In the worst-worst case scenario that you experience a nuke explosion, dirty bomb, toxic chem attack or biological disaster, what should YOU do? The first ten minutes are crucial. Don't "ask your local officials" as much advice to date has suggested. Do read this short booklet prepared by RAND, and prepare. You can print it out from the free PDF file (including handy 3-fold card reminder version), or if you need to distribute many copies to employees, neighbors, etc., you can order printed copies for $15 a piece.

I highly recommend reading the full version first (also available as a series of PDFs and/or a longer book) which gives the logic behind their suggestions and scenarios. This is the best practical advice I've yet seen for personally dealing with the consequences of an actual weapon of mass destruction in your neighborhood.

--KK

Excerpt:

There is no need to determine the location of the source or direction or speed of the chemical cloud. Technical evaluations indicate that such basic sheltering can reduce chemical exposure by 75 percent or more compared to the exposure outside the shelter. These results are consistent with the outcomes of the aerosolized sarin attack by the Aum Shinrikyo group in a residential area in Matsumoto, Japan, in June 1994. In that incident, all seven people who died had their windows open. All of those individuals who had closed their windows-including many people closer to the source, those in units adjacent to buildings in which fatalities occurred, and those on the lower floors of these buildings-survived the attack (Yanagisawa, 1995).

Quick Guide
Free PDF from Rand
Click on the Quick Guide.

Full Version PDF

Individual Preparedness and Response, Quick Guide [book]
RAND
$11
Amazon

Powerisers are a real trip to use. They're like walking on the moon everywhere you go. I can run/jump faster and higher than ever before. Some of the more ambitious users are out there doing flips and the like. Once I put these on I was up walking around right away. They are a lot more intuitive than you might imagine, but some people that have tried them don't 'get it' right away and fall over. The hardest thing to do is to stand still, but if you keep walking it'll seem intuitive. You can run and take very large strides in them once you get the hang of it. You can also jump very high and long.

The units are probably as light as they can be with their composite springs and aluminum construction, but it will take a little getting used to having some weight strapped to your legs. The biggest design flaw is in the foam pad contacting near the knee. Without additional padding to avoid the point load of the round pad, you will get blisters or chafing probably after the first vigorous workout. I've found Powerisers to be stable, easy to learn, and I haven't had to do anything to 'maintain' them, although I did add padding as described to improve the design. They really are fun and I would recommend them.

My girlfriend and I were sharing a single room in a shared apartment, so we didn't have much space. I suggested getting a loft bed, and she surprised me by liking the idea. Searching online to purchase a loft, I couldn't find any great designs, and shipping all that wood wouldn't be cheap. But I didn't really want to put the time into designing one I'd like.

When I found plans for an OP Loftbed, I instantly recognized a quality design. OP stands for "Orgy-Proof" and though we haven't tested it that way, it's a good bet the bed would have NO problems.

I took my time and built it over several weeks, but it could be done pretty quickly (a long weekend). That's with basic, though not complete beginner, tools and skills. The website estimates that for a twin-sized bed, it'll be around $100 for lumber, and $25 for fasteners if you buy it from their online partner. The queen-sized, which is what I built, cost me more like $300 to $400. The difference is that:

1) The queen-size needs 2 sheets of plywood (and I used nice $30/sheet ply).
2) The fastener deal wasn't around, so I probably spent around $60.
3) I made a desk, which needed more wood and another sheet of good ply.
4) It's all painted and the shelves/desk are all poly'd.

Joel's queen-sized loft

It's like buying a car -- the basic model is probably around $150 or so, and you can spend a lot more for the accessories. There are free plans for bookshelves, a desk, and a telephone table, all of which I've modified slightly for my queen-sized loft, and all of which are fairly ingenious in their use of space.

Overall, the loft makes the room feel much bigger. I built mine to last, either for my own use, or for resale value. It was a good investment.

The late Carroll Smith built race-cars. When it comes to high-performance fasteners, he's the man. He explains how teensy little threads on a bolt can hold together several tons of speeding metal, and how they can fail. And why and how pop rivets work, or not. If you build anything that absolutely must not come apart, this is your reference.

-KK

Carroll Smith's Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook
Carroll Smith
1990, 223 pages
$22
MBI Publishing
Osceola, WI
Amazon

A monthly for the hardware hackers. Lots of electronics, robots, and small mechanical projects. Informative ads, too.

