What hath science wrought?

It started with someone listing "places with uncanny energy," like gas stations on a road trip, empty movie theaters, etc.

Then someone reblogged it and said those are called "liminal spaces," defining liminal as in-between, neither one thing nor another.

Tomorrow (July 4th, 2026) is the 10 year anniversary of the-crepes-of-wrath's comment, which:

Predates the 2020 spike in interest by four years

Predates the original backrooms post, and the the creation of r/liminalspaces by three years

Predates the earliest mention that KnowYourMeme attributes to Twitter by two years

I'm pretty sure this is the moment the term "liminal spaces" was attached to this sort of imagery, and it's TEN YEARS OLD TOMORROW!

If you're looking for a good, centralized collection of fundraisers for people and organizations doing on-the-ground work in Minnesota right now, someone on Bluesky put together a great resource hub for things like food support, rent relief, mutual aid, and immigrants' rights centers that I'd really love to see spread around.

And if you're local to the Twin Cities, there's a "Take Action" section with links to ways to get active, as well as some resource guides for legal observers, etc.

Part of this is getting better about intentionally resting; if I'm too tired to read I shouldn't try to and should instead work on some of the relaxation/meditation techniques that make resting actually feel restorative instead of just mentally clawing at the walls.

But I'm wondering about things to do when I can keep my eyes open but not much else. Might see if it's possible to get ebooks from the library on my phone, but those tend to require sustained attention which I can't always do. I have a couple of Liberation Philology language apps which I want to work on and also some musicality apps, but if people have recommendations for more phone-based enrichment I'd really appreciate it! I'm specifically interested in things that are:

Interesting or useful and not just things to kill time

Modular, only take a few minutes of attention at once

Don't require decisions (or at least not complex ones) to use. The actual content can require thinking but if I have to choose between too many options to start a thing I won't do it

Don't involve time limits or quick reflexes

Free or one-time payment; I don't trust myself to use things consistently enough for subscriptions to be worth it (plus I have no money)