I recommend the cheap recumbent, EZ-1, designed by the makers of the classy Tour Easy touring recumbent. I ride a BikeE recumbent myself, but they went out of business. My bro has an EZ-1. They're not the lightest, fastest, or coolest recumbent, but they have the ergonomics of a $1500 bike and are a blast to ride. They start at $500. The EZ-1 is a comfortable workhorse that lets you stay in the saddle for a *long* time.

--Mark Crane

EZ-1 Recumbent
$625
Easy Racers

This wonderful guide introduces the world of artisan chocolates. Not candies, but the rich and little-known variations of dark cacao produced by one of the oddest trees alive. Just as wines and coffee vary, cacao grown in different regions of the world have unique taste and smell, as do diverse genetic strains of the cacao bean. Global taste is beginning to move away from the mono-blend of bland Hershey's to the wonderful diversity of local chocolate flavors. Cacao is a little understood plant, with weird habits, and a photogenic nature. This handsome book, filled with glorious color pictures, is actually a how-to book: how to find and appreciate the new tastes (plural) of chocolate. We've used it to plan chocolate tasting parties, find tours of cacao makers, and orient us on the quest for new varieties of the most loved spice in the world. Even if you hated chocolate, the culture of cacao is sufficiently amazing to warrant this book.

--KK

The New Taste of Chocolate
A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes
Mariel E. Presilla
2001, 193 pages
$20
Amazon

Visco-elastic foam (aka memory foam, or Swedish foam) is rather odd stuff. When you poke it, it takes a while to gloop back into its original shape. This isn't the neat bit though. The neat bit is that it becomes softer at higher temperatures, so it can react to human body heat. The result is to spread pressure very evenly over the bits of you that touch it.

It's currently used mainly as pillows and mattresses, but could probably be used for anything that exerts pressure on the human body. I recently bought a pillow and mattress topping made of the stuff... very nice :-) I'm planning on using it for a seat cover and to pad my backpack straps as well now.

In terms of working with it, it seems to be just like ordinary foam except slightly heavier. I cut a slice off my mattress overlay with scissors: no problems, nice clean cut. At a place like Target or equivalent a memory foam pillow goes for $35, a (fairly thin) mattress overlay for $90. A company called "Tempur" has been marketing the stuff fairly heavily.

--Paul Harrison

Memory Foam
Available from among others:
Memory Foam Source

Amazon carries many memory foam products, like the Visco Memory Foam Orthopedic Pillow for $49,

A cheap pillow supplier
$40
Stacks and Stacks

Do you know about those legendary notebooks you can buy at Barnes & Noble as touted by the late author Bruce Chatwin? They come in several sizes; the pocket size (just a tad larger than a 3 x 5 card) is perfect for a breast pocket or cargo pants pocket. The paper is acid free and rich enough to take ink, so you can sketch as well as take notes, but the most useful feature is the elastic band (which is a built in bookmark) that holds the notebook together -- you can stuff business cards, clippings, sketches on napkins between the pages, and the rubberized cloth thing holds them all together until you can find a place for the scraps. I've carried mine literally around the world.

--Howard Rheingold

Moleskine Notebooks
Come in squared, lined, or plain
96 leaves
$11 from Moleskine US

Also a large selection, including this $8 notebook from Amazon.

The backstory about Bruce Chatwin is amusing.

For connoisseurs of handwriting, nothing can beat a fountain pen. Ballpoint pens, while dependable and ultra-cheap, have never been able to match the fluid, graceful beauty of writing with a fountain pen. Regular roller ball tips allow more ink to flow, while better, are still inferior to the easy line that a good fountain or technical pen can lay down. Recently however, cheap gel pens have achieved the dense inking of a fountain pen. In ignorance I had equated gel pens with school girls, ink the color of nail polish, and handwriting marked by i's dotted with little hearts. True enough, but serious gel pens are now available. Tipped off by Phil Agre's research page on "cheap pens" (see below) I began to try out cheap gel pens and have been amazed at how fine they are.

