), the first lady of Cameroon is very social and has met Michelle Obama, Paris Hilton, and, just this past September, the pope. Biya has been quoted as saying that her favorite European designers are Dior and Chanel, and many of the pieces in her wardrobe are custom-made.

Thirty-eight years her husband's junior, Biya is also a member of African Synergy, a club that comprises the wives of 22 of the continent's heads of state.

Her husband: President Biya has been in office for more than 30 years, and in 2008 removed restrictions on term limits so that he could run for office indefinitely. His state security forces have been accused of executing protestors and using other means of violence and oppression to prevent political opposition.

Wealth tends to create more wealth, but a rich background is not the only way to the top. Some of the world's wealthiest people started out dirt poor.

All from humble beginnings, these 15 people not only climbed to the top of their industries but also became some of the richest people in the world.

Although the rich do get richer, these rags-to-riches stories remind us that through determination, grit, and a bit of luck anyone can overcome their circumstances and achieve extraordinary success.

Kenny Troutt, the founder of Excel Communications, paid his way through college by selling life insurance.

Net worth:$1.7 billion (as of Sept. 2013)

Troutt grew up with a bartender dad and paid for his own tuition at Southern Illinois University by selling life insurance. He made most of his money from phone company Excel Communications, which he founded in 1988 and took public in 1996. Two years later, Troutt merged his company with Teleglobe in a $3.5 billion deal.

He's now retired and invests heavily in racehorses.

Starbucks' Howard Schultz grew up in a housing complex for the poor.

Net worth:$2 billion (as of Sept. 2013)

In an interview with British tabloid Mirror, Schultz says: "Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families. And for some reason, I don’t know why or how, I wanted to climb over that fence and achieve something beyond what people were saying was possible. I may have a suit and tie on now but I know where I’m from and I know what it’s like."

Schultz ended up winning a football scholarship to the University of Northern Michigan and went to work for Xerox after graduation. Shortly after, he took over a coffee shop called Starbucks, which at the time had only 60 shops. Schultz became the company's CEO in 1987 and grew the coffee chain to more than 16,000 outlets worldwide.

Investor Ken Langone's parents worked as a plumber and cafeteria worker.

Net worth:$2.1 billion (as of Sept. 2013)

To help pay for Langone's school at Bucknell University, he worked odd jobs and his parents mortgaged their home.

In 1968, Langone worked with Ross Perot to take Electronic Data Systems (HP) public. Just two years later, he partnered with Bernard Marcus to start Home Depot, which also went public in 1981.

It's not often that we get to see what life is really like in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Usually, what we end up hearing about are the horrific tales of the country's hidden prison camps or the exploits of famous basketball stars visiting the country.

Will Scott is a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington and ex-Googler who spent last fall in North Korea teaching courses on Operating Systems and Databases at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

Will documented much of his time spent in the DPRK via Instagram. Together with the descriptions of his adventure from his recent Reddit post, they give us a clearer picture of what life is like in North Korea.  

Will with the class of seniors to whom he taught a course on Operating Systems. These will be the first CS students to graduate from the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

Will also taught a class of juniors about Databases. The computer science program he taught under isn't open to female students.

According to Scott, residents of Pyongyang spend a huge amount of time keeping the streets and sidewalks in front of their homes and offices clean.

It was five degrees at kickoff of today's Packers-49ers game, with a wind chill of -10.

It was the 14th coldest game in NFL history, according to National Weather Service data.

It made for some spectacular photos of crazy fans (including a shirtless one), frozen players, and stoic-but-uncomfortable coaches.

Here are our favorites photos of the unforgettable game from AP, Getty, and Reuters.

Shirtless Packers fan puts ketchup on a sausage.

49ers coach Jim Harbaugh acclimates himself to the elements during pregame warmups.

Aaron Rodgers stretches before the game in the end zone, where all the grass had died.

Sometimes you need to change your name to make it as a star in Hollywood or the music business.

Plenty of today's biggest stars don't go by their birth names — Reese Witherspoon, Mila Kunis, and Natalie Portman. 

