Stillgram / Echoes of Genius / Magnified Sand

Recomendo - issue #513

Erase the crowds from your travel photos

Stillgram is an iPhone camera app that uses on-device AI to automatically remove other people from your shots. Point it at the Trevi Fountain or Shibuya Crossing, snap, and the app cleans out the crowd — leaving just the landmark. The fun part is Pro mode ($14.99), which lets you tap to choose who stays in the frame, so you can erase everyone except your kid in front of the Eiffel Tower. For an Android equivalent, try ClearCrowds. — MF

Solar yard lights

Solar-powered outdoor lights were a great idea, but sadly most were kind of crappy. They would stop working after a few years. But in recent times they’ve gotten much better. Some of my new ones at our gate have been performing fabulously for years. No wires means you can put them anywhere. The kind I’ve settled on are ones like these Aootek Motion Sensing LED fence-mounted units that stay dim until they detect motion and then brighten up, preserving power. They come in a set of 6 ($22). They are quite bright; even one can make a big difference in the dark. – KK

Sand under the microscope

Magnifiedsand.com is one human’s labor of love: a collection of sand samples from around the world, magnified and photographed. I can’t explain my instinctual need to collect shells, feathers, and rocks, but that same part of me gets lost in these images. There’s something mesmerizing about zooming in enough to see the diverse assortment of crushed quartz, tiny fossils, and shell fragments. Just a small, free, beautifully nerdy corner of the internet. — CD

Bright, dimmable floor lamps

To brighten up our dim living room, I bought two of these 69” Sunmory LED floor lamps. The large disc-shaped LED head produces a lot of light without the harsh glare of a bulb-style torchiere. Using the remote, I can adjust both brightness and color temperature — cool and bright during the day, warm and low in the evening. The head tilts and rotates, so I can aim the light wherever I need it. They feel solidly built for the price, with a heavy base that doesn’t tip. Two now light the room beautifully. — MF

Start with nothing

A short blog post with stupidly simple advice that actually works: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work. Don’t try to organize the chaos. Start the day with nothing—an empty surface, all browser tabs closed, a blank page—then pull out the one thing you need. It’s surprising how easily focus follows. — CD

Wisdom quotes

I find power in aphorisms, proverbs, and witty quotes. So does David Wells, who spent years reading widely and collecting his favorite passages into an enormous self-published book, Echoes of Genius: Enduring Wisdom from Great Minds. What I like about his collection is the refreshing variety of sources, modern and ancient, from all occupations, pop and scholarly. The other cool thing is that the quotes are arranged in a calendar format, and grouped by subject, so you get two pages of quotes about one virtue for each day of the year. It’s kind of like a meditation. Here are a few of my favorites from the book:

Your current habits are perfectly designed to deliver your current results. — James Clear

You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy. — Garth Brooks

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. — Linus Pauling

If you can imagine someone surpassing you, you should do it yourself. — Paul Graham

Where your fear is, there is your task. — Carl Jung

Focus on things that are small enough to change, but big enough to matter. — Kat Cole

History is a vast early warning system. — Norman Cousins

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. — Albert Schweitzer

Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. — Martin Luther King

A problem well stated is a problem half-solved. — Charles F. Kettering

Things that have never happened before happen all the time. — Morgan Housel

There are of course thousands more like this in the book. – KK

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The Zen book everyone says changed their life

Approaching Life with Openness and Presence

Get Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind offers a gentle introduction to Zen practice, teaching you to approach every moment with the curiosity and openness of someone doing something for the first time.

Core Principles

1. The Beginner’s Mind Has Infinite Possibilities

In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s, there are few. When we think we know something, we close ourselves off to new understanding. The goal of practice is to always keep this beginner’s mind: open, eager, without preconceptions. An empty mind is a ready mind.

2. Do One Thing Completely

When you bow, just bow. When you sit, just sit. When you eat, just eat. Suzuki teaches that we should do everything with our whole body and mind, burning completely like a good bonfire rather than smoldering like a smoky fire. Full presence in any activity is itself the practice.