My favorite gel, one that feels like a fountain pen to me, is the horribly named Pilot Dr. Grip Gel. It's a fat pen, with rubbery contoured collar at the writing end, and retractable tip. The ink flows out densely and evenly, with little pressure, exactly when you want it to. There's no leakage or muss or fuss of fountain pen maintenance. The pen glides over the page, leaving a fine line. And its cheap, about $6. I use it all the time now.

My other favorite gel pen replaces a pen-type that most architectural and graphics artist came to adore: the Rotring Rapidograph. This is a technical pen that produces a consistent very fine black line -- perfect for detail and precision drawing. I now use a Pilot P-500 (Extra Fine) G2 Gel, with a needlepoint tip. Unlike the old Rapidigraph, it won't clog, doesn't need periodic cleaning, can't dry up, can be retracted to fit in your pocket (Q-7 version), and is cheap -- $2. It inks as well or better as the Rapidigraph -- but it is not waterproof, which may make a difference for some artists. (I have not used newer Rapidograph models, which claim to be clog-free, but are still expensive.) The retractable version, Pilot Q-7 Needlepoint Gel, also sports a fat fatigue-free grip.

>

Pilot Q-7 Retractable Gel Needle Point

Devout fountain pen lovers will still find fault in the gel pens, but most of us will find their convenience and bargain price makes them the pen to use. If you know of better cheap great gel pens, let me know.

--KK

Pilot Dr. Grip Gel Pen
$7
From among others, Amazon

Pilot P-500 Extra Fine Gel Pen
$2 for 12
Amazon

Pilot Q-7 retractable Gel Needle Point
$4
Amazon

Various Dr. Grip incarnations are also available from JetPens

Manufactured by Pilot

Cheap Pens by Phil Agre

Rotring Rapidograh Pens

I have been using -- and buying-- headlamps for years, and I have a box full of lamps in the garage to prove it. Petzl is the leader in headlamps these days, and ruled the roost for the last few years with the Petzl Duo. But now Petzl has topped itself with the new Myo line. My favorite is the Petzl Myo 5, a sweet lightweight combo xenon halogen spot with a 5-led area lamp, all powered by 4 AA cells in a compact case attached to the headband. This is enough oomph to run the halogen spot for 4 hours, and the LEDS for 30- 100 hrs, depending on the setting. Note that the Myobelt 5 (accent on "belt") uses C-cells on a belt pouch and claims 11hrs runtime on halogen, and up to 360 hrs on LED. The Myo's new design runs rings around the Duo: a much more compact design, with a new switch (the bezel rotates) that unlike the duo can easily be manipulated with gloves on. Even the reflector is better -- one session trying the myo and the Duo side by side sent my much-loved Duos to the box of obsolete headlamps in the garage.

--Paul Saffo

Myo 5 Headlamp
$70
Previously available from Amazon*

Manufactured by Petzl

*It appears this model is no longer available. If you are using a more current version of the Petzl Myo 5 or any equivalent headlamp, please let us know by writing in the comments below or via the submit page.

I'm not convinced you need a how-to book to raise chickens; they're pretty resilient and will eat damned near anything and still lay eggs. But the best reference guide we have is the Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Demerow. Easy to read, full of information, and covers the whole range from hatching to keeping layers to raising meat birds to dealing with problems.

--Mike Gunderloy

Excerpts:

The standard catching hook consists of a 30-inch (75cm) length of 8-gauge (4mm) wire bent at one end into a hook and firmly attached at the other end to a wooden rake or broom handle.

*
Scratch can be used to trick chickens into stirring up their coop's bedding to keep it loose and dry.
Toss a handful over the litter once a day (traditionally late in the afternoon when birds are thinking of going to roost) and your chickens will scramble for it.

*
Depending on the weather and on the bird's size, each chicken drinks between 1 and 2 cups (237-474 ml) of water each day. Layers drink twice as much as nonlayers. In warm weather, a chicken may drink two to four times more than usual.

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
Gail Demerow
2000, 341 pages
$13
Amazon

Our contemporary Audubon, David Sibley, will mentor you in how to see birds. This is not one of his legendary field guides; instead it's a masterful course on how birds work, distilled into a small compact book, and illustrated with his impeccable drawings. Even if you've been birding all your life, every page will illuminate the art of seeing them. How can you tell just from a flitting glance in the dark that was a white-throated sparrow? Sibley the grand master tells how he does it. It will be a very long time before anyone else understands and communicates this hard-won knowledge better.

