Humans of New York / Star Stuff

Issue No. 126

HUMANS OF NEW YORK – PHOTOS OF RANDOM STRANGERS IN NYC AND THEIR LIFE STORIES

Humans of New York
by Brandon Stanton
St. Martin’s Press
2013, 304 pages, 7.4 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches

Buy on Amazon

Brendon Stanton started photographing random strangers in New York City in 2010. He treated each of them like a celebrity, portraying them in a classy portrait on the street. He then added a little bit of their life story in their own words. These mini-autobiographies were the secret sauce that transformed random snapshots of strangers into a remarkable series of portraits of real people that you could connect with. Brandon posted his photos-plus-bio on his blog, Humans of New York, which quickly went viral on social media until he had millions of followers. The 400 best of his portraits were fan-funded into this printed book. – Kevin Kelly

STAR STUFF: CARL SAGAN AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE COSMOS

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos
by Stephanie Roth Sisson
Roaring Brook Press
2014, 40 pages, 8.8 x 11.4 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

A popular Internet meme pairs a photograph of astrophysicist and humanitarian Carl Sagan with that of reality show star and shrill media figure Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi. The caption states, “If you don’t know who this is… (referencing Sagan) …but you know who this is… (Snooki) …Congratulations! You’re what’s wrong with the world!” Certainly a bit harsh and overstated, leading another Internet blogger to modify the last part of the meme thusly: “That’s a real shame! Why not Google ‘Carl Sagan’ and learn all about him? Read his books, watch his shows and be inspired!”

Reading is one sure path to inspiration, which prompted Stephanie Roth Sisson to write her children’s biography of Carl Sagan. “Carl Sagan was able to ignite imagination and wonder and pull science out of the antiseptic staleness that existed in my classroom,” states Sisson on her website. “[He] made it relevant to me and millions of people around the globe.” Star Stuff covers everything from its subject’s Brooklyn boyhood and how his love for science began at the public library and the 1939 World’s Fair, to his work with NASA, the release of his seminal PBS series Cosmos and his role in founding the SETI Institute (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) to find life in the universe. The illustrations are playful and engaging, and the text is quite accessible. As a special education teacher, I shared the book with my class which led to their writing a paper about his life and work. The book has since become a student favorite and a staple of my regular curriculum.

Parents and teachers who want to get even more out of sharing this beautiful book with their kids might want to pair it with this video of the humble Dr. Sagan teaching a class of children at his elementary school alma mater here. Truly, a reminder of what an inspired intellect and great soul the man was. – Lee Hollman

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.

Journaling

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 198

Radial thinking

The Mind Map Book

Mind maps are a tool for thinking. Instead of arranging your ideas in a sequence — as a list of words — you draw them in an arboreal fashion, radiating out from one starting notion. Mind maps use pictures instead of words, radial branches instead of linear lists, starfish instead of ladders, and associations instead of priorities — and as a result you think different. The visual trees you generate as you mindmap mirror the dendritic nature of our brain, and seem to flow more organically and (after practice) with less effort than the rigid discipline of making 1,2,3 textual notes.

They are easy to doodle. Anyone can make them. Kids and CEOs as well as creative types. I’ve come to employ this style of radial association in my own note taking and personal brainstorming. You don’t need this book to do it, but the book will help you refine your style, and it will help you expend its use. The authors, who’ve been perfecting and evangelizing this technique for decades, offer advice on how to use mindmaps to teach, as a form of diary, and most importantly, as a group exercise, say in corporate brainstorming sessions.

There are software programs for mindmapping (which I have not tried), but for me the intensely kinetic mode of drawing ideas (if even on tiny scratch paper) is a great part of the technique’s ability to produce new and different perspectives.

— KK

• Always use a central image
  An image automatically focuses the eye and the brain. It triggers numerous associations and is astoundingly effective as a memory aid. In addition an image is attractive – on many levels. It attracts you, it pleases you and it draws your attention to itself.
  If a particular word (rather than an image) is absolutely central to your Mind Map, the word can be made into an image by using dimension, multiple colours, and attractive form.
  Use images throughout your mind map
  Using images wherever possible gives all the benefits described above, as well as creating a stimulating balance between your visual and linguistic cortical skills, and improving your visual perception.
• Variation in size is the best way of indicating the relative importance of items in a hierarchy. Expanded size adds emphasis, thereby increasing the probability of recall.
  