However, you probably aren't familiar with how they ended up with their current monikers.

Some are simple. Francis Ford Coppola's nephew Nicolas Cage changed his last name to avoid the worries of Hollywood nepotism. 

Others, like Bruno Mars and Michael Caine are more inspired. And then there's Whoopi Goldberg, whose name was changed after friends noticed her flatulence problem.

Mila Kunis — Milena Markovna Kunis

At the age of seven, Milena Markovna Kunis and her family moved from Ukraine to Los Angeles, Calif.

Mila's mother, Elvira, and father, Mark, soon enrolled her in acting classes and allowed Mila to shorten her name when she started booking her first roles on "Days of our Lives,""7th Heaven," and playing a young Angelina Jolie in "Gia."

Joaquin Phoenix — Joaquin Rafael Bottom/Leaf Phoenix

Joaquin Rafael Bottom is the third of five children, all with equally interesting names, including River (1970–1993), Rain (1973), Liberty (1976), Summer, and a half-sister Jodean.

After Joaquin's parents, John Lee and Arlyn Bottom, married in 1969, the couple joined the religious cult the Children of God and traveled around South America. But they soon became disenchanted with the cult and moved back to the U.S. in 1978, where they changed their last name to "Phoenix" to symbolize "new beginning."

Around this same time, a young Joaquin began calling himself "Leaf," desiring to have a similar nature-related name like his siblings. In a past Jay Leno interview, Joaquin said he had originally called himself "Antleaf" as a child.

Leaf would become the name he would use as a child actor until, at age 15, he changed it back to Joaquin.

Reese Witherspoon — Laura Jeanne

The "Sweet Home Alabama" actress traded her first and middle name in for her mother's maiden name, "Reese."

The NFL playoffs started this weekend with four games, three of which were decided by three points or less. Let's take another look back at the best highlights from this weekend's action.

This week's collection includes Andrew Luck's quirky touchdown, a horrible Lambeau Leap, and Aaron Rodgers' great escape.

Here are our 10 favorites.

Ball guy down!

Philip Rivers was pumped up about the Chargers' big win.

This may be the worst Lambeau Leap ever.

Freezing cold temperatures and heavy snow from last week's storm meant that many of New York's Citi Bikes went unused.

However the hundreds of bikes sitting at docking stations around the city could have been buried under snow and ice, creating a hazard for traffic and snow plows. 

In an effort to prevent snow buildup at select docking stations, hundreds of the bikes were moved to Citi Bike maintenance headquarters, located under the Williamsburg Bridge at Delancey Street. According to Bowery Boogie, it was a precautionary move by the Department of Transportation and NYC Bike Share, which operates the Citi Bike program. 

Bowery Boogie shared their photos of the Citi Bike army with Business Insider. 

The relocation is part of the program's response to concerns that the docking stations would pose a problem once ice and snow arrived. The system will shut down completely if conditions become too severe for biking, though it remained in operation throughout last week's storm. 

SEE ALSO: 15 Tips For Surviving On A Bike In New York City

Join the conversation about this story »

The stress, long hours, and sedentary nature of your modern office job are sucking the life out of you — literally.

Aside from the tight deadlines, bad food habits, and being cooped up with other people's germs, plenty of things you do every day in the workplace are killing you.

From the printer to your keyboard, the dangers presented in a typical office can have real effects on your physical well-being and mental health.

Sitting all day could shave years off your life.

Sitting for lengthy periods is terrible for your body. Aches and pains are the least of your problems — sitting too much can lead to an early death. You face a higher risk of muscular skeletal disorders, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more, even if you work out regularly.

Around 86% of American workers sit all day at work.

Regularly slouching in your can chair lead to long-term illnesses.

If your job requires you to sit most of the day, it's best if you get a sitting device that allows you to straighten your poor posture. If not, you're "contributing to a pool of chronic, long-term ailments — including arthritis and bursitis."

Using a treadmill desk increases your chances of physically hurting yourself.

Although a treadmill desk may help with the risk of obesity and heart disease, these desks are also prone to increased typos and might cause you to fall more often than merely sitting in a chair.

