A DD reader sent in this recommendation, admitting that the app was initially “way too far on the woo scale” for him, but that he was surprised and fascinated by the experience it provided. Lumenate sells a light-based approach to mindfulness: “We use research-driven stroboscopic light sequences from your phone’s torch to guide your brain into a unique and powerful altered state of consciousness between that of deep meditation and classic psychedelics.” It certainly got me curious.

A cute idea that attempts to bring together the charm of traditional letter writing with the convenience of modern technology: hand-write a digital letter on your iPad, maybe add some doodles, choose a continent and then let the app find a pen pal for you. You swap unique, collectible stamps with each exchange.

OH, a potato! is a meal planner, grocery list and recipe manager. The iOS app helps you find, save, plan and cook recipes. With the integrated ‘PotatoGPT’ you can locate recipes for the ingredients you already have. Friends of DD enjoy 3 months free. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

Create your own virtual 3D keyboard with different key styles, layouts and colours. I’m not sure why this tool exists, but it’s a fun little project by/for keyboard geeks.

Frostbite →

How refrigeration changed everything

An oddly fascinating look at the world of refrigeration. Much of the food we eat arrives courtesy of refrigeration, an infrastructure that, author Twilley estimates, amounts to 5.5 billion cubic feet of cooled space – “a third polar region of sorts.” “An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food – for better and for worse.”

Citizens →

Moving from consumers to citizens

Author and citizen advocate Jon Alexander believes it’s time to change the consumer story into a ‘citizen story’ so we can finally take control of our collective agency and transform our communities, our institutions and our politics. (See DD264) “When our institutions treat people as citizens rather than consumers, everything changes. Unleashing the power of everyone equips us to face the challenges of economic insecurity, climate crisis, public health threats, and polarisation.”

Simon Sarris argues that our lives are increasingly filled with what he calls ‘careless technology’, gadgets that have nothing meaningful to add to our lives and instead add unnecessary complexity for the sake of progress. “Many modern devices (and apps) really excel at squishing tradeoffs into weird shapes. They are better thought of as little imps that sneak into homes and ask for more and more of your attention. They want to gently claw at your eyes and ears. They want to put notifications on your phone and remind you that you need to interact with them, or buy more of them, so that they might become even more convenient. This does sound miserable. This does sound contra-nature.”

I always wondered how actors remember their lines. Turns out, they do so by focusing on deep understanding and meaning, not by rote repetition. “This same process of learning and remembering lines by deep understanding enabled a septuagenarian actor to recite all 10,565 lines of Milton’s epic poem, ‘Paradise Lost’. At the age of 58, John Basinger began studying this poem as a form of mental activity to accompany his physical activity at the gym, each time adding more lines to what he had already learned. Eight years later, he had committed the entire poem to memory, reciting it over three days. In describing how they remember their lines, actors are telling us an important truth about memory – deep understanding promotes long-lasting memories.”

A neat visualisation by The Pudding, showing how the different climate zones (arid, tropical, temperate, cold, polar) will be shifting over the next decades as climate change continues to accelerate. “This project looks at 70 global cities, and tracks their classification from present day to 2070. And with climate change, your city isn’t just getting hotter: it will resemble the distinctive climate of completely different places.”