Uplifting musical

I really enjoy Broadway musicals but I rarely get to New York or London, so I was delighted to watch this filmed Broadway musical on the streams. Come From Away is a fun, sweet, uplifting musical based on a real event: after 9/11, all the planes mid-air bound for the US were diverted to a small airport in Newfoundland, Canada, where the outnumbered locals welcomed the 7,000 stranded passengers into their homes and small town. The musical celebrates the best of human kindness triumphing over the worst. It is also a touring live show and you should catch it if it comes your way. — KK

Pocket radio

It's been so long since I've used a portable transistor radio that it feels like advanced technology. The Prunus J-166 is an impressively capable pocket AM/FM radio for $10. It's about the size of an iPhone and has just three simple controls (tuning, volume, band switch) that make it intuitive to use. It also has a tuning indicator light, headphone jack, and battery indicator. Requires 2 AA batteries (not included). — MF

True country sizes

My mental image of country sizes has been wrong. The True Size Of... is an interactive website that lets you drag countries around a world map to compare their actual sizes without the distortion caused by standard map projections. It's shocking to see how countries change shape as you move them — drag Greenland into Africa and watch it shrink to a small fraction of its map projection! — MF

101 Rules of Effective Living

Esoteric author Mitch Horowitz recently launched his Substack newsletter, Mystery Achievement, where he shared a list of 101 rules for effective living, distilled from more than 30 years of reading “nearly every major work of inspirational literature produced or translated into English.” You can find the full list here. Below are some of my favorites.

6) Be willing to clean toilets and wash floors.
20) Get away from cruel people—at all costs.
38) Look people in the eye, recognize them, acknowledge them.
65) “To feel brave, act as if we were brave.” (William James)
69) Know your preferences, even if you cannot act on them.
77) Do your absolute best to carry your own load before bothering another.
81) “Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Christ)
83) Boredom invites trouble.
94) Accept paradox.

— CD

AI domain name generator

Name Wizard is an AI for generating new domain names based on your idea or concept and finding out if they’re available to register in one click. It’s fun to play with, and free to try out 5 searches without a subscription. — CD

More quotes to ponder

I am always on the lookout for sentences that make me think. Here’s a recent collection:

If you want new ideas, read old books. — Shane Parrish

To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion. — Stephen Hawking

Thousands of people don’t like what I do. Fortunately, millions do. — James Patterson

Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again. — André Gid

Scarcity is the one thing you can never have enough of. — Marc Randolph

The most selfish act of all is kindness, because it's payback is so much greater than the investment. — Tom Peters

The illiterate of the 21st century will be those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. —Alvin Toffler

Time exists in order that everything doesn't happen all at once… and space exists so that it doesn't all happen to you. — Susan Sontag

There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns. — Octavia Butler

I write these down to be reminded. — KK

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