I try to limit my subscriptions to daily newsletters, but the 1-min Daily Question newsletter cannot be snoozed or ignored. Each question is a prompt to reflect on my life and goals (like what patterns am I stuck in? or what does success look like for me?). Every email redirects me to a 60-second timer that acts as a timeout from the busyness in my head. It's a short respite, but its peaceful and I appreciate the gift of clarity. — CD 

Until AI takes over search, finding exactly what you are looking for online will greatly benefit from advanced search techniques. This long document, Gwern’s Internet Search Tips, catalogs a hundred ways to increase the success rate of your googling. It is especially aimed at finding scholarly and expert sources.  I learned dozens of tricks. — KK

For the past year, I’ve been a participant of ACER Integration — an online community and framework created by clinical psychologist Dr Rosalind Watts. The program follows a year-long, nature-based integration cycle. Every new month gives me access to guided visualizations, live sharing circles via Zoom, breathwork sessions and Q&As with some of the most prominent minds and voices in the psychedelic space. The community is not a substitute for therapy and it does not encourage psychedelic use — only a deeper connection to nature, ourselves and each other. ACER stands for Accept, Connect, Embody and Relate. For me it’s been an invaluable space to integrate life experiences alongside deeply compassionate, grounded and like-minded people from all over the world. And as I wrap up my 13-month cycle, I highly recommend anyone feeling called to connect with a community like this to check out the info pack and apply. ACER opens up to new members in October and applications are now being accepted. If you do apply, be sure to mention Recomendo in your application. ACER will offer a discount to Recomendo readers who are accepted into the program. — CD

Experience the dedication of Wikipedia’s contributors through a captivating symphony of sound and graphics at Listen to Wikipedia. This live website showcases real-time changes with bells for additions, string plucks for subtractions, and pitch variations indicating edit size. Unregistered contributors' edits are marked with green circles, and automated bot activity with purple circles. Click on a circle to explore the latest changes. — MF

Wowee Zowee! The Internet Archive Design is an amazing library of inspiring graphic design documents. It bills itself as “a digital archive of graphic design related items” which includes old font catalogs, logo handbooks, cool brochures, design yearbooks, visual display, handbooks for design machines, and graphic style guides. I’ve found amazing treasures here, which I use to hatch my daily art. All are free to peruse, but you need to register a free account in order to “check out” some in-print publications from this online library. — KK

Hoodmaps is a crowdsourced map that divides cities up into areas and labels. It’s not really moderated and some might find the neighborhood generalizations offensive, but I found it accurate for the cities I’ve lived in and visited — and it made me laugh. It’s created by the person who also created Nomadlist, which is probably a more helpful resource for learning about a city. — CD 

My eyes have been itching like crazy for the last few months. I was rubbing them so hard and so often that they started to feel sore. I finally decided to try over-the-counter allergy eye drops. I bought Alaway from Bausch + Lomb, based on the many positive reviews. It contains an antihistamine, and one drop provides almost instant relief for hours. — MF

Structural Failures on Twitter is a collection of fascinating videos of collapses of buildings and towers, showing the catastrophic consequences that can result from engineering and construction mistakes. (There's no gore, but some of the videos show workers in peril.) — MF

I took The Five Senses Quiz created by Gretchen Rubin, author of “Life in Five in Senses”  and it identified my most neglected sense as Hearing. I was also given interesting suggestions on how to enhance my “neglected” sense. For starters, I’ve been ditching my AirPods when I walk my dog. I’m not accustomed to quizzes that tell me my shortcomings rather than strengths, but I appreciate becoming aware of my areas of neglect, because it motivates me towards improvement. — CD 

A new genre of experiences has emerged on YouTube. A bunch of channels offer quiet walks in high resolution. The creators hold a stabilized high def camera with binaural audio and walk around Tokyo at night, or Times Square in snow, or London in the rain, or the back alleys of New Delhi, all without narration. I can hear the ambient sounds and see all the ordinary things usually edited out of sizzle reels.  It really feels like I am there. These virtual walks allow me to travel without traveling. Some folks just watch for the soothing calm it gives them. I enjoy the tiny distinctive details of places I am “returning” to and a way to check out places I’d like to go. There are dozens if not hundreds of channels, often specializing in regions. A few I watch: Nomadic Ambience (NYC, Japan, Iceland), Virtual Japan (Japan),  Watched Walker (London, Paris, Spain), Keezi Walks (India, China, Vietnam, South America). Google “quiet virtual walk” for your destination. — KK

