Same Energy Snap/Long-sleeved wool t-shirt/Root System Drawings

Recomendo - issue #407

Thanks to Brooklyn-based designer David Stychno for our new logo design! David runs a small online shop (letrout.com) where he explores fun ways to organize and charge iPhones and accessories .

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Long-sleeved wool t-shirt

Wool T-shirts are now my goto shirt. Modern 100% merino wool fabrics are better than cotton even in topical weather. They dry quick, never smell, feel nice. Since I live in perpetual autumn, and work indoors, I wear long-sleeved wool t-shirts. Logo-less brands, such as Meriwool and Merino.tech are not expensive ($49) and offer a long sleeved T in three weights from light to heavy, and many colors. — KK

Hand-drawn root systems 

I’ve been seeing this image collection of Root System Drawings around the Internet, and they’re so cool and beautiful I feel compelled to continue sharing them widely. I don’t know much about the university or research behind it, other than they are located in the Netherlands, and that the drawings are the result of 40+ years of root system excavations across Europe. There is something about the symbolism of trees, plants and roots that I can’t put into words but resonates deeply, fostering a connection to both the Earth and my spirit. — CD 

Connections for photos

I play the NY Times’ Connections game every day, where the objective is to organize 16 words into four groups, with each group containing words that are connected to each other in some way. A game called Same Energy Snap is like Connections, but for photos instead of words. In this game, you are presented with a 4x3 grid of images, and your task is to find pairs of photos that share a similar vibe or "energy." — MF

Buy Movie Memorabilia 

Propstore.com consigns and sells entertainment memorabilia, like props, costumes, posters and other collectibles, through both Live and Online Auctions. I have not purchased or bid on anything (yet), but I enjoy browsing the website for doses of nostalgia. This weekend there is a live auction of rare and collectible posters, and I pinned some of them for design inspiration. — CD 

Quick plant identification

The built-in AI in the iPhone is now so good that you can use it to quickly identify plants, flowers, and many birds. Take a photo of your target, open it in Photos, and swipe it up. At the top of the meta information will be the species or common name. If it doesn’t know it, it gives you one button to “look up” that will usually give you an answer. It’s just about as accurate as the dedicated Seek app I was using before. — KK

The Mind (1964)

The Life Science Library was a set of 26 books published in the 1960s. Each book focused on a single topic, such as weather, the human body, or planets. My family had a set when I was a kid, and I studied them obsessively. I was as fascinated by the incredible design as I was by the text and images. My favorite of the set was The Mind, published in 1964, which explored the mysteries and complexities of perception, memory, learning, mental illness, psychoanalysis, and the nervous system. While much of the information has been superseded by later discoveries, it introduced me to many things that have stuck with me my entire life: Ames rooms, Louis Wain’s kaleidoscopic cat art, and the stunning William Kurelek painting, The Maze. Out of print, but used copies are available, and you can view it at the Internet Archive.— MF

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Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel, a podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW? and Book Freak.