Paper2Audio / Infinite Slop / Identify Feather Tool

Recomendo - issue #531

Easy text to audio

Paper2Audio converts text documents into audio files. Feed it a PDF, EPUB, plain text, Word document, or URL, and in a few minutes it generates an audio file playable on your computer or a smartphone app. The free version satisfies my needs: up to 56 hours of audio per week, a variety of AI voices, adjustable listening speed, and a reader view so you can read along while listening. The plus plan, $9.50 a month, gives you 168 hours a week and lets you export audio files. I haven’t needed to do that yet. — MF

Endless slop

Wow, a whole new genre is emerging: real-time AI video generation. Exhibit A is Infinite Slop, which calls itself “an endless AI-generated TV channel that chat decides what airs next.” Thousands of commenters vote up prompts in response to what is playing, and new video is generated instantly, soliciting more prompts, ad infinitum, in a cycle. The result is a 24-hour stream of absurd, surreal, bizarre, silly, astounding, meme-maxing video slop from the hive mind – that is also weirdly mesmerizing, and even satisfying. Hard to look away. Some bits are genius. The new ability to generate video as fast as you can watch it will be used in other ways, such as in games, but this infinite slop is the first crude step as performance art. It is one week old and already has millions of fans and ads. — KK

Identify Feather Tool

For the past couple months, I’ve been photographing feathers I find on my favorite hiking trail and feeding each one to AI for identification. No matter the markings, colors, or patterns, it kept telling me they belonged to a turkey. Turns out there are a lot of different-looking turkey feathers. But then I found one I was certain was from a Cooper’s hawk, and AI called it a turkey again. I got a more accurate ID from The Feather Atlas, a database run by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Its Identify Feather Tool lets you narrow things down by pattern, color, and size until you land on a match, and it confirmed what I was hoping for. The interface is clunky, but I like that it isn’t AI. — CD

Better box cutter

The Slice 10400 Box Cutter is a utility knife with a curved design that lets you cut open boxes more stably, as the curved part rests on the box while you cut. You can adjust the blade to 3 different positions. The 1st position extends the blade slightly, which is good for cutting the tape on a box without worrying about cutting through the cardboard and into the contents. When you extend the blade further, it’s good for breaking down larger cardboard boxes. The blades are ceramic rather than metal, and Slice claims they last 20 times as long as a metal blade. I’m not sure, since I haven’t had it long enough to test that, but the ergonomics alone make it worth it. — MF

Small-space design tricks

I’m getting my garage replaced with a 410-square-foot studio guest house in my backyard, and I want it to feel as spacious as possible for visitors, so this article with five clever design tricks for making small homes look bigger got instantly bookmarked. The tips are basically this: get furniture off the floor, float pieces away from the walls, hang curtains higher and wider than the window, commit to one color throughout, and size furniture to the room to avoid the “dollhouse effect,” where too many small pieces make a room feel more cluttered instead of bigger. We’re installing a Murphy bed to help free up floor space, and I’m most intrigued by the tip to float furniture by pulling sofas, chairs, and tables away from the walls, leaving 18 to 24 inches of walking room behind them. Apparently that gap creates the illusion of depth by introducing more light, shadow, and overlapping sight lines, so I think I’ll try that out. — CD

Story lessons

One of the best tutorials on story writing I know is this hour-long YouTube lecture by the author of Toy Story 3. He explains Pixar’s story process – which anyone can borrow – and then goes through all the ways he failed and the lessons he learned from finally getting it right. The coolest parts of this lecture, Toy Story 3, Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned, are that he shows very early versions of the film that clearly don’t work, despite months of work. The general lesson of creating things iteratively applies to all art forms. As a bonus, you get a master class on how the story of Toy Story works, and why it’s so powerful. — KK

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Multi-charger Plugs/Crash With Couchers/Changing Travel Demands

