Claudia is too modest to mention it, but every night she records her dreams and uses the summary of her dream as a prompt to help an AI paint her daily dream. She calls it her Dream Stream on Instagram. I think this combination is a brilliant new genre, and a fabulous use of the new tools. Plus her summary dreams are sometimes profound. — KK
Machine Pix is an Instagram account with mesmerizing videos of different machinery performing automated tasks, such as making nails, tying knots, loading pallets, pulling weeds, and peeling fruit. — MF
In addition to Recomendo, I write a newsletter called The Magnet. It’s difficult to describe because each issue is different. Sometimes I interview an interesting person like Jude Stewart, who wrote a catalog of smells. Sometimes I post photos and comments of unusual things I come across when travel. In one issue I wrote about the time I worked on a traveling carnival and met a remarkable man called The Human Blockhead. If you are looking for a last minute gift (even for yourself), consider getting them a gift subscription to The Magnet. — MF
There are few newsletters I read as soon as they arrive in my inbox. Coco’s Variety is one of them. It chronicles the obsessions of a Los Angeles used bicycle shop owner. He writes about collecting antiques, restoring old cars, cooking, garage sales, flea markets, good books, good music, and good living. His perspective is inspiring. — MF
We think you’ll like our newest newsletter, Tools for Possibilities. Every Monday we’ll send you a one-pager with the best parts of my Cool Tools book, which is now out of print. This oversized book rounded up the best tools we knew about in 2013 and presented them by category. I called it a Catalog of Possibilities. Our succinct newsletter takes each category and selects the reviews for 2 to 4 tools in that category. It is basically a way to distill and re-distribute the deep, deep archive of the Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily since 2003. The information about the tools, whether they are still available or even still the very best, has NOT been updated. (They are just a search away.) We present this stream of tools – defined in its broadest sense as anything handy for an individual or small group – as an easy way to see what possibilities there exist if you want to make things happen. It’s brief and free. Sign up for Tools for Possibilities here. — KK
The instagram account Welcome.jpeg calls itself a digital museum. It’s kinda art, kinda meme, kinda kitsch, kinda weirdo. It collects oddball, strange, unorthodox, found images and delivers these misfits as little visual collections. It’s my guilty pleasure. — KK
This is a series of photos of WWII Polish resistance fighters who battled the Germans in a Warsaw ghetto for 27 days. On the left of each image is how they appeared in 1940. On the right are photos of the same surviving men and woman taken in 2021. Follow historyphotographed for the most fascinating photos from the past. — MF
One of my favorite newsletters is TITAA (Things I Think Are Awesome) by Lynn Cherny, a data scientist consultant who sends out a monthly roundup of whatever she finds interesting in the fields of creative AI, generative art, science fiction, fantasy, games, folklore, poetry and more. It’s weirdly fascinating and always inspiring. Here is a link to the archive. — CD
A swell account I follow on Twitter is Massimo. They consistently posts the most interesting science-y, curious, and educational stuff. (And no outrage!) It bills itself as “Astronomy, astronautics, meteorology, physics. Engineer, trying to build the big picture of #science via selected & curated pics, videos & links,” which it does spectacularly well. — KK
A silly, fun, and weirdly mesmerizing Twitter follow. People Selling Mirrors collects the images that people post while selling their old mirror. The photos inevitably include them, so these snapshots become unintended selfies. They are amusing because they are the opposite of posed portraits — they are the anti-selfie. — KK
More people are working from home, or working from remote locations, or working while traveling, or traveling while working. We, the Recomendo crew, are launching a new newsletter dedicated to this realm. Nomadico is a weekly, one-pager emailed to you each Thursday which will have 4 tips for working beyond the office, and living in motion. Covers digital nomads, remote work, travel hacking, van life, FIRE, learning journeys and more. Nomadico is edited by Tim Leffel, who is the world’s expert on distributed living. Sign up here. It is free for now. — KK
I am mesmerized by the short videos of Zach King. Are they real? Are they magic tricks? Or are they special CGI effects? Who cares? They are awesome. King’s visual tricks are witty, clever, and uplifting. I think of them as cinemagic. They have become a whole new creative genre, as King forwards and feature shorts inspired by his style but made by others. They travel well on TikTok so he has legions of followers. — KK
One of my favorite Instagrammers worth following is Geomorphilogical Landscapes. It’s a parade of unusual, amazing, bizarre, weird, and surprising natural landscapes. Geological, biological, weather, and urban. Some scenes are beautiful but most are just astounding. I feel glad to be on the same planet. — KK
I’m a big fan of Clearer Thinking and have recommended several of their tests and newsletter before, and Spencer Greenberg, the social scientist behind Clearer Thinking also has a weekly newsletter that I click on as soon as it hits. Each week, he sends out “One Helpful Idea” and it’s short and sweet and it makes me feel smart. This week’s helpful idea was:
Many have made the argument that trying not to think about something makes us think about it more. As proof, they say: “Try not to think about a white bear. Gotcha!” But the way to not think of a white bear is not to “not think about a white bear” — it’s to think about a red plum.
You can view all the past issues and subscribe here. — CD
The Internet Dungeon of Unexplained Phenomena is a website of AI-generated images and text depicting paranormal occurrences — like Dimensional rift at Scholastic Book Fair and The spooky locked door in the public library. It reminds me of a visual “Welcome to Night Vale”. It’s creepy and poetic and just scrolling through the blog excites my imagination. — CD
My favorite out-of-this-world twitter account to follow is the Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity. It keeps me up to date on Rover’s findings and images, like this picture postcard posted recently. It’s a dose of awe in my timeline. The most recent raw images of Mars can be found here: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw-images/ — CD
Some silly humor to add to your feed is the r/DramaticHouseplants subreddit. It’s just images of houseplants being dramatic, like this plant in a pig planter or this one. Both Fittonias. This sub is a great place to learn new plants! The time lapse videos are also beautiful to watch. — CD
Every couple of days the musician/artist David Byrne posts on his Instagram a picture of something interesting he notices: a juxtaposition of forms, an odd alignment of shadows, something offbeat, the unexpectedly original in the mundane, or one moment of aha. That’s it. Because he notices, I notice. And then I notice more on my own. Small joys. — KK
Instagram has become one kind of art museum for me. I like to get my art in diverse small doses. Among the artists I follow, I seek these accounts because they keep me surprised.
https://www.instagram.com/ifyouhigh/ — Different, odd, unexpected, weird. My favorite.
https://www.instagram.com/vikmuniz/ — Always surprising bits of beauty.
https://www.instagram.com/rawvisionmagazine/ — Select folk art from magazine.
https://www.instagram.com/geometriasagrada/ — Geometrical / mathematical art worldwide.
https://www.instagram.com/ememem.flacking/ — Creative public tile mosaics.
https://www.instagram.com/okudart/ — Colorful polygon master.
https://www.instagram.com/studioolafureliasson/ — Star artist’s tech sophisticated installations.
If you have a favorite art follow that always surprises you, let me know. — KK