World of Interiors/Elemental videos/Anxiety Toolkit
Recomendo - issue #481
Look inside people’s houses.
World of Interiors is a website featuring photos of rooms in people’s homes and shops. It’s exciting and inspirational. Look at these: dining chairs painted like the game pick-up sticks; a pop-art office with a cartoon tiger rug, overflowing books lining walls and staircases, and a collection of Zulu hats on an attic wall. — MF
Elemental videos
I have a thing for the elements – the diverse atoms that make up the world. I think more of them should be better known. I’ve previously recommended Elements ($10), the best book on this realm, but the second best resource is Periodic Videos, a channel of 118 videos arranged in the form of a periodic table of the elements. Click on each box in the grid to get a free, brief, informative lesson on what is special about this unique element. — KK
Anxiety Toolkit
This website offers a helpful collection of tools for managing anxiety, including breathing exercises, sensory techniques, calming visualizations, and sound therapy. Each exercise is just a few minutes long and requires no special equipment. I appreciate that the site also explains the science behind each technique, along with advice on when to use them and what you might notice. — CD
Magnetic necklace clasps
I’ve been replacing some of my necklace clasps with these magnetic closures, and they’re such a time- and hassle-saver. The magnets are strong enough to hold the weight of my heaviest pendant. — CD
Solar trail cam
I installed my first trail cameras in the early 1990s hoping to capture the elusive mountain lion in the hills behind our house. Back then trail cams were cumbersome film cameras with only 36 shots before you had to change rolls. It was expensive to develop and a chore to constantly replenish and keep the film and batteries replaced. Today you can get solar powered digital trail cams that have cell connections and display the images from remote locations instantly on your phone. (These are outlawed for hunting purposes in some states.) There is a whole range of intermediate, inexpensive digital trail cams that will pair with your nearby phone. I use a solar powered Vidvis 4K trail cam ($49) in my pursuit of wild animals passing through our neighborhood. It also works at night with invisible infrared flash. Every once in a while I walk up to it and wirelessly download its stored images. It’s always charged, and I can fit a year of still photos on one card. I’ve caught lots of critters passing through, but alas, still no mountain lion. — KK
Kitchen timer with silent mode
The timer app on a phone is not helpful in the kitchen. You have to prop it up to see the time, the screen goes dark after a few minutes, and if your hands are wet, it makes the app unresponsive to your finger. I use a battery-powered 60-minute Searon Kitchen Timer. The visual analog display is easy to read from a distance. It can be set on the counter, attached to the refrigerator, or mounted on the wall. It also has a mute button — when the time is up, an LED blinks until you tap the top of the timer. — MF
THIS ISSUE IS SPONSORED BY HEURISTICA
All-in-one AI platform for learning and research. Create concept maps, flashcards, quizzes, notes, summarize YouTube videos, and chat with AI to explore complex ideas. Heuristi.ca brings study tools together to help you organize knowledge and boost retention. Try it for free.
Recomendo Unclassified Ads work! Reach over 121,000 subscribers for just $200.
UNCLASSIFIEDS
9 Hidden Perks of Your Amazon Prime Membership. Are you taking advantage of your Amazon Prime perks? Amazon Prime offers much more than just free shipping! Discover 9 Prime benefits you should be using.
Save these links in Eyeball and we'll give them superpowers. Every Sunday morning, receive a beautifully written recap about what you saved, what's truly important, what might be worth revisiting. Free, minimal, easy to use, and created by a writer.
This Product Comparison Tool allows you to thoroughly evaluate side-by-side what product you should buy so you can enter the store ready to buy without being sold by sales associates. We are looking for people to Beta test an early (fully functional) version and provide feedback. Try it here
Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please 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.
I use my phone a ton for kitchen timing (or just ask the google wifi or siri to set a timer) as well as referencing recipes. One thing i have found as I move back and forth from chopping to washing things to managing the stovetop is my ability to start using my knuckles and sometimes the tip of my nose as a clutch when my hands are otherwise occupied or wet. Usually there is one knuckle that is still dry enough to tap on the screen with. Also, the phone case I have (quadlock, amazing on so many levels) has maglock and incorporates magnets strong enough to mount my phone on a metal surface facing me. I love gadgets but try to use my phone in as many creative ways as possible before having to augment.
Kitchen timer? Just use Amazon echo. We just use verbal commands. You can ask it how long is left on the timer. And you can have multiple timers going at once.