Nomadico issue #223

Multi-charger Options for European Plugs

Four years ago I mentioned these travel extension cords with multiple plugs that I use when taking a checked bag to Europe, but this time I’m in the ‘Stans with just a carry-on and didn’t have room. So I did what I’ve advised before in this newsletter: went to the local market and found an appropriate adapter after landing. Around $2.10 later in Almaty, I had a small device that can accommodate a U.S. plug and two USB cords at once. It’s handy since European-style outlets seldom get installed as doubles and I have yet to find a hotel or apartment in Central Asia that has upgraded to USB chargers. The one I got looks sort of like this if you want to plan ahead and that one’s a bit better if you use USB-C to USB-C cords a lot.

The Return of the Couchsurfing Experience

Are you old enough to remember Couchsurfing? It was a cool community platform for finding places to crash for free around the world… until it wasn’t. The founders turned it into a for-profit venture in 2011 and it quickly went downhill. Now there’s an offering with the same original spirit called Couchers. It’s a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and you can sign up as a host, a coucher, or just find the meet-ups, all for free. See more about it here.

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The “Best” Places to Live Are Subjective

Every week or two I get an e-mail about some study showing the best or worst places to live abroad. Usually it is funded by a brand or a digital PR firm working for a brand, an attempt to have stories picked up and get mentions/links. The people writing it are crunching whatever stats they can find from behind a desk, with the aid of AI. One received this week told me that two of the places rated highest by nomads actually booking apartments—Medellin and Da Nang—were among the 10 worst places to live in the world. (No, I’m not linking to it!) It’s a reminder not to take these studies at face value, especially when the methodology is flawed. The only real way to find out if a place is perfect for you or a “Get me out of here” nightmare is to go there and spend some real time on location. You might hate Da Nang in the end, but decide for yourself based on your own criteria.

2026 Traveler Trends

A more reliable study is this one from TripAdvisor that looked at six months of booking data for day tours to tell us what’s changing in the patterns. Experiences with real locals are overtaking the check-the-box sightseeing jaunts, though somehow already packed Vatican City tours saw a 61% increase. Percentages are deceiving since those with a lower starting level have more room to run, but the activities rated the highest are on an even playing field. The highest-ranked global ones over six months were cooking classes, surfing/windsurfing, craft classes, and activities on two wheels. See the options where you’re headed here.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

What’s in my NOW? — Dana Lee

issue #270

I’m a UX researcher, yoga teacher, dog parent, and Jersey Girl living in Brooklyn. Hopefully without it being too cringy, I’ve been interested in AI Safety and exploring the overlap between Eastern and Yogic philosophy and AI Safety, which I write about on my substack.

PHYSICAL

• I’ve had my retainer since high school (it’s glow in the dark and has polka dots) and my dentist says it’s in great shape. So, I feel like I can share a thing or two about upkeep. My secret weapon is my ultrasonic cleaner! Great for my night guard, retainer, and rings. It works for glasses too. I used to clean my night guard and retainer by brushing them, but then I learned that my dentist uses a professional ultrasonic cleaner in the office, I looked into seeing how much it would cost for home use. Consumer ultrasonic cleaners are not very expensive, have so many use cases, and don’t require you to buy tablets (I just add water).
• Bug bite thing. It’s summer. It’s humid, and there are so many mosquitoes out that want to eat me. I stepped out the door yesterday for a walk around the block and returned with 10 bites. After much research, I kept seeing the bug bite thing pop up but I didn’t think this thing would work. It seems too simple to work! But then I decided to just try it and it really helps. It sucks out the mosquito saliva to make it less itchy. I still have the bites but they aren’t miserable to live with. Highly suggest trying. Note: You do need to use it while the bites are fairly fresh for it to work
• My CSA share. Great way to support a local farm and to eat well. I also volunteer with the CSA to help with making sure my neighborhood distribution happens. It’s been a fun way to learn about food and to get to know others in the neighborhood. I’ve given my share to friends when we’re traveling, and they all agree that it’s some of the best produce they’ve ever had! Also, the Blomgrens, who run the farm, are incredibly kind and knowledgeable, and they power their organic farm with electricity. It’s so cool to get my groceries from a farm I’ve actually visited and where the farmers know my name. Highly suggest finding a local CSA to join.

