Do you know how knives are made? Do you know how knives are made of milk?Unless youve seen this video or any others on YouTube channel kiwami japan you dont. The channel is dedicated to the art of knifemaking, but most of the videos are detailed step-by-steps of the creators successful attempts to craft real, usable knives out of materials like UV resin, tofu, bismuth, and yes, milk.The craftsmanship itself is mesmerizing and impressive, but its the enigmatic bladesmith that makes the videos so fun to watch. The creator themself who only pours water out of a vase shaped like a cow and who often goes on lengthy, experimental side quests that have little to do with the knife being made in the video has never revealed their name online. But their expertise when it comes to material science is clear, and the breadth and specificity of the equipment they use leaves you wondering why this person owns so much professional lab equipment.Its all intrigue and no answers, but thats not the point. It was sometime around 2018, on the floor of my then-group house with my roommates (because we didnt have enough couch to fit us all at once), that I saw what we lovingly call milk knife for the first time. We were getting bored of watching Vine compilations over and over. In some twist of fate (no, thats not hyperbolic), someone put this video on, and wed end up watching it thrice more together before moving out. Its become my go-to weird YouTube video to throw on at the proverbial end of the night. To adjust for 2024 attention spans, I usually crank kiwami japans videos up to 1.5x speed, since they can be quite long. The channel hasnt posted any new knives in the last couple of years, but there are plenty to make your way through in the backlog.

JANUARY: Delcy Morelos Conjures a Sacred Experience With SoilIn a dimly-lit room, the subtle scent of cinnamon and clove infused the air from two unbelievable dirt installations. On view at Dia Chelsea through July 2024, artist Delcy Morelos presented El abrazo, an exhibition of two site-specific sculptures that invite a sacred connection to soil that may have been the most surprising and satisfying experience with art in New York earlier this year.FEBRUARY: Thousands of Brushstrokes: Antonio Santns New Rug PaintingsArtist Antonio Santn presented shockingly hyperreal oil paintings that depict life-size undulating ornate rugs. On view at Marc Straus Gallery in February, each painting is a surprising illusion of a carpet in 3D space, but up close, theyre even more impressive. Painstakingly applied with a modified syringe, thousands of tiny brushstrokes demand sustained inspection and a new fascination for both textile and paint.MARCH: Frank Stellas Psychedelic Sculptures Land in New YorkLegendary artist Frank Stella continues to prove his unparalleled curiosity and capacity for reinvention. His exhibition Frank Stella: Recent Sculpture at Jeffrey Deitch in New Yorks SoHo neighborhood presented five massive sculptures with color-shifting elements that feel as if they could lift into the air at any second. The exhibition was a visual rollercoaster of surprising form, color, gravity, and scale in a space that invites multi-level vantage points.APRIL: Artist Vik Muniz Reconfigures Shredded CashVik Muniz, the master of creating unbelievable images out of unexpected things, debuted his latest series, Legal Tender, at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. on the west side of Manhattan. Included in a double-feature exhibition, Munizs work once again celebrates everyday material, ignites the imagination, confuses reality, and questions current systems of symbols and representation.MAY: Tara Donovans CD Stacks Are Ethereal Material BlissFor over 2 decades, artist Tara Donovan has transformed everyday objects in her work from plastic straws, Styrofoam cups, and toothpicks creating ethereal visual magic through highly-precise unexpected accumulations. Her May exhibition Stratagems on view at Pace Gallery in New York, debuted 11 new towering sculptures that are created from thousands of used CDs.JUNE: Splitting Daylight: Hiroshi Sugimotos Photographs of ColorIn June, Hiroshi Sugimotos series of photographs were on view at Lisson Gallery in New York City in an exhibition titled Optical Allusion. The famed photographer captures blurry abstract images of refracted daylight that, displayed alongside the real prism that was used in their creation, invites tangible experience with light and time.JULY: 2 Must-See Group Exhibitions in New York City GalleriesEvery July, most New York contemporary galleries present group exhibitions a dizzying variety of intelligent curation, unexpected juxtapositions, and exciting introductions to new artists. The galleries also switch to summer hours (closed on weekends), so available viewing time can be limited. Two exhibitions, which together presented over 60 artists, smart themes, and plenty of surprises: Mother Lode: Material and Memory on view at James Cohan Gallery at two locations in Tribeca, and Patternson view at Luhring Augustine Gallery across both their Tribeca and Chelsea locations.AUGUST: Bass and Light: 2 Must-See Installations at Dia BeaconThe always-incredible contemporary art space Dia Beacon, located just outside New York City, hosted two additional awe-inspiring installations by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Steve McQueen. Paired with the many additional world famous installations on long term view, a trip to Beacon is always worth the trip.SEPTEMBER: Liza Lous New Paintings Surprise With Thousands of BeadsArtist Liza Lous exhibition Painting at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York debuted 12 new works made from tens of thousands of colorful glass beads that resemble brushstrokes. Its a color and texture surprise that offers more intrigue the closer you view a hybrid between paint and pixels, light and extreme physicality. Inspired by her experience viewing paint through a microscope, Liza Lou again pushes her signature material into fresh and unexpected possibilities.OCTOBER: Joel Shapiros New Sculptures Radiate Joy and Defy GravityJoel Shapiros sculptures are radiantly joyful, they defy gravity, and seem to move as you walk around them. His exhibition at Pace in New York, Joel Shapiro: Out of the Blue, was everything you want from a Shapiro with with new surprises. Presenting his largest wood sculpture to date, along with a dozen small studies and bronzes, it was a playfully intelligent experience with color, space, material, and movement that keeps you circling.NOVEMBER: Artist Olafur Eliassons New PsychoacousticExhibitionThe work of Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has always felt like a surreal supercharge for the senses, as if somehow experiencing the strange magic of sight for the first time. His exhibition Your psychoacoustic light ensemble was on view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York with a range of perception-tripping new works, including watercolors that emulate spectral light, new color-shifting glass sculptures, and a surprising room where sound becomes visible and light feels audible. The whole thing adds up to an ethereal and wondrous dive into the rabbit hole for both the senses and the psyche.Check out the rest of Design Milks end of the year coveragehere!

