Crypto is weird, perplexing, silly, revolutionary, overhyped, underhyped, a mania, thrilling, accelerating, and awash in huge oceans of money that make it very difficult to discern what is real and sustainable. I am reading The Generalist, a free website of long “briefs” written by one analyst, to parse what is happening, I still have a zillion questions about crypto, but I have gotten more clarity from here than anywhere else on this confounding subject. — KK

Claudia (CD here) is too modest to recommend this herself, but she puts out a small poetry zine printed on paper that I enjoy. Phantom Kangaroo is 26 pages of illustrated “esoteric” poetry — celebrating the mystical, paranormal, and the ecstatic — contributed by a network of poets she has cultivated the past decade. Current issue (#25) is $13. — KK

This nearly endless Reddit list of useful websites you probably don’t know about is full of gems. Here are a few I discovered:

• RSOE-EDIS is a live world map of emergencies. Icons represent fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, plane crashes, biological endemics, public safety incidents, animal attacks, and more.

• Read Something Great is a curated database of “timeless” articles.

• Flick Metrix is a list of the “top rated movies on Netflix, created by combing ratings from across the web.”

• myNoise has links to a wide variety of tunable white noise generators, ambient sounds, tinnitus reducers, and other interesting audio effects. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to a soothing soundscape called Anamnesis.

• Just the Recipe strips out everything from an online recipe besides the ingredients and instructions.

— MF

Library of Congress, the largest library in the world offers free research assistance by experts. I finally had an excuse to use their service and was blown away by how helpful they were. I had been reading History of the Conquest of Mexico written in 1890, and could not find any information for one of the cited sources which was written 300 years prior, so I submitted a request and — in less than 24 hours — I received a response from the Hispanic Division Reference Librarian who linked me to a digitized copy of the manuscript, and 5 other links to codices of Pre-Hispanic History that I would have never discovered otherwise. It’s such an invaluable resource. — CD

I will never hesitate to click on an article about productivity, because I always hope to discover at least one new way of looking at things. Here is an infographic titled How to Be Productive. In this case, it was “Assume you are right, when in doubt. Decisive is productive.” That makes sense to me. — CD

When hanging a picture, what is the best wall anchor to use? A cabinet? A shelf? It depends on several factors, including the weight of the item you are installing and the type of wall you have. Fine Woodworking’s article on choosing the right wall anchors is about as fascinating as an article about wall anchors can be. It’s worth bookmarking for future reference. — MF

The reason I dislike aprons is that they don’t cover the whole of my shirt, so grease droplets are likely to stain my sleeves and collar. I bought this short sleeve chef’s coat that buttons up to my neck. Whenever I am cooking or eating, I wear it. The idea of wearing it to restaurants is appealing to me, but my wife is not a fan of the idea. — MF

Here is one way I used to analyze my own writing that is fun, somewhat useful, and very pretty. It’s a web tool that removes all the letters of your text and leaves only the punctuation. You get a skeleton pattern of your hints and nudges in a block of symbols. Devised by Wired writer Clive Thompson, this small tool is best used after reading Thompson’s short explanation, What I Learned About My Writing By Seeing Only The Punctuation. (A link to the tool is within. Of course it can be used to analyze any other piece of text written by anyone.) I learned the most by comparing many of my different posts and pieces to see what varied. — KK

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