3. You Are Already Complete

We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves. There is no enlightened person — only enlightened activity. You don’t need to become something different or better. Everything is perfect, and there is always room for improvement. Both are true.

4. Let Thoughts Come and Go

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don’t serve them tea. The mind naturally produces thoughts like a stream produces ripples. The practice isn’t to stop thinking, but to not cling to thoughts or push them away.

Try It Now

1. Choose one routine activity today — making coffee, washing dishes, walking to your car — and do it with complete attention, as if for the first time.
2. Notice when you approach a situation as an “expert.” Ask yourself: what might I see if I had no prior knowledge?
3. Sit quietly for five minutes. When thoughts arise, acknowledge them without judgment and let them pass, like clouds moving across the sky.
4. The next time you feel certain about something, pause and consider: what possibilities am I not seeing?

Quote

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

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.

Expat Taxes/Solar Eclipse Tracker /Double the Wait in Portugal

Nomadico issue #205

Taxes for U.S. Expats

You probably filed your taxes already two weeks ago if you’re an American living stateside, but one perk of moving to another country is that you get an extra three months to file. For expats the due date is June 15, no extension necessary. That’s one of a long list of things to know if you’re nomadic or living abroad, including the fact that you still have to file no matter what, but if you’ve really cut ties, you may be able to shield your first $120K of income. See the full story here: Taxes for American Expats.

Eclipse Tracker for the Coming Years

I saw a total eclipse of the sun a couple of years ago and it was a wild sensory experience. If you want to know where to catch an eclipse in the future, this website features every one coming up through the rest of the century. You can see the full path of what’s on the way, like Patagonia and North Africa/Middle East in 2027, part of South America and Australia in 2028, and in 2029…nothing. It picks back up in 2030.

Portugal Extends the Citizenship Wait

For years now, agencies have been promising clients a five-year timeline to get citizenship in Portugal, thus giving EU access in a relatively short time after clearing all the bureaucratic hurdles. That time just got doubled, however, extended to a 10-year wait (7 for EU citizens). It gets worse: that’s after you’ve received your residency permit, not upon application, so it could easily be 12 years now for non-EU citizens. This impacts some groups more than others, so see this level-headed rundown from The Portugalist.

West Coast to Europe With Alaska Air

Flights between Europe and the Pacific Northwest in the USA often involve a stop at a hub airport in between, but Alaska Air just flew its first non-stop between Seattle and Rome and has two more routes from that city on the way. On May 21, Alaska will begin flying to London Heathrow and on May 28 it begins serving Reykjavik, Iceland. (Keep in mind that you can reach Seattle by train from Vancouver or Portland.) Alaska Air is frequently rated higher than the other U.S. carriers and has a much more straightforward baggage policy. For starters, a checked bag is free on flights to Europe, South America, Oceania, and Asia.

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? — Erik Schneider

issue #253

Erik is founder of the Referee Project to add nuance and quality to the scholarly record. In his spare time he writes screenplays about giant pugs intent on world domination, among other things.

PHYSICAL

• Mac mini travel case: Once upon a time, EE nerds walked the Earth with geek boxes containing wires, transistors and stuff. Now you can LARP that lifestyle with a Mac Mini travel case. Need to add a custom shoulder strap for the full effect but the ability to take my powerful mini anywhere two legs can walk is worth every strange look.
• Comma 4/sunnypilot: Upgrade your car with an advanced, open source driver assistance system. Comma 4 is hardware that easily plugs into over 300+ cars while sunnypilot is a community project upgrade that offers more features than the base software. You may need to grab a tech friend but the ability to put in a destination and have the car drive there (with vigilance) is more widely available than most people think.
• Sony WH-1000XM4 headset. I loved these when I first got them. After 2 years of nearly constant use, I upgraded to the XM5. After another two years of heavy use, the XM6 came out. After testing those I ‘downgraded’ back to the XM4, and have no regrets. You won’t either. The noise cancelling is strong and it switches to ambient on a guess, a problem with the XM5.