  In order to develop a truly personal Mind Mapping style, you should follow the ‘1+’ rule. This means that every Mind Map you do should be slightly more colourful, slightly more three dimensional, slightly more imaginative, slightly more associatively logical, and/or slightly more beautiful than the last.
• Progression of noting a ‘very unhappy afternoon’ in which application of the Mind Map laws brings the noter much closer to the truth.
• The Mind Map is an expression of Radiant Thinking and is therefore a natural function of the human mind. It is a powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain. The Mind Map can be applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance human performance. The Mind map has four essential characteristics:a) The subject of attention is crystallised in a central image.b) The main themes of the subject radiate from the central image as branches.c) Branches comprise a key image or key word printed on an associated line. Topics of lesser importance are also represented as branches attached to higher level branches.d) The branches form a connected nodal structure.
  Mind Maps are particularly useful for chairing meetings. The chairperson has the agenda on a basic Mind Map and can use this fundamental frame to add thoughts, guide discussions, and record the basic outline of the what will eventually be the minutes of the meeting. Colour coding can be used to indicate action, ideas, question marks, and important areas. Chairing a meeting this way allows the person in the chair to be much like a captain of a starship guiding it safely through the clusters and galaxies of ideas.

An essential life skill

How to Make a Journal of Your Life

Most people take journaling either way too serious, or not serious enough. For such a key life-skill it should be more like you — expressive, idiosyncratic, unique. This tiny chapbook is the best guide I know of to get you started in journaling, and keep you going. Hand drawn with inspiration, it properly emphasizes the value of graphic thinking in the examined life. It is wise, brief, and fun. I’ve given one copy to each of my kids. Although it does not mention blogging, and assumes you’ll use a notebook, I think every blogger and blogger-hopeful should read it. — KK

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.

Sensing Wonder / Worse on Purpose / Ultimate historical maps

Recomendo - issue #522

Sensing Wonder

One of my favorite newsletters, Down the Rabbit Hole, is a weekly, curated collection of psychoactive internet rabbit holes exploring meaning, beauty, and aliveness. The creator recently shared a virtual “window” you can click open that sends you to one of the most-clicked links from the past five years. It feels like StumbleUpon with soul— tiny portal into wonder. — CD

Worse on Purpose

I’ve been burned by buying a “buy-it-for-life” brand only to discover the company and the logo were sold years ago. Worse on Purpose rates 215 brands — tools, bags, apparel, eyewear, and footwear — as either Approved, Watchlist, Former Great, or Avoid. A sample: Ray-Ban is designated “Avoid” (“Priced as luxury, produced to commodity standards”). Another example: Peak Design is designated “Approved”, (because it is still founder-owned). — MF

Ultimate historical maps

Imagine having access to all the ancient maps of the world, and being able to explore them with AI, including searching on the words etched in the maps, or concepts about the maps – for instance “give me all the maps showing the routes of Roman aqueducts.” All this and more are available online for free, at the David Rumsey Map Collection. For 25 years Rumsey has been scanning over 140,000 maps of all kinds from his insane collection from around the world. He then innovates ways to share them. When you find a map you particularly like, you can tap a button and have it printed out on a large scale and mailed to you for a reasonable fee. This is an international treasure. — KK

Decent kid’s shows

What was the most streamed show in 2025? Bluey, a kids animated show from Australia. Bluey has about 150 very short episodes using an animated dog family to model emotional intelligence and give toddlers strategies for big feelings. Like Sesame Street, adults can tolerate watching it. I think early Sesame Street is better, teaching more and broader, but Bluey is a good second choice. (Technically streamed on Disney+, but available on YouTube as well.) Because episodes are shorter (about 10 minutes), small kids love rewatching them. — KK

Cushy airplane seat

I just got back from an overseas trip, and this inflatable travel seat cushion made a 10+ hour flight—and those board-hard seats—so much more bearable. I was hesitant to become someone who carries a personal butt pillow through the airport, but I’m glad I got over it and brought it along. It deflates and rolls up smaller than a neck pillow. — CD

MeatStick V Duo wireless meat thermometer

I’ve ruined my share of meat by cutting in to check doneness. The MeatStick V Duo uses two wireless probes that you can put into two different cuts, and the app predicts when each will hit its target temperature. A small LCD base shows the temps so I don’t have to grab my phone with greasy hands. The probes can handle open flame up to 1200°F and are dishwasher safe. — MF

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Book Freak #217: The Nature of the Physical World

Arthur Eddington on the Strange Gap Between Science and Experience

Get The Nature of the Physical World

The Nature of the Physical World was written by the astrophysicist who confirmed Einstein’s relativity. It explores how modern physics has dissolved the solid world we thought we knew into something far stranger, and more connected to mind than we imagined. You can get it for free from Project Gutenberg.

Core Principles

1. You Are Sitting at Two Tables

Eddington opens with a famous thought experiment: he is writing at two tables. The first is the familiar one: solid, colored, substantial. The second is the scientific table—mostly empty space pervaded by electrical particles rushing around at great speed. Both descriptions are true. The solid table you lean on is, at the atomic level, almost entirely nothing. We live in both worlds simultaneously.

