My daughter was nauseated during a long car drive, and fortunately my sister had a couple of Bonine motion sickness tablets in her purse. In a matter of minutes, the nausea dissipated, and my daughter felt fine for the remainder of the 10 hour drive. It’s highly rated on Amazon. — MF

You are sitting on the toilet but there is no place to park your phone safely. This is an everywhere in the world problem, with a first world solution: this hefty, heavy solid metal, toilet roll shelf. The shelf is flat, dry, stable. The roll holder underneath is easy to use. Can also store book, wet wipes, etc. As a courtesy I replaced our guest bathroom roll holder with this, and I like it so much I may do the rest of the bathrooms. — KK

I recently upgraded my Macbook to Mojave and I’m loving the new Dark Mode. Then I discovered Dark Reader, the Chrome extension that makes every website dark and now everything is easy on the eyes. You can toggle the extension on and off so you don’t have to commit to one mode. I find that it’s hard for me to free write on a dark screen, so I keep my Gmail and Evernote in light mode. — CD

Air travel with a head cold leads to excruciating ear pain when the plane descends, followed by three days of plugged ears. Neither the Frenzel maneuver or the Valsalva maneuver work for me. Last week I had to fly to Switzerland with a cold. I found out about this $60 gadget called Eustachi, and I brought it with me on the plane. It worked! It delivers little bursts of pressurized air through your nostril, and when you swallow, your ear will “pop.” This is a life changer. — MF

I spent a weekend assembling some cool kits that would make fun gifts for nerdy people like me. Mostly laser-cut parts with lots of gears or moving parts. My recommendations of the best kits are here. But the neatest cool and unusual kit is this small version of the 24-footed Strandbeest, which walks powered by a blast of air. At only $15, it’s a bargain. — KK

This Personal Values Assessment takes only 5 minutes to complete and it peers right into your soul. I felt naked after reading the report of what matters to me the most and essentially, what drives me. I don’t know much about where it originates from but it seems to be used as a tool for leadership and career training. Personally, I think it’s far too personal to share with just anyone. With that said, I did ask my closest friends to take the test and send me their results. It helped me understand them so much better. — CD

These YouTube keyboard shortcuts are handy, especially when watching how-to videos. For example pressing the 1 key will make the video start playing at the 10% point, pressing 2 takes you to the 20% point, and so on. The space bar pauses the video, and then you can press the period key to advance one frame at a time. — MF

As I previously recommended, Global Entry membership is a great bargain if you fly a lot. Not just homecoming international travel but for TSA-Precheck domestically. With it I rarely wait in line in US airports. Here is a very complete, free, third-party, comprehensive guide to evaluating its perks (some premium credit cards will pay for it), and navigating its bureaucratic hurdles (the best airports to get an interview), the kind of info you won’t find on the government webpage. — KK

There are plenty of grocery delivery services to choose from, but if you live in the Bay Area, I recommend Good Eggs. I’m never disappointed with the fruits and vegetables like I have been with Whole Foods in the past, or when ordering from Instacart. But mostly, I love discovering new local offerings, like delicious handmade pasta from Oakland or beautiful dried kitchen bouquets from Sonoma. Good Eggs deliveries always feels like a gift to myself. New customers can get $25 off their first order with promo code WELCOME25. — CD

These reversible micro USB cables are a miracle. Both the USB male and the micro plug can be plugged into a port without worrying which side is up. A 3 pack is $9. — MF

There are legions of TV shows using food as an excuse to travel, more focusing on history and architecture travel, but only one that I know about features gardens of the world. The host Monty Don, who is an institution in England, travels the world and in a deeply personal and sympathetic manner, uses gardens as his lens into cultures. His Netflix streaming series Italian Gardens and French Gardens are eye-opening and totally refreshing. His previous series Around the World in 80 Gardens is likewise mind-expanding. You won’t look at gardens the same. — KK

Ever since I took a sewing class I’m obsessed with how clothes are made, and now avoid buying “fast fashion” if I can. This article by BuzzFeed shows you 14 easy ways to figure out if clothing is made cheaply or not. It’s illuminating. — CD

About 8 years ago I hired someone to help my organize my stuff, after we met at my house, she told me to order some Gorilla Racks for our garage. They turned out to be a good purchase. They’re easy to assemble and sturdy. — MF

Icarus is a Netflix streaming documentary that starts out small. The director has the idea of documenting how elite bicycle racers elude doping tests by doping himself and getting tested. This leads to Russian doping experts, which in turn stumbles into the Russian doping underground, which eventually breaks into the Russian doping scandal, and as the director gets involved with newspapers and FBI, his investigations lead directly to the ban on Russian athletes in the Olympics and an international diplomatic crisis. All the while the director is filming everyone, including the Russian whistleblower, who is put into the US federal witness protection program for fear of Russian assassination. It’s a mind-boggling Oscar-winning documentary that expands bigger and bigger as it proceeds. — KK

For a dose of awe and wonder head over to Explore.org and choose from almost 100 live nature cams available at any time. There’s ocean cams, bears, gorillas, puppies and kittens and other animal sanctuaries (this sheep barn can be pretty mesmerizing to watch when they’re in for the night). Never a dull moment. — CD

Excerpts from the book, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels, by Loretta Graziano Breuning:

“Finding threats makes you feel curiously safe. When you know a lion is near, you feel safer when you can see it. We keep seeking evidence of threats, and we get a dopamine boost when we find what we seek. You may also get a serotonin boost from the feeling of being right, and an oxytocin boost if the evidence bonds you to those with similar concerns. This is why people seem oddly pleased to find evidence of doom and gloom.”

“Happy chemicals were not meant to create constant ecstasy. They were meant to steer us toward things that promote survival. When we try to get constant happiness from them, disappointment is likely.“

“Celebrating small steps triggers more dopamine than saving it all up for one big achievement.”

“Your brain will never stop trying to promote your survival. It will take what you have for granted and look for ways to get more – more rewards (dopamine), more physical security (endorphin), more social support (oxytocin), more respect (serotonin). Seeking more is risky. Your brain is constantly deciding whether it’s worth giving up some of this to get more of that.”

— MF

To encouraging blogging, Wordpress is offering free .blog subdomains. They’ll give you a “x.blog” domain name that suits your x. I registered a blog for my next photobook called Vanishing Asia and got vanishingasia.home.blog. That’s pretty good, and for free. — KK

When it comes to giving gifts to the kids in my life, I prefer to not buy toys that are trending now but will become junk in a few months. For the holidays, I’m planning on buying from the Engineering Gift Guide from Purdue, which has a lot of inspiration-inducing gifts for boys and girls ages 3-18. — CD

I love the old large format Golden Books about science, math, and technology. The color illustrations are stunning, and the text is accurate and still valid, decades after they were originally published. You can get “The Human Body: What It Is and How It Works” from 1959 for about $6. — MF

The economist Tyler Cowen has been a prolific blogger; he is now a prolific podcaster, and one of my favorite interviewers of big thinkers. A really great example of his craft is his interview of David Brooks, the political pundit and op-ed columnist at the New York Times. Their fun public conversation, recorded as a podcast, about the necessary moral dimension of life, and the role of religion in modernity, is super important, but often not talked about. But any Conversation with Tyler is engaging. — KK