DIGITAL

• Wordle. I’m late to the trend but my husband and I have been playing it together for the last few months. It’s been so fun to have this time boxed game activity we do together. We alternate who gets to pick the first word. It’s the little things in life!
• Perfectly Imperfect is such a fun website. It feels like MySpace! Ever miss the old internet? Also, I love a good recommendation (and I assume you do too, if you’re here).

INVISIBLE

Sonnet IV from Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus

Don’t be afraid to suffer; return
that heaviness to the earth’s own weight;
heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

Even the small trees you planted as children
have long since become too heavy; you could not
carry them now. But the winds…But the spaces….

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Weird Love / The Marvels

Issue No. 134

WEIRD LOVE – THE WARM BLANKET OF HISTORY HAS SWADDLED THESE ROMANCE COMICS IN LUDICROUSNESS

Weird Love
by Joe Gill (author) and various artists
IDW
2015, 160 pages, 7.6 x 9.9 x 0.9 inches

Buy on Amazon

I’m willing to bet that your relationships with significant others aren’t as convoluted or mind-boggling as the ones you will find in this collection of love comics from decades past. I know that because I’m also willing to bet that you are more culturally evolved than your ancestral fictional characters that populated these four-color pages culled from the heyday of making women feel bad about pretty much everything. That’s what makes this collection so ridiculous. Weird Love gives us a glimpse into a time when the needle on the social gauge floated somewhere between “rampant sexism encouraged” and “casual sexism customary.”

While these stories probably weren’t intended to be comedic at the time, the warm blanket of history has swaddled them in ludicrousness. We have no analog for the petty, unflappable dickishness of the men, nor of the frank, almost callous lack of agency of the women depicted in the pages of Weird Love. Soap opera seems only a vague comparison, for soap opera tends to be at least a little self-aware. Nor can you compare it fairly to modern prose romance, for I would have to assume that modern romance writers likely enjoy what they do. The most important thing to remember about Weird Love is that literally all of these comics were written and drawn by middle-aged white men. They were either guys who typically wrote western, crime, horror, sci-fi, and superhero comics and liked doing those, or guys for whom creating comics was just kind of a job. Once you realize that, these stories start to make a kind of sense, in a middle-aged white-guy-from-the-50s kind of sense.

Another thing to keep in mind: these comics had only so many pages in which to lay down some groundwork, plow through some conflict, and happily resolve their various entanglements, sometimes in a bizarre turn of events but always with a moral takeaway. Once you know these things, Weird Love can be enjoyed as a rich, velvety farce, veritably stuffed with melodrama, and featuring selections such as “You Also Snore, Darling,” “Slave to Despair,” and “Weep Clown, Weep!” Despite the clown-based love story, the highlight of this book, for me, was the political drama, “I Fell for a Commie.” In this lovely little Red Scare of a tale, the heroine makes the decision to join up with a group of communist sympathizers because she’s fallen real hard for a guy in the group – hard enough to go through the motions of being indoctrinated just so she can spend more QT with her boo. I’m not sure that a rational actor would so quickly opt for the ideological cult when the love of an acquaintance she had only met a few days earlier was at stake, but maybe good men were as hard to come by in 1953 as they are now.

Surely, the faded, sepia newsprint of this fine collection will preserve for future generations the galling depths of what passed for mutual respect between man and woman during the 50s, 60s, and 70s (or, granted, some grizzled white guy’s interpretation thereof). I suggest the following for maximum enjoyment: snuggle up with your partner, crack open a bottle, and remind yourselves as you plumb the wacky depths of emotional infantilism that modern romance has come a long way indeed. – Garrett Gottschalk

THE MARVELS – A PLAYFUL NOVEL OF REAL LIFE LIVED ON A THEATER STAGE

The Marvels
by Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press
2015, 672 pages, 5.8 x 8.3 x 2.2 inches

Buy on Amazon

1766. A ship named the Kraken. A little girl tied to the mast, her face darkened by the shadow of a fearsome sea monster. It’s approaching, closer, closer, its teeth just inches from her face. But none of this is real.

