I had never heard of Polarr before this week. It offers a range of (cross-)platform apps for mobile and desktop to edit photos and videos using a bit of help from AI. There is also a huge catalogue of filters and effects, many of them created by other Polarr users.

As mentioned above, we’ve just used VoiceMap for a self-guided walking tour through Bruges and it was fabulous! The tour costs just US$10 and, thanks to GPS tracking, effortlessly guides you through the maze of little streets here in Bruges while telling you a lot of interesting and fun historical facts. We’ll definitely be using it again for other cities. There are over 1300 tours in 67 countries available. Friends of DD enjoy one free tour. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

A recommendation by a reader: Lunchclub is a networking platform designed to facilitate professional connections through AI-driven matching. It helps users find and meet new people who align with their professional interests and goals, setting up one-on-one video meetings to foster meaningful relationships. Apparently, it was invite-only for quite a while which ensured quality, vetted participants. I wonder how well the platform works now that it’s open to everyone.

For the space geeks among you: with Satcat you can explore real-time satellite data, debris and space weather. Just looking at the globe made me realise just how much stuff there is in Earth’s orbit.

After Work →

A history of the home and the fight for free time

There is a growing body of writing on the topic of ‘post-work’, the idea that there is a possible life that’s less filled with drudgery. After Work explores the evolution of household technologies, the shifting expectations of domestic labour and social reproduction and the evolving concepts and anticipations surrounding family structures, including the rise of the nuclear family as a privatised entity more separated from its kinship and communal ties than it has been in the past. The book highlights the (sometimes burdensome) transformative power of industrialisation and digitalisation on the home.

Daylight →

Paper-like reading/writing tablet

I hardly ever feature products other than books here, mostly to discourage consumption. I make a few exceptions for products that feel in line with DD’s ethos and this one makes me weirdly excited: a new type of ‘mindful consumption device’ featuring a faster-than-usual e-Ink screen. Daylight promises distraction-free reading and writing. I’m genuinely curious about low-energy, low-distraction alternatives to the typical tablet format. (I’ve got another new-ish device in this category for you next week.)

We’re all consumers of TV/movie entertainment, but most of us don’t bother to find out how this industry really operates behind the scenes. So this (long) Harper piece was really insightful. Although, it did not surprise me to read that unfettered capitalism has done to this industry what it has done to many others: while creatives fight for a living wage, four giant corporations control the entire industry, lobby for deregulation, and rake in profits. “‘It used to be there were these big, crusty, old legacy companies that had a longer-term view,’ he said, ‘that could absorb losses, and could take risks. But now everything is driven by quarterly results. The only thing that matters is the next board meeting. You don’t make any decisions that have long-term benefits. You’re always just thinking about, “How do I meet my numbers?”’ Efficiency and risk avoidance began to run the game.”

I do not live in a co-housing community and we don’t participate as closely in each others lives, but our building shares some similar values. So I can relate to the lessons learned in this article – both the benefits and the challenges. “In a nuclear family (rarer as they may be), kids usually only have one or two grownups to fashion themselves after and learn from. Not in a community or network of neighbors! Kids get to try on all kinds of grownup personalities, choices, professions, and gender expressions, among so much else.”

I’m so disheartened about the way the media covered the student protests around the world – portraying students as trouble makers and in some cases violent agitators – rather than talk about the actual issue so many of them bravely stood up for. This piece eloquently highlights the fact that almost every student movement in past decades has been a reliable indicator for immoral conduct and outright injustice. When the youth protests – in the US or anywhere in the world – we ought to listen carefully to their demands. “But time and time and time again, the student left in America has squarely faced and expressed truths our politicians and all the eminent and eloquent voices of moderation in the press, in all of their supposed wisdom and good sense, have been unable or unwilling to see. Straining against an ancient and immortal prejudice against youth, it has made a habit of telling the American people, in tones that discomfit, what they need to hear before they are ready to hear it.”