Recomendo

October 24 · Issue #276 · View online

A weekly newsletter that gives you 6 brief personal recommendations of cool stuff. Check out our new book Recomendo: The Expanded Edition @ https://geni.us/recomendo

Text-only weather

Get three-day weather forecasts for any city by entering http://wttr.in/city in your browser’s URL bar (e.g. http://wttr.in/boston or http://wttr.in/portland_maine). The page loads fast because there are no ads or graphics. — MF

Uninhibited architecture

On this modest website, Arquitectura Libre, one photographer documents the outlandish homes that uninhibited new wealth enables in developing countries. So far he has cataloged creative buildings in only a few countries, but I’ve seen these all around the world, particularly China, so I hope he keeps going. Normal homes are so boring! — KK

Mixing colors

Mixing a specific color by hand — I want to make this particular shade of green starting from primary colors — is a super skill that artists acquire and is much harder than it looks. I watched many YouTube tutorials to learn how to do this with paints and this one by Draw Mix Paint was the best method for me. It’s still more art than science. — KK

Nighttime to-do list

A small change in my workflow that has done wonders is writing out my to-do list at night instead of in the morning when I sit down to work. I adopted this new practice after reading 11 Artists Share the Bedtime Rituals That Keep Them Creative. At least two of the artists said they plan out their goals for their next day. I find that by doing this, my mind wanders less and I fall asleep faster. — CD

Relationship mini-insight

In this short snippet from a longer interview, Esther Perel explains “Why your Partner Criticizes You.” She says behind every criticism is a wish. This does not excuse being critical toward your partner, but keeping this in mind helps me focus on what it is I’m really requesting of my partner and what he might be asking of me. Worth the 4-minute listen. — CD

Portable Apple Watch charger

I bought this small Apple Watch charger for my travel kit. It has a USB-C and USB-A plug so I can plug it into my laptop or a wall charger. — MF

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

Recomendo is copyrighted by Cool Tools Lab, LLC. Commissions may be earned from the links above.

UNCLASSIFIED ADS

We’re excited to announce a new addition to Recomendo: Unclassified Ads! If you have a product, service, newsletter, app, book, movie, tool, or anything else you’d like to share with fellow readers, this is where you can do it. The only requirement is that you must be a Recomendo subscriber to run an Unclassified Ad. Here’s how you can run an unclassified ad in Recomendo and reach over 50,000 subscribers.

The Circuit Playground Express Base Kit ($29.95) provides all the things you’ll need to get started with your coding adventure using the Circuit Playground Express. This version is superpowered, and works with Microsoft MakeCode, CircuitPython, code.org’s CS Discoveries, or Arduino IDE.

What are the benefits of Rubber Brother shirts? Said to possess incredible powers of protection, these garments are made from the skin of Rubber Brother, the most mysterious creature in the universe.

In 1977, NASA launched two interstellar probes each carrying a golden phonograph record with a message for extraterrestrials. Now, you can finally listen to the Voyager Golden Record on Earth the way it was meant to be played: The Voyager Golden Record 3xLP Vinyl Box Set

Cyberpunk Rudy Rucker’s JUICY GHOSTS is a wild ride, with an insane, evil President and a pandemic. Hip, dark, funny. Features commercial telepathy, and immortality as a digital soul linked to a living body: a juicy ghost!

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