Recomendo

Deep YouTube/Future self meditation/Vanishing Asia

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Recomendo: issue no. 201

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Deep YouTube
My daughter told me about Astronaut.io. It’s a website that plays a few seconds of random YouTube videos with almost no views — like this video of a cafe in Vietnam with 1 view, and this one of goats eating weeds near a freeway in rural Japan with 0 views. After a few seconds, it starts playing another video. It’s addictive. Many of the videos aren’t in English, which is a plus for me. — MF

Meet your future self
I tend to use meditation to help me slow down and ease into discomfort or when I feel my anxiety flaring up, but I came across this 30-minute Life Visioning meditation on my Aura app and felt completely transformed after it. At first the breathing exercises and noises felt hokey, but it helped to put me into an almost hypnotic relaxed state, and then the narrator took me down a dark tunnel to meet my “future self” and I was able to see her so clearly! I was so moved by this whole practice. I’ve done it three times since, and each time I discover some new desire or goal that is buried within me. — CD

Time travel in Asia
With shameless self-promotion I recommend you follow my new Vanishing Asia Instagram. Every day I post one amazing photo I have taken of an exotic part of Asia that is disappearing because of modernity. The images are a few of the many thousand that will appear in my Vanishing Asia book later this year. In the meantime enjoy this ride in a time machine. Also available on TumblrFacebookPinterest, and Twitter. — KK

Cheap stock images and videos
Jumpstory is a royalty-free stock image and video service with millions of photos, videos, and illustrations that you can use for websites, books, presentations, and more. The images have been curated from public domain sources, and they’ve done a great job of tagging and organizing everything. I use Jumpstory images on my website, Boing Boing. A lifetime subscription is $99. — MF

Completely improvised comedy special
Before I watched Middleditch and Schwartz, the very little improv I was exposed to was not enjoyable. I get anxious when jokes don’t land and then I sympathy laugh and the whole thing is awkward. But now I’m stuck at home, and in desperate need of laughs and this have been the best comedy special I’ve seen. It’s like they’ve harnessed the superpowers of a childlike imagination and then threw it into adult situations, and it’s hilarious and magical to watch. — CD

Scenarios for the next 9 months
High uncertainty ahead, for sure. There is no consensus on what will happen in the next 9 months. Every scientist, economist, sociologist, and futurist disagree on what might happen, but we still need to make plans as individuals and organizations. A very helpful tool in a reign of high uncertainty is to use scenario planning. The best set of near-term scenarios I’ve seen is this one, Scenarios for the Covid-19 Future, available as 45 slides, which include instructions on how to use scenarios. You can’t predict what will happen, but you can rehearse for four different possibilities. — KK

-- Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson 05/24/20
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