DIGITAL

• Caveman (Claude Code skill). Yes, it writes output like a caveman. Yes, that’s funny. But guess what? Caveman save tokens (~65% avg). Three levels: lite, full grunt, ultra (almost alien-speak). Not just for code, either. After having Caveman rewrite Mark Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar, I was convinced of its potential in other domains, and I’m trying to port it to Claude Desktop with the intent of writing all emails in full grunt mode. The world would be a better place if you joined me on that mission.
• Repoprompt. This is a context management tool for AI. Ignore the advertised token windows, the rot starts hard after 128-256K, if that. Repoprompt has AI scan the codebase, codeslice files to fit set token budgets and improves prompts. Oh, it also enables AI pair programming between models, with review gates, plan checks, the works. Only for MacOS at the moment but Windows is on the roadmap (for a year now…). Also on the roadmap: PDF text splicing. The result? Stronger output responses, less energy burn, earlier bedtimes.

INVISIBLE

“In the cellars of the night, when the mind starts moving around old trunks of bad times, the pain of this and the shame of that, the memory of a small boldness is a hand to hold.” — John Leonard.

I don’t need this quote at the moment, but maybe someone does. It’s been helpful in the past. Record your bold, authentic acts. Collect more. Revisit them.

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Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie / Horrorstör

Issue No. 116

MICK ROCK: THE RISE OF DAVID BOWIE, 1972-1973 – AN AMAZINGLY IMPRESSIVE OBJECT, EVEN BY TASCHEN STANDARDS

Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973
by Mick Rock (photographer)
Taschen
2016, 300 pages, 10.8 x 15 x 1.2 inches

Buy on Amazon

When I asked Taschen’s PR person for a review copy of the hardback edition of Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973 (after sheepishly asking in vein for the $800 Limited Edition), she warned me that it was an amazingly impressive object, even by Taschen standards. Don’t laugh, but this intimidated me to the point where, after receiving the book, I waited over a week to look inside. I had damn-near passed out while first perusing the uncompromising art publisher’s recent Blake book.

Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973 is about as woozying of a tome as you’re ever going to stick your nose into. And this “regular” edition, available at Amazon for the remainder-bin price of under $45, is anything but regular. Every single aspect of this book is elevated. The cover sports a lenticular panel which contains five iconic Mick Rock images of everyone’s favorite glam commander. This could have gone horribly wrong, too gimmicky or tacky, but this technology seems to have been invented to flash the ever-changing personas of David Bowie at the height of his (and Rock’s) artistic powers. There is no more perfect cover for this book.

And that’s just the cover. I was right to psych myself up. The first time I went through it, I got about 20 pages in and had to stop. The book is a sensual flood of uncompromising print materials, meticulous photographic reproductions, and state-of-the-art printing and binding. The smell of the this book is also worth noting (if you’re into that sort of thing). It’s intoxicating.

The content of Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973 is almost entirely photographs. There is an essay on Bowie’s rise in the early ‘70s and an interview with Mick Rock on working with Bowie, but otherwise, the majority of the 300 outsized pages are devoted to full-bleed photos, often paired with a Bowie quote, lyric, or statement about him. Nearly half of the images are rare or never before seen.

Bowie once said that Mick Rock could “see him.” I found the clarity of that vision, captured here in such a high-energy, high-definition presentation, to be literally breathtaking. You really do get the feeling that you are seeing a very rare and intimate relationship between an artist and his muse, chronicled by perhaps the one person who could see actually see and understand that relationship as it was unfolding. – Gareth Branwyn

HORRORSTÖR – A TWIST ON A HAUNTED HOUSE STORY SET IN A MODERN IKEA-LIKE MEGASTORE

Horrorstör
by Grady Hendrix
Quirk Books
2014, 240 pages, 7.4 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

Imagine a store much like Ikea, but not quite up to Ikea’s standards. In the book Horrorstör, Orsk is a shabby copy of the Scandinavian warehouse we all know, and maybe even love, right down to the incomprehensible product names (Frȧnjk, for example) and a Bright and Shining Path that guides shoppers through the showroom floor maze. But something about Orsk is different. And very, very wrong.

