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Archive of free otherness

The Public Domain Review is a free website that features fascinating material discovered in the public domain. A lot of it is curious illustrations, vintage images, oddball visuals, but also forgotten literature, weird poems, and excellent essays. It’s a fountainhead of exoticness and hard-to-find otherness. And of course, it is free to reuse.— KK

Pickup service for hard-to-recycle items 

Ridwell is a Seattle-based startup that collects hard-to-dispose-of items for reuse, like clothing, batteries, and multi-layer plastics. If you sign up for a subscription service ($18 a month), every two weeks Ridwell will pick up your filled bags and replace them with empty ones. Right now, they service a handful of major cities (listed here). They haven’t yet it made it to San Jose, California but I signed up for their waitlist and was alerted to a free craft supply pickup. I happily donated yarn, papers and ribbons to support our local teachers. I recommend signing up if you’re interested in bringing this service to your neighborhood. — CD

Fix loose wall anchors

When I’m installing picture hangers, toilet roll holders, curtain rails and the like onto walls, I often end up with loose wall anchors in the drywall. To address this, I use Wetnfix — plaster-coated gauze discs. Simply dip one in water, wrap it around the loose anchor, and insert it back into the hole. Within three minutes, the anchor is secured and ready for a screw. There’s a helpful video available that demonstrates this process. — MF

Multiple supercharger

We’ve recommended Anker superchargers before; they will charge phones and computer devices really fast. Now, even better is a four-slotted Anker 747 supercharger, which can handle three USB-C cords (the emerging universal standard plug) and one classic USB. This is ideal for traveling, particularly for more than one user, with multiple devices (phone, Kindle, watch, laptop).  I used to carry a homemade squid with multiple chargers from one outlet, but this fist-size cube is much more compact, simple, and faster. It can charge up to four devices in a jiffy. — KK

Simple Wikipedia 

When I want to understand dense subjects, I just visit Simple Wikipedia. All the entries are written in shorter sentences with easier words. The site is designed for children, adults with learning difficulties or for those trying to learn English, but for me it’s a great way to grasp complex topics, like how nuclear weapons are built and work. It doesn’t work with all pages, but sometimes replacing the “en” with “simple” in the URL will redirect to you the Simple English Wikipedia. — CD 

Realtime air quality around the world

The Real-time Air Quality Index displays a map showing the live readings of air quality sensors around the world. You can look up any city you are interested in, or view rankings of different countries. The last time I checked, Bahçelievler, Türkiye is experiencing the worst air quality (537: hazardous) and Ciudad Guayanam, Venezuela has the best (5, good). — MF

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

07/16/23