Recently I’ve been getting a lot of “wrong number / wrong name” texts that are obviously spam. Here is a great explanation of what the intended scam is. By Max Read. — KK

As a frequent user of Google Docs, I appreciated these tips from the Wonder Tools newsletter. For instance, you can display a live word count at Tools > Word count and checking “Display word count while typing.” — MF

The go-to source for physical puzzles is Puzzle Masters in Canada. They have everything, including lots of Japanese puzzles: Puzzle boxes, puzzle locks, jig saw puzzles, rubik’s cubes of all varieties, magic puzzles, toys, collectible puzzles, all very high quality. — KK

Language evolves fast and it’s easy to slip up and say the wrong thing. Language, please is an up-to-date resource for writers navigating sensitive subjects like trauma, substance use, race, disabilities, gender, etc. I searched for the word “homeless” and I agree that “people without housing,” or a “person experiencing homelessness” is a lot less stigmatizing and a better term to use. — CD

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

Even if you’re not a copywriter, knowing the psychology of persuasive speech is helpful for everyone. We all write emails, and sometimes we have to sell people on ourselves or ask for something. Nick Kolenda created this 7-minute video on clever techniques in copywriting to boost sales. He explains how to replace vagueness with concrete examples, positive framing, and how to create mental imagery in the reader by adjusting the distance between words. It’s interesting and informative and I’ll probably rewatch it a few times. — CD

My new door mat greets guests with a cheery message. The natural fiber welcome mat says: YOU LOOK GOOD. Visitors enter with a smile on their face. — KK

Laundry Lens is an iPhone-only app that scans the inscrutable laundry care symbols on clothing tags and translates them into English. It’s free and doesn’t display ads. Here’s the result of my T-shirt label scan. — MF

My husband and I are planning to move out of California in 5 years and have been traveling to other states to check them out. We still haven’t agreed on a place, but I recently discovered this MoveMap which makes things easier. I filtered by my criteria: avoid drought, mountains within an hour, airport within two hours and a lot of sun. What I get back is select counties in Arizona and Colorado and most of Utah — as well as Santa Clara County, which is where I live now. — CD

I use this Baseten web page app to restore old family photos. The engine only focuses on faces, making them shaper and skin smoother, but sometimes that is all that is needed. I upload my old photo, restore in 15 seconds and then download. Works pretty well, sometimes perfectly, in color and black and white. Free. — KK

When I was 12 I built a chemistry lab in my basement and have been doing chemistry since. But I learned more about chemistry from reading this trio of books by Theodore Gray than anything ever learned in school. That’s surprising because these volumes appear to be photo books, full of pictures of metal chunks, high-speed shots of chemical reactions, and photos of everyday stuff. But woven through these unusual photographs are the best explanations of how and why chemistry works. The best looking of the three is The Elements, a hundred portraits of our universe’s true heroes; the most informative and fun for me is Reactions, which reveals why matter works. Advance onto Molecules if you like these. I read them all with wonder. — KK

The Small Fish Metal Brain Teasers set contains 6 bent metal puzzles. The challenge is to separate the interlocked pieces. One of ​​the puzzles is very easy to solve, making it a good starter challenge for a kid. The harder ones have resisted hours of my effort to solve them. The puzzles are made from heavy metal and won’t discolor your hands like cheaper bent wire puzzles. Comes with a cloth bag to hold them. — MF

I love poring over this gallery of physical visualizations. Each artifact is a representation of data from our history dating back to Mesopotamian Clay Tokens from 5500 BC. Some of them are so interesting and beautiful, like the brainwave weaving of dreamers, or this Yakima Time Ball meant to record major life events. Others are useful like this abacus ring from the Qing Dynasty, or mysterious, like South American Quipus. Maybe not useful, but really cool are these 3D-Printed Thoughts. There’s currently 370 artifacts listed — all of them equally captivating. — CD

WeCrashed is the 8-part mini-series on Apple TV about the astounding rise and subsequent crash of WeWork, the office sharing company. It’s heavily fictionalized, but nonetheless a gripping drama about the kind of magical belief that is needed to do something big. I was very sympathetic at the beginning. This roller coaster movie is well-done, very convincing, incredibly watchable and all the more compelling because the protagonist, Adam Neumann, is back this week in real life with an even bigger scheme, which another billionaire funded for $350 million at day one. Watch this series to see where the real season 2 might go. — KK

You can be creative and destroy less books by using this web app Blackout Poetry Maker created by Emma Winston. You can choose from 3 sample texts or copy and paste your own custom text. I used excerpts from my diary and created this poem I call “All the unknowns are outlined.” — CD

I have paid subscriptions to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Medium, and others. Some of the publications let you share individual stories to friends who don’t have subscriptions, but some have strict paywalls. When I want to share a paywalled article, I paste the URL into Archive Today. It creates a snapshot of the article and generates a shareable URL. — MF

50hacks.co is a crowdsourced lists of the best productivity hacks written and upvoted by users. No account is necessary to contribute, just scroll to the bottom and click on “+ Add Hack.” I just upvoted this one:

Send yourself an email at the end of the day on Friday with a short list of priorities to get started on come Monday morning. Don’t overthink it - just the top half a dozen things on your mind.

—CD

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

Dru Riley has put together a list of 100 useful rules for making life more rewarding. — MF

Samples:

• “Read and listen to whatever you’re most interested in.” — We get more out of what interests us. Find something that you enjoy reading instead of struggling through books.

• “IDK = No” — If you’re uncertain, the answer should probably be no.

• “Don’t make them think.” — Make it obvious.

• “Price affects risk.” — If an experiment is cheap, just do it. The more the price goes up, the more you should reconsider.