Retro Recomendo: Followable
Recomendo - issue #508
Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we’re trying out something new — Retro Recomendo. Once every 6 weeks, we’ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 9 years.
Home DIY videos
How To Home is a YouTube channel with excellent videos that demonstrate how to complete common household repairs, such as wiring switches, fixing faucet leaks, and threading wire through walls and ceilings. Unlike many DIY videos, these feature high-quality audio, are well-lit, and aren’t blurry. — MF
Culinary curiosities from around the world
Gastro Obscura is an Instagram account with photos and descriptions of unusual foods from around the world. You’ll find Japanese cream puffs that look like kittens, fruit that looks like an exploding planet, fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding, and lots more. It gave me a greater appreciation for just how diverse the world’s culinary options can be. — MF
Laugh out loud caricatures
Watch these sidewalk artists in Waikiki draw extreme caricatures of customers, and their customers’ hysterical reactions. The drawings are much more exaggerated than typical caricatures, yet they look uncannily like the subjects. I was laughing along with the people who bravely sat for the drawings. A guaranteed mood lifter. — MF
Quick research explainers
Two Minute Papers is a YouTube channel featuring short videos (sometimes 5 minutes long) created by a professor who reviews new research papers in visual programming, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer graphics, simulations, and other state-of-the-art computer science. He explains the research’s significance, while running very cool graphics demo-ing the results. I find it a painless way to keep up in this fast-moving field. — KK
Strange images
The Instagram account Welcome.jpeg calls itself a digital museum. It’s kinda art, kinda meme, kinda kitsch, kinda weirdo. It collects oddball, strange, unorthodox, found images and delivers these misfits as little visual collections. It’s my guilty pleasure. — KK
Joyful social media
I’ve intentionally cut down on my social media time, but there’s one account I never scroll past because it always makes me smile: Official Stick Reviews on Instagram. It’s the internet’s go-to spot for stick reviews submitted from around the world. Initially, I thought it was satire, but I soon realized the enthusiasm for finding cool sticks is both genuine and contagious. Here’s a good example. — CD
THIS ISSUE IS SPONSORED BY INCOGNI
The BBC exposed scam call center workers laughing as they tricked victims on hidden camera. One bragged about making $250k. The reason they find targets so easily? Your personal data is sold by brokers online. Incogni removes it automatically, monitors new exposures, and keeps deleting it. Protect yourself today and get 58% off with code RECOMENDO.
UNCLASSIFIED ADS
You’re probably paying for subscriptions you forgot about. The average American spends over $200/month on subscriptions but only uses about half of them. Here’s how to find every recurring charge and cancel the ones you don’t need. Read the full guide.
Your Amazon Prime membership comes with more benefits than you might realize. Are you using all 9 hidden perks? Maximize your membership! Whether you’re already a Prime member or considering signing up, here are 9 Prime member benefits you should be using!
Omix creates adaptive music that responds to your focus in real time — ideal for deep work, coding, writing, or study. Mac app with a small footprint and customizable soundscapes. Try it free for 14 days with code RECOMENDO. No credit card needed.
Recomendo Ads work! Reach over 125,000 subscribers for just $350.
Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others. Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.