Amy works at the Orsk in Cleveland, Ohio. Caught in a spiral of student debt and unable to support herself, she moves into her mom’s trailer and wonders if she’ll ever dig herself out of retail. ​That’s when things change. ​Resigned to working at Orsk for the rest of their lives, Amy and her co-workers arrive every morning to find broken wardrobes, shattered glassware and vandalized sofas. Convinced someone is hiding out in the store and up to no good, they agree to spend the night in the store with their manager to unravel the mystery. Little do they know that tonight is their final shift.

Horrorstör is a clever twist on a traditional haunted house story that takes place in a modern consumerist setting. The symbolism and criticism of consumer culture and the nature of work are there if you look for them, but it’s light, and pretty funny, and doesn’t get in the way of the story. The catalog-style furniture ​pages in Horrorstör — complete with enthusiastic but meaningless descriptions – grow increasingly dark as the story, and Amy’s situation, become dire. Consider this catalog page for a chair:

“Boasting several advantages over traditional forms of restraint, BODAVEST confines the penitent and opposes the agitated movement of blood toward the brain, forcing the subject into a state of total immobility, conducive to self-reflection and free of stressful outside stimuli.”

The book also includes humorously grim versions of Orsk employee evaluations, order forms, and pages from the Orsk Leadership Handbook. They really add to the enjoyment of the story. I found myself eagerly looking forward to them, trying to decipher which twist in the story they alluded to. Surprisingly, the last pages of the book took the story from hilariously gruesome to “Oh, heck yes!” in the last few paragraphs. I won’t ruin it for you, but they left me wanting to read more stories set in the wild and outrageous world of Orsk.

“Orsk. It’s not just a job. It’s the rest of your life.” – Keith Monaghan

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.

Frequent Fliers

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 188

Cheap European flights

Ryan Air & Cheap European Airlines

There are half a dozen or so low-cost inter-European-city airlines. RyanAir is the largest. I recently got a round trip on them from Frankfurt to Pescara, Italy for about $90 — and this is one of their more expensive destinations. Other flights are ridiculously cheap. If I’d wanted to go to say Pisa or Stockholm from Frankfurt, the one way ticket would be 10-12 euros. London (Stansted) to Rome is 10 euros. These are ultra non-frill flights, and they all offer one-way trips without jacking up prices. One major disadvantage is that the airports can be out of the way. For instance, the Franfurt one is actually 62 miles from the city, but for these rates I’ll take a train or bus to the airport.

Ad from RyanAir website advertising limited come-on flights to the above cities for 99 pence ($1.80) one way, starting next year. On many flights the taxes will cost more than the fare.

In addition to Ryanair, there are others with the same idea, with less extensive routes: Easy Jet, EuropeByAir, Air Berlin, Transavia. — Lloyd Kahn

Cheapo airlines in Europe don’t all go to secondary airports, although they often do. However they often service secondary destinations. For example, we flew Basiqair to Bordeaux last year from Amsterdam. Not exactly Nice. To get to Milano, some of the low costs fly to Bergamo instead, which is on the Venice side of Milan. Their fares were a fraction of the majors — Air France and KLM. In addition to the airlines you mentioned last time, here are some more choices. — Louis Rossetto

Ground-truthing exotic travel destinations

Thorn Tree Forums

The most savvy travellers I know log onto Thorn Tree as they vagabond. Thorn Tree Travel Forum is where you get the latest, greatest, most dependable travel advice for exotic destinations. Originally set up by Lonely Planet as an online way for readers to update their guidebooks, this bulletin board now bypasses and surpasses the guidebooks altogether. Reliable travel info has been completely revolutionized by the ubiquity of internet cafes around the globe.