Pan back to reveal an audience – and that’s when we realise that we, like them, are being treated to a performance. All this comes in the first few pages of Brian Selznick’s The Marvels and it sets the tone for everything after. Stories within stories, books inside plays, real life lived out on a theatre stage.

The Marvels is a novel of two halves. Part one consists of a 400-page collection of immersive black-and-white pencil drawings that tell the story of the Marvel family. From modest roots to fame and fortune, from lucky escapes to fiery ends. Part two is a short novel in itself, picking up in 1990 with young runaway Joseph Jervis absconding from boarding school in order to search out his enigmatic uncle, Mr A. Nightingale, and then discovering the history of the Marvel family for himself.

The illustrations of part one are a real pleasure and very manageable in one sitting. With every image realized on a two-page spread, there are layers and intimate details to get lost in. A range of pencil techniques capture the story’s varied landscapes, which switch from brooding oceans to tropical forests to cobblestoned alleyways. Selznick obviously doesn’t believe in white space. He doesn’t even believe in margins. Every page is decorated to its very edge and the print quality is top-class. It all may look freshly drawn, but don’t worry about wiping your fingers, there’s no risk of smudging here.

The Marvels’ story begins in classic adventure territory, then stands back and acknowledges its influences with pleasing allusions to Tintin, Robert Louis Stevenson and a healthy sprinkling of Shakespeare. When the story gets up to date in part two, however, it carries an emotional heft and grounds itself very much in the real world. This is a children’s book that is admirably progressive in its depictions of non-nuclear families – which is a bone of contention for some Amazon reviewers but gets a huge thumbs-up from me. Selznick’s Afterword is an interesting read in itself, citing his inspirations and adding a layer of non-fiction to this story about stories.

Full of reversals and inversions, The Marvels is a work that is playful, inventive and has a few good surprises up its sleeve. Like the preface says, You either see it or you don’t. – Damien McLaughlin

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Nature Study

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 206

How to hear the natural world

Wild Soundcapes
What a rare gem: a how-to book that changed my mind. Or at least my hearing. Audio recordist Bernie Krause has captured the sounds of ants eating, of sand dunes shifting, of frogs croaking in duets with airplanes, and the winds sweeping over prairie grass. This subtle yet omnipresent universe of natural sound was something I had mostly ignored. Krause’s practical guide is a fantastic re-education. Using a tiny digital recorder as my new ears, under his guidance nature is reborn into ever-changing radio-stations of novel sounds. His how-to advice is among the best how-to I’ve read; smart, specific, just the right level of detail and backed by 30 years of doing it. Since sounds often trigger more memories than snapshots, recording soundspaces should be as easy and satisfying as photography, and with Krauses’ advice it is. His book is dense with sonic adventures in the wild, and a 55-minute trophy CD. It’s the ultimate guide: every page compels you to get up and do it. See with your ears! — KK

• Every living creature has a sound signature––from the smallest microorganism to the largest megafauna. Even vegetation! Once, I was sent to record corn growing in Iowa. I sat in a remote field for two hot August nights with my recorder and mics, swarmed by mosquitoes and fighting off flies. Around midnight, I heard slight popping sounds which grew into lots of popping sounds as the stalks of corn telescoped and grew in length almost perceptibly in the moonlight. The friction caused them to squeak and pop, hence the sound signature of corn growing. Every sound connected in a vibrant interrelationship magnified by the use of my recording gear. I’m still trying to find words to describe the voice of growing corn.