2. The Physical World Is a World of Shadows

In removing our illusions, physics has removed the substance, for substance was one of our greatest illusions. What remains is a shadowgraph performance of familiar life. The shadow of your elbow rests on the shadow table as shadow ink flows over shadow paper. It’s all symbolic. Then comes consciousness, which transmutes the symbols into experience.

3. Mind Is the First and Most Direct Thing

It is difficult for the matter-of-fact physicist to accept that the substratum of everything is mental in character. But no one can deny that mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience, and all else is remote inference. We start with mind and infer matter.

4. The Stuff of the World Is Mind-Stuff

Eddington’s most provocative claim: the stuff of the world is mind-stuff — something more general than our individual conscious minds, but continuous with our mental nature. The physical world is abstract and without actuality apart from its linkage to consciousness. Actuality, like beauty, requires a mind to be known.

Try It Now

1. Look at the table or desk in front of you. Hold both truths at once: it is solid to your touch, and it is mostly empty space. What does this do to your sense of certainty?
2. Notice that everything you know about the “external world” comes through your consciousness. Can you find anything you know that doesn’t?
3. Consider: physics describes relationships and patterns, not ultimate substances. What would change if you stopped assuming there must be “stuff” underneath it all?

Quote

“It is difficult for the matter-of-fact physicist to accept the view that the substratum of everything is of mental character. But no one can deny that mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience, and all else is remote inference.”

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

Travel Noise Machine/Golden Visas/Easier TSA PreCheck

Nomadico issue #214

LectroFan Alpha Noise Machine

I’ve reviewed a few different noise machines on here because my wife’s a light sleeper and I’ve found that these things are more effective than earplugs in a noisy hotel room or apartment. This LectroFan Alpha one I’ve used recently is marketed to parents of young children, with a place to clip it onto a crib or a flip-out stand to use on a table, but it’s fine for travelers with no kids too. It has a range of continuous sounds that include calm and heavy ocean waves, regular and heavy fans, pink noise, and brown noise. There’s also a heartbeat option that seems creepy to me, but maybe that’s good for a baby or pet. Recharges by USB, easy to pack and 4 ounces.

Remaining Golden Visa Options

If you have enough money or assets, a quick path to residency and even citizenship is to get a “golden visa” that fast-tracks you in exchange for investing in the country. Some of these have worked too well, like in Portugal, so governments have scaled back. There are still more than 30 of them out there though and the New York Times ran down a few, complete with minimum investment levels. See the full story here. (Paywalled, but available free with e-mail, Google, or Apple sign-in. Via Kevin Kelly.)

Narcissism Drives Return-to-Office Mandates

You probably had a feeling that the bosses making everyone come back to the office were doing it because they’re too full of themselves, but now we have proof. This scientific study won me over from the start with its title: Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work. This is an exhaustively researched study, with hundreds of supporting footnotes and links, and the conclusion is clear. In short, these leaders want to see, be seen, exert power, and demonstrate control, all much tougher without physical proximity. “The sparseness of remote communication can make it more difficult for narcissists to satisfy these cravings for power and status.”

Add TSA PreCheck to Google Wallet

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has had problems with the tiny TSA PreCheck icon not showing up on a boarding pass sometimes. As of last week, it’s going to get a lot easier to show proof of enrollment because you can now add touchless ID to Google Wallet on a phone. “Now, once a traveler creates a digital ID pass using their passport within Google Wallet, the app automatically handles the TSA enrollment connection during flight check-in.” This means that Touchless ID availability “goes from just six airlines to all 100+ participating TSA PreCheck airlines.” See more info 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? — Grace Godino

issue #261

PHYSICAL

• Free Run dog harness/leash. Built with components of climbing-gear quality, this makes my country dog so happy. Leash when I need it, free when I don’t. Never leave home without it.
• 4-in-1 braided multi-charging cable. This saves me from travel spaghetti and is working great so far. I want one that is lightning, rather than USB, but next time.
• Altra Lone Peak shoes. Zero drop, wide toe box. On my 4th pair. Walked the Norte route of the Camino in these and leaving today for the first half of the Via Francigena. Perfect paired with Aonijie toe socks inside Darn Tough crews. No blisters, cool feet.

DIGITAL

• Marco Polo app. So much fun to share good morning videos with my granddaughter far away. No intrusive ads, no bs, feels secure—I don’t believe in putting kids’ images out in the inter-world.
• Ladder app. I re-committed to strength training in January and Ladder provided just what I was looking for. Love Team Crews Control—functional training for all ages, with an emphasis on maintaining flexibility. Plenty of fun. This is worth the money, IMHO.

INVISIBLE

“Never cut what you can untie.”

Having grandchildren brings this home over and over. My kids’ dad, their bonus mom, their other brother—everyone together for dinner. So glad we all love each other, and also glad we have our individual lives.

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What’s in my NOW? — Grace Godino