--KK

A Purple Finch with representative feathers from different parts of the body.

Western Sandpiper in fresh (left) and worn (right) alternate plumage, with representative scapular feathers from each, showing the striking changes that take place gradually, over a period of about four months, with no molt. Most field guides can show only one example of each plumage, so they illustrate an "average" bird, somewhere between these extremes.

Excerpt:

The making of hissing, shushing, and squeaking noises (known among birders as "pishing") is done in imitation of the scolding calls of certain small songbirds. It is often combined with imitations of the calls of a small owl in order to simulate the sound of an owl that has been discovered by songbirds. Birds approach to see what's going on and to join in scolding the predator. Pishing is most effective when you are somewhat concealed within vegetation. The birds need to be able to get close to you without leaving their cover, and ideally there should be an open spot for them to sit when they do reach you. Curiosity will bring the birds in and then draw them to a perch where they can take a clear look at you.

The visible outline of a bird changes with feather movements: bird with puffed out (left) and sleeked down (right).

Sibley's Birding Basics
David Sibley
2002, 168 pages
$12
Amazon

I work as a grip in the motion picture industry, and it's always been difficult to find one place that stocks every specific tool and supply you need for film work. Studio Stores often have everything, but they're too expensive; hardware stores are affordable but not specialized enough. When I found Toolsforstagecraft.com, I knew I'd scored big. They have some wrenches, etc. that I assumed were one offs, made in people's garages. Plus they're interdisciplinary, not just film but stage as well, not just grip, but electric and even carpenter. Check it out, it's a small operation with really good service that deserves more business. My favorite purchase was the switchblade screwdriver. Everybody asks me where I got it, It has a bunch of bits, and it takes up less space on my belt than a 4-in-1 screwdriver.

-- Eli Golub, Local 80 Hollywood, Motion Picture Studio Grip

Switchblade Screwdriver
$20

Manufactured by ToolsForStagecraft

I travel constantly and have, over time, become a big fan of earplugs on flights, especially long distance flights. I can feel the difference; I arrive more relaxed if I can block out the roar of the engines. But I've never sprung for the Bose noise-cancelling headphones, partly because I'm too cheap and partly because I don't really like to listen to music on planes. I just want quiet, and the idea of wearing a big set of headphones doesn't appeal to me. What I'm waiting for is noise cancelling earplugs, like white noise generating hearing aids -- that's a winner in my book.

Until then, I've settled on cheap, high-quality disposable earplugs by Howard Leight. I use their "MAX" model, with an NRR rating of 33, the highest I've been able to find; the higher the NRR rating, the more sound they block. I've tried every kind of earplug, from balls of silicon to wax and cotton and these work best for me.

I buy my earplugs from here. It's amazing to me to learn that there is an "Earplug Superstore" in this world, but there you go.

--Edward J. Murphy

Max Earplugs
12 cents per pair

Brilliant invention for clearing clogged drains without caustic chemicals. Comes in different sizes for different drain diameters. You attach it to a hose, and say for the kitchen sink, take off the p-trap, and slide the hose down the drain pipe as far as it will go. You then turn on the hose and it builds up pressure inside the wedged bellows to the point where it releases in a burst, expanding and contracting, ka-chunk, ka-chunk . . . You can clear one obstruction and then push the hose further to get to others. It really unclogs crap. Marveloso!

-- Llyod Kahn

Drain King Water Powered Drain Cleaner
$9
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by G.T. Water Products, Inc.

Check out this AA battery solar charger made from recycled solar panels (from garden lights). This smallest and lightest of solar chargers has allowed me to keep a GPS, digital camera, and film camera running all the time while travelling out of the country or back packing. I never had to charge a battery with an outlet, which are often hard to find while camping or in developing countries.

-- Alexander Rose

2 AA Mini Solar Charger with Batteries
item #900-20000-00
$25
Sundance Solar
603-456-2020