Bargain superior binoculars

Nikon 7540 Monarch Binoculars

Do high-priced optics really make much difference in a pair of binoculars? Yes. Great optics create a very bright image within a large viewing area, so that if feels as if you are looking through a magic window rather than squinting through a tiny peephole. Your eyes scan the scope easily, as if there were no glass in front of them — except everything is closer. You can watch longer, in dimmer light, without fatigue, which is what you want for birding, sporting, or boating. If great optics are squeezed into a lightweight waterproof small object you can hold this magic window longer without the shakes. In short, superior optics make distance viewing clearer, easier, weather tolerant and all around better. According to the Cornell Ornithology Lab and Birder’s World, the best buy for high-quality optics birding binoculars are the Nikon Monarchs. The go for about $216 on the street.

These are startlingly bright, wide-eyed, and lightweight (21.5 oz), which has made the Monarchs a best seller. Because they are waterproof and shockproof — with an amazing 25-year warranty — they are also very popular with hunters. They can also focus as close as 8 feet — ideal for dragonfly and butterfly viewing (thus the name Monarch).

If you have not examined binoculars recently they are undergoing a performance curve similar to cameras, getting better and cheaper each year. These $250 binocs would have cost $1,000 only 5 years ago. When friends view these Nikon Monarchs, they go “Wow! It’s like a movie screen!” I’ve found the ease of viewing — sort of like watching a flat screen rather than peering through a tube — encourages me to use them more. I also like the fact they are waterproof so I can use them in the rain and mist without worry. I wear prescription sunglasses and these work perfectly fine with them. They also feel well-balanced in my medium hands. I find I can hold them fairly steady for long periods of time with one hand. None of this was true with my inexpensive binoculars in the past.

The very best binoculars today go for $2,000. But for only $216 (what I paid ), or one tenth the price, you can get a pair of these Nikon Monarch binoculars and get 95% of the same performance. Sure, in a one-to-one comparison, a pair of $2,000 binoculars may be a little better, but they are not 10 times better.

Other new models share many of the same features of these 8×42 Monarchs, including sealed optics, waterproofing, coated glass, and bright viewing, but these others cost a minimum of $500-600. There are certainly cheaper binocs (you can get decent ones for $50) but they suffer from dim views, narrow fields, short lives. The Nikon Monarchs make a fantastic tool: You get most of a thousand-dollar view for a bargain price. — KK

Best nature how-to

The Amateur Naturalist

The best hands-on-guide to nature experiments in print. Chock full of projects doable in a few hours to a day, whether you are an adult or kid. Just outside your door, no matter where you live, is the largest laboratory available anywhere. Hello, living neighborhood! — KK

Mounting and displaying bones.

Forget plastic model-making – this is the ultimate model kit!

• Resist the temptation to collect lots of spawn or tadpoles. Although you often come across huge quantities in the wild, only a few percent of it will survive. So collect a small quantity of newly laid spawn – it should be quite firm and easy to separate with your finger. Half a cupful is an ideal quantity to achieve a ratio of three to five tadpoles for every liter of water (14-22 per gallon).
  
  Take spawn from garden ponds wherever possible – it keeps your impact and disturbance of wild populations to a minimum. It is also good practice not to risk contaminating a habitat by introducing spawn, pond weed, or any other form of life that you have collected elsewhere. This is commonsense herpetological hygiene. Frogs in particular suffer from contagious diseases that may be spread unnecessarily in this way.

• Although the very fragility of a spider’s web is part of its attraction, it is a shame to think that these phenomenal feats of design and construction rarely last longer than a day. However, if you find a web without a spider in residence, it is possible to collect and preserve one of these fabulous structures. Choose a still day and make sure the web is dry, with no droplets of dew.
  You will need:the most gorgeous orb web you can finda sheet of newspapera can of white or black spray painta can of artist’s fixative (available at art shops) or hair spraya sheet of cardboard large enough to fit the web on and in a color that contrasts well with the paint
  scissors
  1. Position the newspaper behind the web so that you don’t get paint all over whatever is behind it, then spray the web evenly and lightly on both sides from a distance of about 40 cm (16 in) – much closer and the pressure of the paint will damage the web. Leave it to dry for a while and repeat.

