I’ve been looking for a more powerful read-it-later alternative to Pocket and Cubox ticks a lot of boxes. It offers highlights, annotations, email-import and connects with a range of other tools. The only thing currently missing is browser extension support for Firefox.

The Endel app claims that its customised ambient sounds can help you focus, relax and sleep. “Our patented technology creates soundscapes that adapt in real-time. It reacts to inputs like time of day, weather, heart rate, and location.”

This is one for parents of kids entering the ‘screen age’: a freemium app with feature-rich parental controls for iPhone and iPad built on the Apple Screen Time API. For example: set a daily maximum screen time use or limit the amount of time allowed for just one specific app.

ProxiMovie is a large directory of movies and TV shows that lets you find similar movies/shows based on various criteria: type, plot, actors, even movie posters. You can also browse by themes, crew members, actors or country.

The Edge of the Plain →

How borders shape our world

Many of us perceive country borders as fixed boundary, but history reminds us how fluid those imagined lines are and how their meaning shaped culture and land. “Borders are as old as human civilization, and focal points for today’s colliding forces of nationalism, climate change, globalization, and mass migration. The Edge of the Plain illuminates these lines of separation past and present, how we define them – and how they define us.”

Revolting Prostitutes →

The fight for sex workers’ rights

A great title for a book on an issue I admittedly do not know much about, other than that current laws in most countries are harming people that are already in vulnerable positions. “In Revolting Prostitutes, sex workers Juno Mac and Molly Smith bring a fresh perspective to questions that have long been contentious. Speaking from a growing global sex worker rights movement, and situating their argument firmly within wider questions of migration, work, feminism, and resistance to white supremacy, they make clear that anyone committed to working towards justice and freedom should be in support of the sex worker rights movement.”

An excellent essay tracing the origins of the social web – from benevolent social networking to today’s toxic social media content machine. Ian Bogost sees the winds of algorithmic content flows changing, though. The question is: are we finally ready to accept that social media has very little to offer? “It’s seemingly as hard to give up on social media as it was to give up smoking en masse, like Americans did in the 20th century. Quitting that habit took decades of regulatory intervention, public-relations campaigning, social shaming, and aesthetic shifts. At a cultural level, we didn’t stop smoking just because the habit was unpleasant or uncool or even because it might kill us. We did so slowly and over time, by forcing social life to suffocate the practice. That process must now begin in earnest for social media.”

Another great piece by Tara McMullin about the many factors – external and self-initiated – that contribute to our overwhelming feeling of busyness and stress. “The busier we are, the more likely we are to purchase the products and services that claim to make us less busy. Think home delivery services. We’re also more likely to buy products that claim to counteract the effects of busyness. Think the entire wellness industry. To that end, the busier we are, the more likely we are to use debt to finance some of our countermeasures.” The piece describes a great term I hadn’t heard about before: ‘complicit suffering’ – a concept that “acknowledges how we are harmed and disadvantaged by oppressive systems. But the concept also acknowledges the ways in which we make things worse for ourselves.” (I seriously don’t know how she produces so much good writing so frequently!)

For most Western folks, motorcycles are fun toys for sunny weekends. They’re usually not considered a serious mode of transport. For the world’s most populous countries and cities, however, the electrification of motorcycles has already ushered in a new era of urban transport that delivers quieter, healthier, safer and more accessible cities. “‘The physics is very simple: If I’m moving a 75 kilogram person in 1.5 tons of steel, glass, and rubber and you compare that to moving the same person on a 100 kilogram scooter?’ Eccarius said. ‘[That’s] less weight, less energy, and less infrastructure needed. Really, it’s a no brainer. You don’t have to have a Ph.D.’”