Back pain is ubiquitous in developed countries. Yet the honest truth is that science is uncertain as to what causes it. Theories abound, as does a lot of pseudo-therapy. There are probably multiple origins and different varieties of lower back pain. However, one theory says a large portion of back pain starts with mental tension. If you have an inkling that your back pain is linked to stress, I strongly suggest you seek out this perennially-in-print book (since 1972). My speaking agent, who deals with hundreds of stressed-out type A's and the consequential epidemic of back pain they carry with them, routinely hands out this book. It seems to be the one thing that helps them the most. It helped me. By adopting the view that lower back pain is a syndrome in large part fostered by the mind/body complex, I've been able to avoid surgery and painkillers and resume my life. Your mileage may vary, but it's worth a read.
-KK

Mind Over Back Pain
John Sarno, MD
1982, 124 pages
$10
Berkley Books
New York
Amazon

Excerpt:

The reason for this obsession with discs is that it does seem logical. There are those degenerating structures at the lower end of the spine, right where a lot of pain and spasms occur; there are lumbar and sacral nerves conveniently located so that they can be compressed by bulging or herniated discs; there is pain in the leg, proving that those nerves are compressed.
*
What these data confirm is that degenerative processes have nothing to do with most back pain. Degeneration is progressive and relentless; serial X rays as one ages document this fact. Yet back pain is far less common in the older age groups. According to the conventional diagnostic concepts, everyone over the age of sixty should have back pain.

The bar graph in Figure 9 [above] gives the age by breakdown by decade. Seventy-seven percent of the group fell between the ages of thirty and fifty-nine. Note that there are fewer patients in their sixties than in their twenties! Since the majority of back pain syndromes are attributed to degenerative processes - for example, degenerative osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease - it is strange, indeed, that there were only thirteen patients aged sixty to sixty-nine, and seven in their seventies.

Kids hurt their fingers a lot. You can make an okay bandage with Kling wrap (see Vet Wrap), but if the injury is on a fingertip (a common spot) the cylinder shape you get from rolling doesn't do as nice a job of protecting or of providing gentle pressure. You can fold over the end, but it gets bulky and inelegant for everyday activities. Tube Gauze is a quick, easy, elegant way to make a stocking cap for your finger or toe. The applicator (sold separately, but you can do without it) is a metal cage that holds the tube of the gauze open. You slide the applicator (or just the gauze) over a finger, lift it up, twist once, and then slide it back down. You can repeat several times to get the thickness of bandage you want. It gives a smooth, flat, elegant bandage -- and it's kinda fun to do. A hit with kids.

Peer-to-peer is a hot buzzword, but nonetheless, there is something there there. Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology means you can connect a lot of dumb things together -- without a center -- to make something smart. Most web pages are pretty dumb yet the web as a whole is ingenious. Napster and the other music sharing systems are good examples. Many observers believe peer-to-peer systems are destined to prevail throughout the net and beyond. Since these systems are very decentralized, very open, and very vague, no one knows how such networks will make money. Maybe they won't, maybe they will just become ubiquitous. This anthology from O'Reilly has gathered the first round of hard thinking on the subject. If beta versions don't interest you, you can skip this; it's nerdy and technical. If, otherwise, the hard-core edge of the things to come is a siren call, you won't get a better fix then here.

The newest of the Panasonic cordless drill drivers is a transcendent tool. It has an interchangeable head that makes it into an impact driver. At first I thought this was a silly add on, but quickly realized that impact drivers are amazing. They allow you to drive 6-inch lag bolts with one hand, and remove seized nuts easily. However with the non-impact head you canbe gentle with small wood finishing screws, orgently tightening nuts. We have both kinds of drivers in our shop but when they cost $300 each its nice for most people to get both types in one tool - this one.
--Alexander Rose

Panasonic EY6431NQKW 15.6- Volt 1/2-inch Cordless Hyperformance Drill Kit
$290
Amazon

It's in the headlines every summer: The number of homes built -- and burned -- at the wildland-urban interface is mushrooming. If you live on the interface, don't count on the fire department showing up. Safety-conscious fire departments across the country are changing their policies, and will no longer risk fire-fighter lives to protect mere property in these conflagrations. The survival of your house is utterly dependent on the steps you take to protect it.

This is a short (56-pg.) booklet that provides a complete overview of how to make your home more survivable in a wildfire. It covers the same material as many brochures published by fire departments on the same subject, but covers the subject in just enough additional detail to make it worth the $8 price tag. Important details not covered elsewhere from the theoretical (e.g., a detailed but not overly technical assessment of different terrain types and their effect on firs burn rates) to the practical (e.g., be sure to leave a ladder leaning against your roof when you evacuate - it might encourage firefighters to stop and save your house.)