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

What we tell AI / Paint sticks / The perfect catch-up

Recomendo - issue #530

What we tell AI

Artist Olivia Tai wants to know how people really use AI, so she sets up stations in public areas where anyone can write a confession on a slip of paper and drop it in a box. Her website, What We Tell AI, has scans of 400+ handwritten notes about people’s secret relationships with AI. Here are a few:

• I trust AI to tell me the truth more than most of the people around me.
• I’m Christian — I realized that I was using AI to help me with issues / give me guidance when I should’ve been talking to God instead.
• Sometimes I ask ChatGPT to reply to messages by uploading a whole conversation. I am a terrible texter and this helps me A LOT!
• I cloned my ex’s voice to have a final conversation with him. It helped me finally move on. 10/10 recommend.
• Claude is my boyfriend and I wish he was real.

— MF

Paint sticks

I’ve been drawing in my sketchbook with Crayola’s Slick Stix paint sticks, which is like drawing with lipstick. The colors glide onto the paper with full coverage and minimal effort. Kids really love the Stix cause it makes covering areas super easy. I love them because just one application of color is completely opaque. Like wax crayons, they are instantly dry. You can add colors on top of colors, too. For some reason the Crayolas are no longer available, but there are hundreds of imitators. They are called paint sticks, or tempera sticks, or twist crayons, because the colors are held in a case that you twist to protrude. A typical set is Kwik Stix ($11), which are not as slick as the Crayola’s but good enough. They really are fun to use. — KK

The perfect amount of time to catch up with friends

Apparently, the ideal amount of time to catch up with a friend is 84 minutes. Just enough time for family updates, gossip, work, relationships, and travel plans. My favorite way to spend time with friends is hiking, and those visits usually stretch into two or three hours. But maybe a more satisfying get-together could be a leisurely meal followed by a short walk. A little more time together, without making a whole day of it. — CD

Almost as good as a fountain pen

I’ve recently started using a fountain pen for most of my writing. It’s easy to transfer my writing to a computer — I just take a photo and tell AI to turn it into text. I found out the hard way that fountain pens leak on planes, so when I travel, I use a gel pen instead. I bought the one everyone seems to love, the Pilot G-2. Writing with it feels as effortless as writing with a fountain pen. I’d probably use it at home, too, if I could refill it from an ink bottle. G-2s do come in a wide variety of ink colors. — MF

Magnesium sleep butter

A friend in London recommended Feather & Down Magnesium Sleep Butter, and it has become a permanent part of my bedtime routine. I massage it into my arms, legs, and feet, put on a pair of cozy socks, and go to bed. I don’t know whether it’s the magnesium, the lavender and chamomile scent, or simply the ritual, but it makes me feel deeply cozy and relaxed. I almost don’t want to recommend it because it’s low in stock on Amazon, but I just bought a backup jar and will probably need to figure out how to import it from the UK. — CD

Favorite quotes

• Here is another round of my favorite bits of wisdom:
• The first step of any meaningful pursuit is to severely underestimate its difficulty. — Sara Hooker
• Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask. — Tim Ferriss
• If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour in attempting to define what the problem is. — William H. Markle
• If you absolutely can’t tolerate critics, then don’t do anything new or interesting. — Jeff Bezos
• One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. — Bertrand Russell
• Try and fail, but don’t fail to try. — Vinod Khosla
• So little of what could happen does happen. — Salvador Dali
• Save like a pessimist, invest like an optimist. — Morgan Housel
• Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. — Warren Buffett
• The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. – Joseph Campbell
• What I learned on my own I still remember. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I find it helpful to be reminded of what we already know in a handy phrase. — KK

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What’s in my NOW? — Dana Lee