Adam Savage, of Mythbuster fame, is the consummate maker. I carefully follow his youtube channel, Adam Savage’s Tested, as he and his team make complicated props and unexpected odd projects. Every couple of days he will post a maker video of some sort. Adam is extraordinary in his world-class, wide-ranging craftsmanship (sewing, welding, painting, machining, woodwork, etc.) and his enthusiasm and ability to teach is stellar. I always learn something. It’s the first thing I watch at the end of the day. — KK

I love the serendipitous search results I get when using Marginalia. It is not equipped to answer questions and suggests that you “instead try to imagine some text that might appear in the website you are looking for, and search for that.” SEO-optimized sites are down-ranked and text-heavy sites are favored. If there is a concept or subject I am curious about this search engine will redirect me to blog posts and old personal websites — all of which are never disappointing and always interesting. It’s given me such a larger window to the internet and I hope it never goes away. — CD

One of the reasons I am relentlessly optimistic is that our capacity for innovation is greater than we think. Inventor Saul Griffith lays out a very optimistic plan whereby we can accomplish half of our climate goals simply by electrifying everything. Instead of burning carbon, we can use solar, wind, water, and nuclear to make electrons. Electric vehicles, stoves, furnaces, motors — all currently doable — are far more efficient than oxidizing carbon and bring compounding benefits. Griffith explains all in this readable and comprehensive new book, Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future. It is an important vision because it is feasible. — KK

Here is a fun way to look ahead: Progress. Creative coder Neal Agarwal, who creates fun digital experiences, made this page so you can visualize time remaining until the next minute, day, month, holiday, moon phase, or until the sun dies. — CD

If you broke the pull off a zipper on a jacket or bag, try these replacement zipper pulls. They have a carabiner-like spring mechanism that makes it easy to attach them to the bridge. The only downside is that they are a little larger than a regular zipper, but that can actually be a plus if you use one on a piece of luggage. — MF

This will be my third year participating in “Sober October.” The first year was really hard for me. Last year was easy. And this year, I was actually looking forward to it! I sleep better, exercise more and find myself with a lot more free time I didn’t know was possible. My favorite part of “Sober October” is socializing. I sometimes use a glass of wine to stave off social anxiety, but being fully present around friends benefits me emotionally, mentally and physically. Here are a list of 99 sober activities by The Good Trade that are productive and promote well-being. — CD

We often recommend lists of things, but this is the first time we are recommending Wikipedia’s list of lists of lists. For example, one of the list items is a list of list of nicknames. And one of the list of nicknames is list of city nicknames in the United States, which has sublists categorized by state. My hometown of Boulder, Colorado has the nickname “The People’s Republic of Boulder.” What’s the nickname of your hometown? — MF

It’s gory, with mindless cartoon violence, but it is also full of surprises, great drama, and the pleasures of the unexpected. My wife and I binged the entire first season in 5 days. It’s that good. I am speaking of the Korean thriller/drama/horror series, Squid Game, on Netflix. (You have the option of dubbed or subtitled. We went with dubbed.) — KK

I love book cover design so it was a treat to discover Ivan Checkov’s Flicker gallery of book covers from the 1900s to the 1960s. Two of my favorites are the cover for The Monster Men (1913) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, illustrated by J. Allen St. John, and the cover for A Silver Spade (1950) by Louisa Revell, illustrated by Denis McLoughlin. (This review of A Silver Spade makes me want to read it). — MF

It was always a painstaking process for me to color in between lines, and painting is too slow and methodical for my messy ways. I wish I had these Faber-Castell Watercolour Pencils when I was a kid. It’s the easiest way to watercolor paint — and the fastest! I just scribble in a little color here and there and use a water brush pen like this to transform the pigments into paint. I started with the 12 color set for around $20 and then upgraded myself to the 36 color set ($50) after I got more consistent with it. Maybe someday I’ll earn the 120-color set. — CD

A free newsletter I find myself reading more than I thought would is Money Stuff by Matt Levine. I am not that interested in finance, debt structure, bond rates, macro-economics, or really money itself, but Levine makes it so easy and clear, I can’t help reading and learning. Here is a typical sentence: ”Your job, as an investment banker, is to become close to the people who possess giant piles of money, in the hopes that one day they will do giant deals with their giant piles of money and give you some of it.” Money Stuff seems to arrive every weekday, and most days I read most of it, always learning. — KK

I love the concept of a third place — a public space that is not your home or work that can offer respite from your daily routine. Examples of third spaces can be a bookstore, pub, cafe, or park. “Third places offer a neutral public space for a community to connect and establish bonds.” Wellness blogger Patricia Mou wrote a great 3-part series on third spaces where you can learn more about the definition of third spaces and the state of them in America today, as well as their future. This past year I’ve mostly had one space, but there is a library that just re-opened within 5 blocks of me that I hope to become more familiar with. — CD

The Diamond is a gem of a short 16-minute documentary. Utterly brilliant. People come to shift though the dirt in crater looking for rough diamonds, but what are they really hunting for? Bigger things. — KK

I had a mouse that made a loud noise when I clicked it. It distracted peopled I Zoomed with, so I replaced it with a Logitech M590 Silent Touch Mouse, which hardly makes a sound, yet has the same click feel as a regular mouse. — MF

When I am wondering what’s new and good to watch on the streaming services, I go to the Variety magazine’s “what to watch” page, which is updated weekly. They cover new and recommended shows on the major streaming platforms. I can usually find one new one that interests me. — KK

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

I was glad I kept this super-lightweight A.Brolly Tube umbrella in my backpack while I was in rainy New York last week. It was so light (3 ounces) and small (8-inches unopened) that I forgot about having it until I needed it. It uses carbon fiber instead of steel for the ribs. — MF

I bookmarked this page of Bert Hubert’s spy book (fiction and non-fiction) reviews, so I can read the books later. My favorite part of the page: “Do not read any Tom Clancy to learn about intelligence agencies. Do however read this CIA-authored spoof of The Hunt for Red October. I was specifically told that ‘you aren’t truly initiated into CIA until you think that The Hunt for Red October: The Untold Story is funny.’” — MF

LingYourLanguage is a game of guessing the correct language after listening to a short audio clip. If you really want to challenge yourself, listen with your eyes closed before reading the multiple choice options. The audio clips are compiled by volunteers in an effort to share the world’s languages with a wider audience — read more about the project here. Listening to the world’s languages has a meditative quality to it and makes me feel more connected to the world itself. — CD

This is so cool. River Runner is a virtual tour of the US that follows watersheds. On the website, pick a place in the contiguous US and then it will carry you along the creeks and rivers that flow from that place until you reach the ocean. You get a photo-realistic ariel view as if you were in a drone following the rivers and passing through towns and farms. For a fantastic and fantastically long (5,000 km) tour, start almost anywhere in Wyoming. These aren’t really a tour of rivers as much as a way to tour the greater landscape of a continent. — KK