Tips for philanthropy / Pixel Thoughts app / Packable travel bag

Recomendo - issue #525

Tips for philanthropy

For some people “Giving Money Away Can Be Harder Than Making It” so Roy Bahat, someone whose lifelong habit has been to give money away, has written up some tips in this essay. He follows part one with a second set of more practical suggestions aimed at the thousands of young people about to become millionaires in the AI IPO boom: How to Actually Give Away Your AI Money. Our family has had a habit of philanthropy even when we had very little. I agree with Bahat that giving away well is challenging, and also incredibly rewarding. — KK

One-minute worry release

Pixel Thoughts started as a 60-second meditation site where you type whatever you’re stressed about into a star and watch it drift off into space, and now the same idea is available as a phone app on iOS and Android. My favorite new feature is the custom meditation option, where you pick the length and music, and it reads your specific worry and builds a short reframe around that exact thought instead of a generic one. It’s free, and you can just download it and try it out, no account needed. — CD

Packable travel bag

I keep an Infinity packable travel bag in my suitcase for trips where I know I’ll be bringing more home than I left with. It weighs just 260g and folds down to almost nothing, so I pack it empty and only unfold it when I need the extra space. It slips over a suitcase handle for rolling through the airport, has interior pockets for small stuff, and stands up on its own so it’s easy to load. — MF

Jurassic Park control room nostalgia

Jurassic Park Computers in Excruciating Detail is pure movie-nerd joy and behind-the-scenes magic for JP fans. The author goes through every single computer in the film, and I learned that today’s equivalent of about $4,000,000 in hardware and software was loaned for the production, and that everything was functional because, even then, audiences were too sophisticated about computers to fake it. This movie came out when I was 10 years old. I played the video game, I watched the movies on loop, and at one point I even had a Jurassic Park–themed birthday party (at age 27), so this kind of obsessive breakdown literally induces glee. R.I.P. Sam Neill. — CD

Master explainer

If you have listened to podcasts in the past decade, or watch tutorials on YouTube, it would be hard to miss Hank Green, who is a prolific explainer. He is omnipresent in the explainosphere. I enjoy dipping into his latest YouTube solo channel, where, in his signature rapid-fire style he explains whatever interests him. His lessons are very clear, sensible, and often with a little bit of a skewed view. He’s probably one of the best explainers of complex things. — KK

Non-luxury fountain pen

I bought this inexpensive fountain pen from Asvine after reading Neal Stephenson’s essay on writing by hand, which makes the case that longhand recruits more of your brain — and that a fountain pen is far less tiring than a pencil or ballpoint because the nib skates on the ink instead of requiring pressure. He recommends buying cheap pens until you know what you like. This one writes beautifully, has a metal body, a knurled barrel, and satisfying weight. It comes with a converter for bottled ink. — MF

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Book Freak #220: The Mind’s I

Hofstadter and Dennett on the Strange Loop of Self and Consciousness

Get The Mind’s I

The Mind’s I, edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, collects 27 stories and essays that explore three questions: “What is the mind?” “Who am I?” and “Can machines think?”

It has pieces by Jorge Luis Borges, with a man dreamed into existence in “The Circular Ruins” and the vertiginous “Borges and I.” Stanisław Lem contributes “The Seventh Sally,” about tiny beings who beg their maker not to switch off their world. Alan Turing asks whether a machine can think; Richard Dawkins writes on selfish genes and memes; and Thomas Nagel wonders what it is like to be a bat. Dennett narrates his own brain being separated from his body in “Where Am I?” After each piece, the two editors add a “Reflection.” This is one of my favorite books, and one I have returned to for over 40 years. Sadly, all the essays were written by men.

Core Principles

1. What Is It Like to Be You?

Thomas Nagel’s famous essay asks: “What is it like to be a bat?” His answer: we can’t know, because consciousness has an irreducibly subjective character. There is “something it is like” to be a conscious creature — and that something can’t be fully captured from the outside. The same mystery applies to every other mind, including the person sitting next to you.

2. The Self Is a Strange Loop

Who is the “I” that thinks your thoughts? Hofstadter suggests the self is a kind of strange loop — a pattern that refers back to itself, emerging from the brain’s physical processes but not reducible to them. You are not your neurons, but you are not separate from them either. The self is something the brain does.

3. Thought Experiments Reveal Hidden Assumptions

Can a computer think? Could you be a brain in a vat? What if you were teleported —would the person who arrives still be you? These questions expose hidden assumptions we carry about mind, soul, and identity. The book uses fiction and fantasy to crack open questions that dry philosophy can’t reach.

4. The View from Nowhere Is Incomplete

Science seeks objectivity — a “view from nowhere.” But when applied to the mind, this approach leaves out something essential: the view from somewhere, the fact that experience is always someone’s experience. Any complete account of reality must include the subjective, not just the objective.

