This is fun, and worth a few minutes glance: Creativity in the form of archived web pages from the dawn of the internet. When the web was first sprung upon the world in the 1990s, anybody could make a website themselves, but no pages had yet been made so there was no agreement on what a website should look like, then suddenly a million people created millions of websites without designers, but stuffed with colors, fonts, icons, animations, pictures, infinite scrolls, no limits. The exuberance is boundless. Someone selected the best from this wild big bang and merged it into one page. It’s our era’s folk art. — KK

My next-door neighbor has one of water fountains for pets says his cats love it. Cats seem to be naturally drawn to the sound and look of running water, and they’ll often drink from a fountain when they’d ignore a regular bowl. This one is made of stainless steel, so there are no seams or plastic crevices for bacteria to hide in, and it’s dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning. It holds 74oz, enough to keep multiple cats watered for days, and a window on the side lets you check the level without lifting the lid. The 5V pump runs quietly, and it comes with three activated-carbon filters. — MF

Bless the bird lovers who take the time to make lists like this. Robert Francis ranked the 100 greatest bird names of all time, and my affinity for the bird kingdom keeps deepening the more I meet. They’re all so cute, and I wish I could hold them rather than scroll through them. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but based on names and cuteness combined, #96 Handsome Fruiteater beats out the rest. — CD

Before I edited Wired magazine, I edited the Whole Earth Review (formerly CoEvolution Quarterly). It was a magazine for conceptual news. We published new ideas. Since its demise, blogs and Substack in general have taken up that role. But starting a few years ago, a new magazine has appeared that is the closest replacement to Whole Earth. Called Works in Progress, published by the payments company Stripe, its mission is to disseminate “new and underrated ideas to improve the world.” Broadly the articles cover technology, science, building stuff, policy, and cultural innovations, but always with a slant on making progress, moving forward, a sense of optimism about what is possible. They publish new ideas. A couple of examples from recent issues: vaccinating wild animals, creating a rat-free city, using micro-bubbles to deliver drugs. Works in Progress is the only magazine I get delivered on paper; I enjoy reading its designed pages, and getting the extra bits you don’t get online. All the main articles are online for free, and also available as a Substack subscription. Their treasure trove of back issues has more new ideas per minute than anywhere else I know. — KK

I’ve been looking for a replacement Pomodoro app for over a year, ever since my old browser extension stopped being supported. After trying a few that all wanted subscriptions or felt too distracting, I finally found a truly free one called Breaks. It runs quietly in the Mac menu bar, is easy to use, and lets me customize my focus and break times. — CD

Kids are so naturally creative they should be our art teachers. And their creativity is boundless as long as you don’t hamper them by calling the assignment making “art.” It’s more fun than that. Those two premises enliven artist Austin Kleon’s newest book, Don’t Call It Art. Kleon’s mission is encouraging creativity in kids and adults by means of stories, reminders, examples, and bits of his own art. His little tome is charming and inspirational. — KK

Far Out Company is a curated archive of 1960s–70s counterculture visual art — concert posters, TV shows, underground newspapers, commune newsletters, comix, hippie business advertisements, and album art. I love the DIY design aesthetic of this era: hand-lettered type, day-glo colors, psychedelic illustrations. Artists and designers like Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, and Milton Glaser were doing world-class work for free newspapers. It’s a good resource for design inspiration or a trippy rabbit hole to fall into. — MF

Searchable Attenborough is a nature documentary archive that has indexed nearly 5,000 episodes across 90 of David Attenborough’s series. You can search by animal, habitat, location, natural phenomenon, or theme, and it accurately points you to the streaming service where you can watch. It feels like having direct access to learning about Earth and all its kingdoms. — CD

I have recently been enjoying a tool I did not know I needed in my workshop. It’s a no-name high powered blower. When working in a shop, there is a constant need to clean away bits, sawdust, shavings, and other detritus that accumulate on a surface or tool. One blast from this and it is all sent to the floor. This replaces air hoses, or even other dedicated blowers because it fits onto any of the cordless batteries I already own, and because it is charged it is always handy. It also works for cleaning up patios and driveways. This delight in blowing stuff clean might be a dad thing. So I nominate this as a very dad-ish Father’s Day gift. Get one that fits his particular color batteries. — KK

My sister has one of these Nightstick rechargeable floodlights and uses it for crawlspaces and poking around the yard after dark. It throws a strong beam — 600 lumens on high, 225 on low — and the single push-button switch is easy to find by feel. What makes it extra useful are the three built-in magnets and the detachable hook, which rotates 360 degrees so you can clamp it onto a pipe, car hood, or garage door and work hands-free. It recharges from either AC or DC power. — MF