Let’s say you want to know whether the border between China and Kazakhstan is open this October, or whether its safe to visit Katmandu, Nepal, or where the newest climbing spots in the Peru Andes are. You log on to the appropriate Thorn Tree “branch” where a traveler who is in Katmandu, or who has just arrived in Almaty yesterday after a harrowing 11 hour border crossing from China can tell you all the specific details of what is true and what is not. Someone else might post that the popular beach shack on Lombok island, Indonesia you were headed for is now closed. And, to complete the circuit, you may be on the road yourself, at a dusty internet cafe in Morocco, when you read this. It’s true real-time advice, from real folks who’ve done it. Thorn Tree is a remarkably efficient way to score hard-to-get facts from and to the field. And for armchair planners at home, the sheer details available at a distance is heavenly.

I’ve found that the third world locations, rather than Europe and the US, are best served by the forums; but these after all are the very places instant ground-truthing is so badly needed. Thorn Tree is also a great place to connect up with others bent on long-term Around the World tours, and up-to-the-latest tips on long haul travel. —KK

Maximum free miles

Boarding Area

There’s a small cottage industry of avid travelers exploiting loyalty and frequent flier programs to earn maximum free “miles.” The best moderated forum I’ve found for their tricks, tips, and hacks on how best to fly free, or almost free, is a group of bloggers called Boarding Area. They all share great stuff but I am particularly fond of Gary Leff’s blog, View from the Wing. He specializes in maximizing miles for free trips. — KK

• Here’s what I believe to be the current 10 best credit card signup bonuses on offer: 1 Chase Sapphire Preferred offers no fee the first year, 40,000 points after $3000 in spend within 3 months, no foreign currency conversion fees, double points on travel and dining, points transfers to United, Hyatt, Southwest, Amtrak, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Marriott Priority Club, and Ritz-Carlton. Probably the best all-around credit card, and with a great signup bonus. There was for a few days a similar offer with just $2000 rather than $3000 as the required spending, but that was pulled rather quickly.
• Six tips for folks just getting started with miles and points. The basics are:
  
  Start with a goal, that motivates you and also helps your choice of program. Nothing worse than finding out you want to go to French Polynesia, but United miles only let you get there flying to New Zealand first.
  
  Never pass up miles, always sign up for frequent flyer programs even when it’s not your primary program. The miles add up eventually. Lots of programs become easily manageable at a site likeAwardWallet.com.
• This is the second set of major devaluations for a program that is only two and a half years old. And both times the changes were implemented with no notice whatsoever. Programs that simply make your points worth less one day are not to be trusted. Programs that let you earn with a redemption goal in mind andthen change the earning rules after you’ve invested time and money in their program are like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football… keeping the goal forever just out of reach.
  
  I’ve now concluded that Expedia Rewards is a program that I believe is not to be trusted, and also is no longer worth bothering with, since the cuts to the value proposition are actually worse than I reported yesterday.

Travel plans automatically generated

Tripit

Keeping track of travel arrangements — hotels, flight schedules, rental car reservations — is a problem for me. I make mistakes writing down the information, I lose printouts, I resent the time it takes to stay on top of everything. That all changed a few years ago when I started using TripIt, an online travel organizer that keeps all my trip plans in one place.

Here’s how I typically use it: I purchase a flight on Southwest’s website. I reserve a rental car on Hertz’s website. I book a hotel through hotels.com. When I get the confirmation emails I forward them to plans@tripit.com. TripIt parses the information and produces an easy-to-read itinerary. It’s easy to add meeting and other plans. I can email the itinerary to other people and refer to it while I’m traveling, via the TripIt’s free mobile app. TripIt also adds the information to my calendar (I use iCal but it works with everything else, too).

TripIt is free, but I pay for TripIt Pro because I like getting text messages about canceled or delayed flights and gate changes. This feature makes it worth $49 a year for the pro account. — Mark Frauenfelder

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’s in my NOW? — Erik Schneider