Try It Now

1. Try to imagine what it’s like to be someone radically different from you (even a bat) — not what you would experience in their situation, but what they experience.
2. Ask yourself: who is the “I” that is reading this sentence? Can you locate it? What happens when you look?
3. Consider a thought experiment: if a perfect copy of you were made, would it be you? What does your answer reveal about what you think identity is?
4. Notice something you’re certain about regarding your own mind. Now ask: how would you prove it to someone else?

Quote

“An organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like for the organism. — Thomas Nagel’”

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.

Japan Fee Hikes/Tourists > Locals/Argentina’s New Train

Nomadico issue #217

Huge Tourist Tax Increase in Japan

A visit to Japan is going to hit you harder when you arrive and harder when you leave. The price of a single-entry visa jumped from around US$19 to $93 this month and a multi-entry one went from $37 to $185. Then you get hit up again with a “Sayonara Tax” when you depart and that one just went from $6 to $19. The additional millions they collect will supposedly go toward travel infrastructure and trying to spread travelers beyond the overcrowded selfie spots. The exit tax should be included in your flight ticket, along with hundreds of dollars of fuel surcharges added recently due to price hikes from the Iran war.

Places With More Tourists Than Locals

If you’re trying to get away from tourists and mix it up with the people who actually live there, you’d better avoid Monaco and Malta. According to this chart, the first has 9 tourists for every local, while the second has 6.3 to 1. Naturally there are a lot of islands and tiny nations on the list, but some that I found rather surprising were low-population countries in Europe like Albania (4.8 to 1), Croatia (4 to 1), Austria (2.9 to 1), and Portugal (2.7 to 1).

The Pros and Cons of Living in Medellin

One of the most popular cities for remote workers and digital nomads in South America is Medellin, Colombia and the people I’ve interviewed over the years that lived there have tended to stick around longer than they had initially planned. The temperature barely budges throughout the year, the infrastructure is good, and Colombia has a functioning digital nomad visa that self-employed people can acquire. On the downside, it does rain a good bit, the U.S. dollar has tanked badly against the peso this year, and street crime can be an issue. See my Medellin rundown here and chime in with a comment if you’ve got recent experience.

A Solar-powered Tourist Train in Argentina

Sometimes I’ll be scrolling through travel headlines and be surprised by something I didn’t know existed, like this solar train through historic villages in the northern desert area of Argentina. “They have trains in Argentina?” you might be wondering and the answer is, “Not many for passengers.” This solar-powered one is not exactly an epic journey: only 26 miles (42 kilometers), but you can choose a round-trip option with stops that turns it into a 10-hour affair. It is in the province of Jujuy and the closest city is Salta.

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? — Michael Ham

issue #264

Retired after a varied career of programming, writing, and teaching, I live now in British Columbia and have the daily joy of following my interests, some of which are reflected in the list below. I enjoy cooking a whole-food, non-animal diet (for health).

To help Esperanto beginners find resources (and to share some lessons I learned from experience), I have a blog post that I frequently update: “If you want to learn Esperanto”.

PHYSICAL

• Nordic walking poles — NOT trekking poles. Trekking poles are held in front with bent arms to aid with balance and assist particularly in hiking on steep inclines; Nordic walking poles are held at the side and behind with straight arms and aid with propulsion, useful on relatively level terrain. The point is, Nordic walking poles make walking more enjoyable (and burn 20% more calories with no perceptible increase in effort — indeed, they seem to make walking easier — and also make walking a full-body exercise). The poles I use are the Exel Pro Curve one-piece poles, but those I had order from the UK. I do like them a lot, as I explain.
• Seed and nut grinder with removable cup. I got this initially to grind flaxseed, but now I use it constantly to grind spices (dried chipotles, cumin seed, fennel seed, etc.), chia seeds, turmeric root, etc. Reliable, easy to use, easy to clean. Whole spices stay fresh longer, so it works well to grind them just before use.
• MacBook Air with 15” screen. I had not realized what an enormous difference the slightly larger screen would make, especially given that the computer when closed and carried doesn’t seem much bigger than the 13” Air. But in use the 15” feels SO much larger.

DIGITAL

• I have been following from the outset the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine, and Jake Broe has been a reliable chronicler of the war, with three reports a week plus additional things like interviews, questions of the month, and the like. Caolan Robertson has been exceptionally good lately (e.g., with his exposé of Ireland’s support for a Russian factory there that provides tons of aluminum for Russia’s war machine), but for day-in, day-out reliability, Jake Broe is hard to beat.
• My invisible item is an essay, and in connection with that essay, I offer this basic introduction to Esperanto, which can accommodate learners from a wide range of native languages (English is what I used, but the user can choose from Arabic, German, Vietnamese, Tagalog, etc.) — you select your language from the initial screen.

INVISIBLE

I wanted to experience what it is like to be fluent in another language: see my brief essay, “Learning to Learn a Language”. Partly to minimize effort, I chose Esperanto, the learning of which involves patience more than effort.