This online collection of motivational videos made by artist Michelle Ellsworth are incredibly intimate and funny and comforting to watch. They offer advice on personal problems and creative struggles and interpersonal relationships. They are unedited and around 2-5 minutes long. It doesn’t seem to be updated and not all the videos load, but it’s worth spending some time on if you need something uplifting. I clicked on a few titles that grabbed me and each one made me smile and made me feel more forgiving toward myself. — CD

U.S. passport holders are allowed to visit countries in the Schengen area (which comprises most of Europe) for up to 90 days in a 180 day period. That can become tricky to calculate for digital nomads and other frequent travelers, but a free iPhone app called the Schengen Calculator makes it easy to see how many days you have remaining. Schengen Calculator Free is a similar app for Android. — MF

One of my favorite living artists is Tauba Auerbach. I first encountered her work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she had a solo show at the age of 40. There is a nerd appeal to her work. She enjoys knots, new materials, geometry, calligraphy, camouflage, glass blowing, weaving patterns, all in service of beautiful surprises. She is a good follow on Instagram, and is worth a trip out of your way to see her exhibits. — KK

Running on Netflix, this 4-part nature documentary is extraordinary. Chimp Empire closely follows the largest known band of wild chimpanzees as individual chimps struggle to prosper, while their tribe wages war with other tribes for food resources. The intimacy you get is stunning. (It is directed by the same guy who did My Octopus Teacher.) Love triangles, betrayal, misfits, mafia bosses, murder. The personalities and drama are shockingly familiar. It is the chimpanzee equivalent of The Game of Thrones. I sure hope they keep it going with future seasons. — KK

Mind Window is an app developed by researchers at the University of Arizona that gives you insight and data on your thought patterns. Every day I get six prompts at random times to reflect on what I just thinking about. The app generates a word cloud of my thoughts and tracks my mood and what I most commonly focus my attention on. By using the app you consent to participate in their research study. Personal information is stored anonymously and securely, and participants may edit or remove their personal information at any time. I’ve only been using it for 5 days but some things I learned about myself is that my thoughts are split 50/50 between Future focus and Present focus (not Past), and right now my word cloud is made up of: Thinking, Love, Future, Weather, Feeling, Waking, Moment and Energy. — CD

Stable Diffusion just launched Stable Doodle, a free website that converts simple sketches into detailed art using generative AI. It’s addictively fun. Here’s a sketch I made and the result when I asked it to turn it into a “Hosukai print of a monstrous mule-tiger ascending Mt Fuji.” — MF

The Real-time Air Quality Index displays a map showing the live readings of air quality sensors around the world. You can look up any city you are interested in, or view rankings of different countries. The last time I checked, Bahçelievler, Türkiye is experiencing the worst air quality (537: hazardous) and Ciudad Guayanam, Venezuela has the best (5, good). — MF

When I want to understand dense subjects, I just visit Simple Wikipedia. All the entries are written in shorter sentences with easier words. The site is designed for children, adults with learning difficulties or for those trying to learn English, but for me it’s a great way to grasp complex topics, like how nuclear weapons are built and work. It doesn’t work with all pages, but sometimes replacing the “en” with “simple” in the URL will redirect to you the Simple English Wikipedia. — CD 

When I’m installing picture hangers, toilet roll holders, curtain rails and the like onto walls, I often end up with loose wall anchors in the drywall. To address this, I use Wetnfix — plaster-coated gauze discs. Simply dip one in water, wrap it around the loose anchor, and insert it back into the hole. Within three minutes, the anchor is secured and ready for a screw. There's a helpful video available that demonstrates this process. — MF

We’ve recommended Anker superchargers before; they will charge phones and computer devices really fast. Now, even better is a four-slotted Anker 747 supercharger, which can handle three USB-C cords (the emerging universal standard plug) and one classic USB. This is ideal for traveling, particularly for more than one user, with multiple devices (phone, Kindle, watch, laptop).  I used to carry a homemade squid with multiple chargers from one outlet, but this fist-size cube is much more compact, simple, and faster. It can charge up to four devices in a jiffy. — KK