Above all, the book has a refreshing and welcome bluntness that begins right on the cover -- two house photos, one labeled 'winner' and the second labeled 'loser' In an actual wildfire situation, fire crews will be making exactly the same snap decisions as they drive down a row of houses and decide which to save and which to sacrifice, so this is a good mindset for any homeowner to adopt.

The book thoroughly covers the basics of all aspects of passive fire protection, from vegetation clearances, to construction details and even evacuation practicalities. It doesn't cover active measures such as pool fire pumps and stand-and-defend tactics. But this is just as well: such steps are at best risky and should not be undertaken without a level of planning and commitment (and perhaps sheer crazedness) that is beyond the scope of a short book.

My intellectual friends, my arty-farty friends, hell, even my deep geek friends think I've gone off my nut on this one. White Dwarf is the monthly house organ for Games Workshop, Ltd., a UK company that makes fantasy and sci-fi tabletop wargames. The hobby doesn't seem to be big in the US (tho it's growing), but it's huge in Europe. Next to Star Wars and Star Trek, their future universe (Warhammer 40,000) is probably the largest collaborative alternate sci-fi universe out there, with over seven games devoted to it, seven (!) different magazines, dozens of novels, comic books, coffee table art books, THOUSANDS of game components and countless fan websites. White Dwarf is a gorgeously produced full-color magazine with beautiful photographs of mind-boggling 28mm painted miniatures and futuristic landscapes. The game's enthusiasts spend inordinate numbers of hours lavishly painting details one can barely see with the naked eye.

I've always been fascinated with wargames, not 'cause I'm a hawk (far from it), but because I'm fascinated by systems and how they interact given fixed parameters and random modifiers. Wargames are perfect little contained systems (part fixed rules, part fixed variables controlled by dice and part real-time decision-making with the rules and rolls). Wind 'em up and watch 'em go! I've also always been fascinated by world modeling, creating believable worlds and climbing into them. This goes all the way back to creating comic books as a kid, then to playing D&D as a teen, later to computer games/ MUDS/ MOOS, etc. Warhammer 40,000 is a collaborative world model that you render in the real world, on a tabletop. I don't just want to watch sci-fi, I wanna direct! WH40K lets me direct.

The analog nature of the hobby is a great antidote to the digital saturation of so much of the rest of my life. When guys of my dad's generation got old, they made a space in the basement to tie their own fishing flies or to paint Mallard ducks or whatever. Taking an alternate universe from a complex sci-fi mythology, and downloading it into an analog world of miniature models, alien landscapes and futuristic architectures is perhaps how aging cyberpunks (at least this one) plan on retiring.

The Surfer's Journal is pure surfing. For about 10 years now, Steve and Debbee Pezman have been sharing their love of the ocean and waves with other like-minded water people. A unique feature is the absence of advertising except for 2-3 pages from companies that surfers respect, like Patagopnia and Billabong. (By contrast a recent Collector's Edition of Surfing mag, in listing what it called "The 25 Most Powerful People in Surfing" had almost half its list composed of CEO's of surfboard or surf apparel companies.) The photography is stunning (a lot of credit going to photo editor Jeff Devine), the articles are in-depth, and there are a lot more longboard shots than the more typical punching-through-the-lip shortboard aerials that dominate the other surf mags. There's also a lot of wonderful stuff from the past; it's amazing that after all this time they still come up with unique shots from the 50s and 60s and sometimes earlier, when life was simpler and waves were uncrowded. The soul of surfing, 5 times a year. It's the only magazine where I've saved every copy.

The strongest non-prescription numbing substance you can apply around a scrape, wound, or burn is Lidocaine. You can find 2% lotion in expensive little tubes (8 per pack) for burns called Activ BurnStuff at most drugstores. You can also get topical anesthetic pads with 2.5% Lidocaine from Chinooks. Good for bee-stings, too.

-- KK

Activ Burnstuff
$13
Available from Amazon

Lidocaine First Aid Lotion
$6
Available from Amazon

Dan Poynter's utterly reliable self-publishing advice, The Self-Publishing Manual, has been a perennial oasis of sanity in a sea of hype for over two decades. Now in its 13th edition, it's more useful than ever. To Poynter the technologies of cheap -- if not free -- duplication are an outright opportunity, rather than a dreaded disaster. The Self-Publishing Manual is way ahead of any other source in offering smart counsel on how to exploit on-demand printing, online-download publishing, and e-distribution in the context of 2 billion free web pages. All publishing is self-publishing now. If you want to know how to publish (especially on paper), this is the man. Hello, New York?