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Patterns in Nature / Secret Hero Society

Issue No. 128

PATTERNS IN NATURE – THE MOST MAGNIFICENT DESIGNS COME FROM MATH AND NATURE, NOT HUMAN BEINGS

Patterns in Nature
by Philip Ball
University of Chicago Press
2016, 288 pages, 8.5 x 10 x 1.1 inches

Buy on Amazon

Step outside, look in any direction, and you’re sure to spot some exquisite designs in nature: the vivid jewel-like symmetry found on the wings of a butterfly, the fractal branching of trees, the pointillist patterns sported by a snake, or the hexagonal nest of a wasp, just to name a few. And science writer Philip Ball has captured some of this beauty with over 300 stunning photographs that he includes in his latest book, Patterns in Nature.

Categorized in chapters such as Symmetry, Fractals, Spirals, Cracks, and Flow and Chaos, Ball explains with both images and an accessible narrative how the most magnificent designs on the planet come from math, physics and chemistry, not human beings. He describes the various mathematics that create various patterns, and also points out parallels between similar patterns with seemingly unrelated sources. For example, the spots on a butterfly mimic the face of an owl. The “spots” on a giraffe look similar to cracked mud. Ball turns complex science into a fascinating read, and his gorgeous coffee table book is perfect for both the science and art minded alike. – Carla Sinclair

SECRET HERO SOCIETY IS BATMAN FOR THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID CROWD

Secret Hero Society: Study Hall of Justice
by Derek Fridolfs (author) and Dustin Nguyen (illustrator)
Scholastic Inc.
2016, 176 pages, 5.7 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches

Buy on Amazon

Secret Hero Society: Study Hall of Justice is Batman for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid crowd. Ostensibly a graphic novel, Study Hall of Justice adds to the format with pages drawn like diary entries, or web chats between the heroes. Some pages are flyers for school events and some are progress reports or official school documents that Bruce annotates. Most of the plot is in traditional comic panels, but the real clues of the central mystery unfold in these unique pages.

The story is about a young Bruce Wayne enrolling in a Gotham prep school called Ducard. Immediately he feels something is off about the school, as everyone there seems more interested in misbehaving than studying, and the faculty appears supportive of this misconduct. Sharp readers will notice many Batman villains both as staff and students, and you’ll quickly figure out what is going on behind the scenes. Bruce makes it his mission to get to the bottom of it and expose whoever is at the top running this nefarious school. Helping him are a young Clark Kent and Diana Prince, which sets up a cool origin for the future crime team. Humor in the story comes from Bruce’s repeated attempts to be a good detective, training for his later moniker as “world’s greatest detective.”

While the story is fun and enjoyable and kids should get a lot out of it, my major gripe with the book is that you probably can’t introduce Batman this way because of the ending. This book is definitely meant for someone already familiar with at least the top villains in Batman’s Rogues Gallery. Most of the references won’t interrupt your reading, but the plot hinges on a couple of references that I’m not sure would have the same impact on someone newer to the character. To keep it vague, some character identities are revealed that feel inconsequential in context, but are meaningful if you understand their place in Batman’s larger story.

But that’s a small problem overall, and I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from sharing the book with the young Batman fan in their life. Kids will surely eat this up, and adults could knock it out in an hour or less. There’s a lot to like here, both in terms of story and even the design of it. Pages are in black and white and the art style feels like a sketchbook, with an almost unfinished look that can be somewhat off putting at first, but quickly finds its place. It fits the tone of the world, as if Bruce himself had gotten bored in class and sketched a comic story about his own heroism. Study Hall of Justice is likely the first book in a series, and I for one am interested to see the continuing adventures of a young Bruce Wayne. – Alex Strine

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.

Geology

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 200

Tourist guide to geological power points

101 American Geo-Sites You’ve Gotta See

This will change your vacation plans. Visit your home planet! Geology is a force so huge we don’t see it. Yet evenly spread across the US (at least one in each state) are spots where our planetary behavior is made visible, erupting in either grand spectacle or in tiny gems on the ground. I was briefly a geology major in school, so call me geeky: but what bigger vacation can one imagine that inspecting 101 sites where you can see inside the Earth? A surprising number of US national, state, and county parks are dedicated to geologic power points. Other spots may be roadcuts or river beds. Use this guide to find them and interpret their incredible hidden significance. — KK

• Meteor Crater, ArizonaOf the more than 180 impact sites recognized around the world, approximately 25 are in the United States. The recognized godfather of them all, meteor crater is a perfect example of a simple crater — one without a central uplift. It is the most thoroughly investigated and by far the best preserved of the many astroblemes that scar the face of planet Earth.

• Gilboa Forest, New York
  42° 23’ 52” North, 74° 26’ 50” West
  Devonian Period FossilizationOnly Sandstone casts of stumps and roots remain of this first forest to shade the American landscape.

Where to find fossils

Fossil Collecting in the Mid-Atlantic States

The only thing wrong with this field guide is that it is restricted to the Mid-Atlantic States. It gives very specific driving directions (alas, no GPS coordinates) to easily accessible sites where one can collect small fossils. And each site and its ancient bounty is depicted in lovely sketches. I wish all guides books were like this. — 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.

What’s in my NOW? — Michael Ham