The effect that nature can have on our thoughts, emotions and ultimately our actions is a powerful thing. Of course this is what makes nature so astounding. Typically we think of the effects as a positive thing but what about the opposite – what about fear or even anger turning to violence?

Here in the Pacific Northwest, our forests are notorious for beautiful sunrays shining through evergreens that quickly give way to creepy, dripping and dark spaces covered in a low mist. One minute there is that feeling as if you could spend all day in that dun-drenched spot and then suddenly you can’t get inside fast enough.

Taking this to an extreme, I recall the Lars van Trier film Antichrist that was both the most intense movie I’ve seen in awhile as well as absolutely stunning cinematography. However, while I personally thought this movie was brilliant, don’t watch this if you’re not a fan of dark and extremely graffic psychodramas – just enjoy the clip at the bottom of this post.

Without analyzing the movie or going beyond the topic of how nature plays with our emotions, I just wanted to point out the power that nature has in this film and on the actors. The deep gut-wrenching emotional and sometimes suspensful scenes were perfectly paired with sound to bring out the most in the imagery.

But I will leave it at that and just let you enjoy what I think is one of the best clips of all time because I don’t want to spoil the movie for those who do want to see it.

The clip from movie below plays out the mental journey to a cabin in the woods they call Eden and the power that nature has on Her. She was at Eden before and He is trying to help her confront her fear of the outdoors.

The photo above was taken while I was walking over a bridge in Venice, Italy where I had paused to take a picture and noticed that there were padlocks attached to many spots on the bridge and that each one had writing on it. I was told that this is a sort of urban legend, the ideas being that a couple would affix a padlock with a message, their names or even just their initials on it and then throw away the key thus locking their love forever.

Once I noticed the padlocks, suddenly it seemed as if they were everywhere and particularly popular in Italy. I can only imagine how many have to be cut off on a continual basis. While this can be seen as an unfortunate act of grafitti on a beautiful historic bridge, it’s interesting to think about the desire to make one’s mark on a place they’ve been or leave something behind as if leaving a piece of themselves in that time and space to live on forever. Forever together in this case. And our craving as humans for the romantic.

This somewhat recent craze seems to have exploded in Italy in particular, due in part to a novel written in 1992 by Federico Moccia titled Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo, translated as Three Metres Above the Sky and gave way to the English film, “Three Steps Over Heaven”. Another novel followed in 2006 titled Ho Voglia di Te or I Desire You. The romantic rite mentioned in the books say that young lovers will spend their lived together forever if they place a padlock with their names on the third lamp post from the Corso Francia end of the Ponte Milvio in Rome and then throw the key into the Tiber River. This tradition has taken hold of many cities in Italy including Florence, Venice, Naples, Lecce and others. The craze has gotten so out of control that fines are being given out in some cities and in the case of the Ponte Milvio, while there is no fine yet, a website has been set up for people to leave a virtual padlock and even throw their key into the Tiber.

This craze stems beyond Italy however and seems the origin actually lies in the Hungarian city of Pécs where a fence, not a bridge, was the object of the padlock fixation dating back some thirty years.

But the locks of love don’t stop there, they spread out throughout Europe and beyond. A few more photos below, like a fence in Riga, Latvia, another in Cologne, Germany and even Zhangjiajie, China. It’s interesting how our love for the romantic spans generations and cultures.

images via Lisa Town, PioPio, adriennf, Khriszianfabry

We all know that Copenhagen is the bicycle capital of the world. They have such a fantastic infrastructure setup for the hoards of cyclists that they are now able to begin focusing on the friendly little details of urban bicycle life. What’s the latest and greatest on the streets? A little something to lean on.

The new double railing system has tapped into a little subconcious human behavorial detail like the Paul Bennett from IDEO discussed in a TED lecture about designing for people. Basically, observe what people do and design for that. The natural behavior when it comes to bicyclists can be observed anywhere there is a pole, a person or just anything at all to lean on at a traffic light.

And not only lean, but put up a foot so they don’t have to get off the seat and maybe can even have something to push off on.

This bicycle friendly detail popped up in Copenhagen on a little island midway between crossing a street. For the people that get stuck on the island from a red light can grab onto the bar and put a foot up while they wait for the green. It’s also very nice and it reads, “Hi, cyclist! Rest your foot here… and thank you for cycling in the city.”

This friendly little detail is part of Copenhagen’s “Hi, Cyclist!” behavorial campaign developed by Mikael Colville-Andersen, also author of the blog Copenhagenize. He describes it as, “a behavioural campaign and a communications template with which the Bicycle Office can communicate with the cycling citizens. The average Copenhagener who rides to work or school each day doesn’t really pay much attention to bicycle infrastructure or even bicycles. They just ride.”

Mikael continues on to say, “We all have a sense of pride about the city in which we live. Here in Copenhagen we love to hear that we’ve been voted the world’s most liveable city and things like that. I figured that our cycling citizens should be made aware of all the positive aspects of our bike culture, in order to stimulate that inherent civic pride in relation to our cycling life.”

It’s such a simple detail, this double bar system for leaning, resting and pushing off, but it works so well because it taps into the very thing people want without overdoing it and throwing in any unnecessary bells and whistles. It also gives back to the cyclists that make the city what it is today and the friendly note offers that thanks and spreads the love.

images via zakka/mikael, copenhagenize