Amazon

Follow artist David Hockney as he chases a ridiculous idea: the reason why Dutch masters, beginning with Vermeer, could paint so uncannily photographically was that they were using lenses secretly. Hockney chronicles his research step by logical step, and the seeming outrageous looks more and more reasonable. The theme is that art is governed by technology. "Yet there is a hand inside the camera," Hockney claims. By hacking up crude lenses and optical mirrors, using color copiers, photoshoping images, and filling walls with digital prints, Hockney turns art into detective work. In the design of this book, Hockney elevates his astonishing research into a work of art itself. This is one of the best books about art ever, and one of the best books of art ever.

Shoes of any sort. Wide, kids, vegetarian, everything. Zappos has flat out the best web shopping/catalog experience on the Web. They have awesome policies -- free shipping on most orders AND free shipping on returns up to 365 days! Click on the "sale" link, select your size, sort by price and shop until your heart's content.

Microplane began making micro-blades for woodworking use, but they've diverged into making fantastic kitchen tools. Their kitchen graters will turn a little block of Parmigiano-Reggiano into a huge cloud of billowy cheese wisps. Vegetables grate into little strips that almost melt in your mouth. My favorite use is with citrus zest. My lemon bars, lemon tarts and key lime pie have a much greater depth of flavor than ever before.

With most zesters, you end up with too much of the pithy white rind of the citrus fruit, but the Microplane takes off only the very thinnest layer of the outside of the fruit, the part which contains the intense and volatile citrus oils. Hands down, these are the best tools I've tried for fine-grating and zesting.

We've all suffered from carrying heavy, water-soaked towels while camping or traveling. Or from exfoliating our skin while we try to dry off using a rough pack towel. Enter Aquis towels - luxuriously soft, highly absorbent, and quick drying, woven from microfibers. I use the larger Aquis towels for camping/traveling. I keep a smaller towel on my golf bag to clean my clubs, and I even have a version of Aquis which fully dries my 35 lb. dog far better than a terry towel can.

-- Rex Ishibashi

Aquis Sport Towel
29 x 55 inches
$30
Available rom Amazon

Manufactured by Aquis

A compact quick-drying microfiber towel folds up neatly into a tiny square and is the perfect tool to stuff into your backpack anywhere you won't be provided with clean towels -- say traveling in low-budget parts of the world, or an overnight train. This towel comes in a small tidy pouch to keep it clean. It weighs only 3.5 ounces (when dry). I got mine from Rick Steve's travel store.

--KK

Microfiber Travel Towel
$25 (50 x 30 inches)
Rick Steve's Travel Store

Or $28 from Amazon

"Amazing!" That's the first word my friends say when I hand them my carbon fiber kayak paddle made by Epic Paddles, a company founded by Olympic gold medalist Greg Barton. (Of course, I first make my friends hold a progression of older paddles starting with a wooden one, then moving to a standard aluminum and plastic rental type, then a nice fiberglass one by Werner, and finally to the carbon fiber by Epic Paddles so they really appreciate the dramatic reduction in weight.)

I am only a recreational paddler myself, but even I can appreciate the vast difference between the kind of standard paddle you'll usually get when you rent a kayak, and the carbon fiber paddle I've grown to love. Besides being laughably light weight, the blade itself has a lot of flotation so it pops out of the water by itself. With a feature called length-lock, you can dial your feathering angle (for example, 45 or 60 degrees) and adjust overall paddle length to your liking. A kayak instructor I know calls this the "magic wand" of paddling. I'm such a fan that I insist on taking my paddles with me when I travel to the Caribbean (in a Harmony double paddle travel bag). I'll rent kayaks, but can't downgrade to rental paddles. Like a tennis racket or golf clubs, you want your own good equipment once you get used to it.

Epic has a lot of options for paddle construction. The one I have owned for three years is the Signature Series Full Carbon and I just ordered this same construction but in a wing shape--the Mid Wing. The Full Carbon is about $100 more expensive than the hybrid but gives you the full benefit of carbon fiber technology and the best blade design. The hybrid is a compromise for a lower price. The reinforced version adds some material to the end to protect the blade from damage if you're going to be hitting rocks with it. The ultra apparently is an even more refined full carbon, probably for the competitive racer.

Bottom line: Go for Signature Series Full Carbon and you'll be a very happy paddler!

Netflix rents DVDs on an all-you-can-watch subscription basis. You can rent as many movies as you want (but no more than three at a time) by paying $20 per month. That includes free shipping coming and going, a task made easy by handy mailers. Great selection, shades of the video-on-demand world coming. It's filmaholic heaven.