Zaria Forman spent her childhood following her fine art photographer mother and neuro-ophthalmologist father around the globe.

Forman's mother — who called herself "a polar bear in another life"— loved capturing desolate, frozen landscapes. When her work started earning comparisons to photographers who went to the Arctic with American painter William Bradford in 1869, Forman's mother became obsessed with planning a similar trip.

Click here to skip to the drawings >>

She went so far as to lunch with a couple from Belfast, Maine, on their boat to discuss sailing to Greenland, before she passed away from brain cancer.

"It was bigger than anything she'd ever done, so I felt it still needed to happen," Forman told Business Insider of her mother's expedition. "I couldn't let it go because she was so obsessed with it, and it was honestly one of her most exciting adventures."

"I didn't think I could organize it, but now it set me on this path that I'll continue on for the rest of my life."

Forman, a professional artist who draws in pastels, went back to the Belfast couple and secured the boat for a three-week trip in August 2012 along the western coast of Greenland. Artists contributed about $6,000 each, and some backers paid $8,000 to come on board. Forman also ran a Kickstarter campaign, which enabled her to bring a filmmaker along, and held a fundraiser in New York City to help cover costs.

They followed Bradford's path as closely as they could, and even stopped at some of the sites he found, using Bradford's journal and photos of his trip, compiled in a book called "The Arctic Regions," as a guide.

"We would hold his book up to the landscape and compare the rocks and formations to what he saw," Forman said. "Not too much of the land was different, but I really did see a difference in the ice. I wasn't necessarily expecting that."

Now Forman can't help thinking about climate change in her work. She feels a responsibility to document and combat it. A percentage of all Greenland drawing sales go to 350.org, a grassroots organization that seeks to preserve and protect the planet.

She's recently finished a series of huge drawings — some of them up to four feet tall and six feet wide — of Greenland, based on the 10,000 to 13,000 photographs she took and some small charcoal on vellum sketches she made along the way. Her finished pastel-on-paper drawings each took between one and four weeks to complete. 

"My biggest challenge is always to depict the landscape honestly," Forman said. "The landscape there is so otherworldly, I have these moments where it almost doesn't look real and I don't want people to think, 'Oh she made that up.'"

"The real work began after my return to the studio," Forman said.

"The work that I exhibit is way too large to create on site," she said. After three weeks sailing around Greenland, Forman returned to her studio in Brooklyn to make her large-scale pastel drawings of the Arctic landscape.

Her drawings are based on the 10,000 to 13,000 photographs she took in Greenland.

Understanding different languages is hard enough without the elusive feelings or ideas that some cultures are able to compress into one simple word.

These are always the most frustrating to translate as we fumble around for our own lengthy definition, yet they are also wonderful in their simplicity when describing a complex idea.

Originally published on Maptia Blog and found at Visual.ly, the infographic designed by illustrator Ella Frances Sanders shows the definitions for 11 "untranslatable" words, from Italy's "cualacinco" to Japan's "komorebi."

Check it out below.

SEE ALSO: The Historical Origins Of 6 Swear Words

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This is the MK1 Transforming Coffee Table from Duffy London.

Why We Love It: This gorgeous, functional table is perfect for anyone with a small apartment (first discovered via Reddit user ameangreenbean). The innovative design transforms in seconds with two simple movements from a 14-inch-tall by 29-inch-wide coffee table to a 2 1/2-foot-tall dining table measuring 4 1/2 feet across.

The handmade table comes in your choice of steel or wood, including solid oak, ash or walnut, and is the perfect space-saving solution for tiny homes.

Here it is in coffee table form.

And here it is after being extended into the kitchen table.

It's incredibly simple to transform.

Watch a GIF of it in action below:

Where To Buy: Available through Duffy London.

Cost:$1,300 for a wood version, $1,480 for the steel table.

Want to nominate a cool product for Stuff We Love? Send an email to Megan Willett at mwillett@businessinsider.com with "Stuff We Love" in the subject line.

SEE ALSO: 25 Holiday Party Host Gifts That Will Cost You Less Than $25

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