Johnny Webber put together a great list of resources for anyone contemplating purchasing or building their own Writer Deck, a single-purpose, distraction-free writing device. I still use my AlphaSmart Neo2, which I recommended in 2019 when you could still find them super cheap on Amazon, and the tactile keyboard feels so satisfying to type on while the battery life lasts for months and months. Someday I might invest in a newly made writer deck, but for now this works. — CD

Obsessive effort spent on ridiculous memes, over-the-top projects about stupid things, absurd seriousness about nonsense. Also meticulous craftsmanship at scale: these are the hallmarks of art projects by Sunday Nobody, a young “meme artist” who posts on YouTube and Instagram. For a recent example of his gonzo projects, watch his Taco Bell Funeral. To finance his performances he sells limited editions of his very collectable art. His real art is the whole nerdy process. — KK

I’ve been wearing the RingConn Gen 3 and the Oura Ring 4 side by side for over a week, and their core tracking is nearly identical — sleep profiles, heart rate, and other vital signs all line up closely between the two. So on accuracy, it’s basically a wash. But I prefer the RingConn for two reasons: it doesn’t charge a $6/month subscription to see your own data, and it lets you export that data — neither of which Oura allows. The RingConn also has vibration alerts for a low battery, too much sitting, and other health nudges (you can silence them while sleeping). The one thing Oura does better: a small dimple that lets you orient the sensors toward your palm. The RingConn lacks that, so it sometimes rotates, and I’m not sure it’s reading accurately. — MF

The hosts of a great podcast we have featured on Recomendo before, Acquired, conclude each of their 3-hour episodes about legendary companies with several personal recommendations each. These could be any apps, books, destinations, shows, apparel, or devices they have personally enjoyed in the last month. They have good taste, lots of variety and a wide range, over their 10-year run. This sounds familiar! They call these reviews, “carve outs” (not connected to the show’s topic) but they are really Acquired’s version of Recomendo. I’ve found some good stuff this way. — KK

Storied Colors is nerdy and delightful. More than 250 colors are indexed and searchable so you can read the stories behind their origin, chemistry and use. This is especially meaningful to me because not only do I pride myself on knowing the various names for different shades of color, but when I was a young weird kid, instead of playing with dolls, I would play with my box of crayons as characters, assigning personalities based on their color. Color has always been a portal to the imaginal for me, rather than just a simple tint. There’s a mention on their website of an upcoming newsletter version that you can sign up for. — CD

Mechanical-pencil.com reminds me of the Way Things Work book I loved as a kid, but with 3D animations that make it even more illuminating. Mechanical engineer and artist Bryan Macomber tears down familiar objects — a Pilot G2 retractable pen, a Zippo lighter, a Pez dispenser, a BIC mechanical pencil — and walks you through how each one works, part by part. Watching the push-push mechanism inside a clicky pen click into place is genuinely satisfying. I hope Bryan keeps adding to this series. — MF

My father kept recommending Frans G. Bengtsson’s novel The Long Ships to me, but I kept putting it off. As soon as I started reading it, I was enthralled. This 1941 Swedish classic follows Red Orm, a Danish boy abducted by Vikings, through galley slavery, Moorish Spain, battles in England, and treasure hunts along Russian rivers. It’s funny, exciting, and endlessly inventive. If you liked Game of Thrones, Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Jack Vance, you’ll probably love it too. Novelist Michael Chabon, who wrote the introduction, says he’s only ever met three other people who knew the book — and all of them, like him, “loved it immoderately.” — MF

Cosmos is a visual search engine like Pinterest, except it’s ad‑free (right now), which makes it a quieter, calmer place to gather and collect thematic images. There are no likes or comments, so it feels less like social media and more like a private gallery for drafting up mood boards and visual worlds. — CD

A common parenting challenge when traveling or visiting with small children: a bib is too bulky to carry around, but meals without it are a mess. First world solution: disposable bibs. Light, cheap, does the job, toss when done. $7 for 20. — KK

Two of my favorite new podcasts are produced by co-authors of one of the most notable books of last year, Abundance. The book argues for dynamic governance and a liberalism that builds stuff. Each author now has their own podcast. The Ezra Klein Show is in your standard interview format, but with an unexpected range of subjects, all cast through Klein’s sharp mind and extensive background. The conversations are reliably good. Derek Thompson’s Plain English show is a scripted narrative that researches interesting questions. His episodes are more like an audible magazine with more than one interviewee. I rate my podcasts on how often they surprise me, and Plain English is usually surprising. — KK