Some consider gift cards not the most personal of gifts, but I say that's not the case. They allow you to get exactly what you want with no confusion, and (typically) both gifter and giftee walk away happy. But maybe you received a few gift cards for the holidays and are stumped on what to buy with them Engadget can help. Here, we've gathered some of our favorite gadgets and services of the year that are all worthy ways to spend your gift card money, from wireless mice to coffee gear to gaming controllers. Check out the rest of our gift ideas here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-spend-your-100-gift-card-after-christmas-130036223.html?src=rss

Social media platform Bluesky has launched Trending Topics into beta, the company announced in a post on its platform. The new feature is one of the most-requested by users and matches a function that has been on rival Threads for around nine months, and on X (Twitter at the time) since at least 2017.The Trending section shows the top viral content on the platform, with topics like "Christmas," "Nosferatu" and "Wikipedia" (thanks to Elon Musk) currently on top. It can be found by clicking on search in both the desktop version and mobile apps, or you can disable it altogether in the settings, TechCrunch noted. Any words that you have muted won't appear in Trending topics either.Bluesky recently hit a big milestone with 25 million users, many of whom recently fled X following the US elections. Though still relatively small compared to Threads and X, users have remarked on the high levels of engagement along with the lack of bots and harassment compared to Elon Musk's platform. Other highly requested features still not implemented include bookmarks, editing, verification badges and private posts.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-launches-a-trending-topics-feature-in-search-140049208.html?src=rss

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After spending months working toward a career changing goal, a client recently told executive coach Anne Shoemaker that, while she believes its what she wants, shes not sure if shes in the right place to make any decisions about her goals because she is feeling burned out.Shoemakers advice: Do nothing.When youre operating from a place of burnout, everything feels like a major lift, Shoemaker says. We cant make great decisions when were emotionally and cognitively depleted. The client expressed relief that Shoemaker had given her permission to do nothing, and Shoemaker and her client agreed to reconvene in late January.Executive coach and leadership consultant Jen Dulin agrees with Shoemakers advice because, she says, the biggest mistake is forcing ourselves to set goals when we are feeling burned out.What we need when were setting goals is access to things like creativity, strategic thinking, the ability to execute or think about how well act on our goals, and we dont have access to those things when were in a stressed or burned out place, Dulin says.According to MyPerfectResumes Employee Burnout Survey, 88% of respondents report experiencing burnout.However, not everyone has the luxury of doing nothing until late January. Most employees will be tasked with setting goals for 2025 as part of their annual performance review. Here are five ways to set goals this month even if youre feeling burned out.Set month-by-month goalsFocus on what you can achieve by the end of January rather than trying to set goals for the entire year, Shoemaker suggests.Theres nothing thats more demoralizing than feeling like we need to dig deep into ourselves from a well thats too dry to produce, Shoemaker says.Once you decide on a goal for January, think about what you can achieve in February. Setting month-by-month goals for the next six months feels less overwhelming than trying to set goals for the entire year, Shoemaker says.Set the right moodBefore you sit down to think about goals, change your physiology, Dulin recommends. Try breathing deeply, going for a walk, or listening to music.We cant think our way out of stress, Dulin says, so just sitting down and grinding through it wont lend itself to very meaningful goals.Dulin also warns against squeezing in goal setting sessions in between meetings. Setting goals requires the right side and left side of our brain, so we need to create a little bit of space before we physically sit down and do it so that were not feeling rushed or overly stressed, she says.Find inspirationDont confine your goal-setting sessions to your office or your office hours, Dulin says. Notice when you have the best energy to do creative work and schedule your goal setting session for that time. If youre inspired by something you read or a podcast youre listening to, jot down notes. Go somewhere that energizes you and makes you feel comfortable and creativea museum, a coffeeshop, a favorite hiking trail. Find a place that you feel connected to or inspired by, Dulin says.Allow for different levels of progressBuild into your goals permission to meet different levels of progress. Make allowances for what youre capable of on days when youre feeling replenished versus days when the tank is completely empty, says leadership and career coach Phoebe Gavin. Keep in mind that there is progress that requires five minutes of work versus an hour versus half a day versus a weekend, she says.Expect to fail and expect failure to be part of the process, Gavin says. Its not about how long you can up your streak of meeting your goal but how quickly you can go back to trying to meet it again when you miss the mark in some way.Examine the cause of your burnoutBurnout can be caused by different factors, so if you want to remedy burnout, you need to determine the source, Gavin says. Is your burnout related to mental or physical depletion? Burnout can be related to boredom when youre not being challenged at work, or it can be related to values misalignment. Those are very different problems, and the solution for one wont solve the other, she says.Figure out what needs to change for you to not feel worse and what sorts of things you need to do to start to get better, and make space in your life for those things, even if its difficult to do in the beginning, Gavin says.