I used this video by Professor Claude Olney of Arizona State University when I was in school. The video is rich with specific hints on getting better grades without working harder. For instance: show up for class, sit in the front row, use your highlighter on items you didn't know instead of the important items, etc. It was a great help to me as an undergrad at MIT (one B and the rest A's). I'm reminded of it now because I'm watching it again with my daughter as she gets started on 9th grade. (We are using the college version although Olney offers versions for high school and grade school.) Bottom line: this video is a fantastic tool for getting better grades, presented with a nice bit of humor.

-- Keith S. Jackson

This an extremely practical set of lessons, with a lot of wisdom and smartness. Although presented in very boring format -- a teacher at a lectern podium -- my high school kids benefited from watching the college version too.

-- KK

Where There's a Will There's an A
How to Get Better Grades (in College)
By Claude Olney
DVD, 161 minutes

$20
Available from Amazon

Or $47 from
Olney Seminars

Also available used (hopefully) from Ebay for $8+
Ebay

Everone knows the standard 1.6 gallon low-flush toilet does not work as advertised. The three different models we installed in our bathroom in as many years did not easily flush large turds. Finally a maniacal plumber who methodically reviews low-flush toilets on his website (O, the glory of the web!) pointed me to a 1.6 gallon toilet that really, really works: the Toto UltraMax. It has garnered unanimously great reviews online.

I can categorically say that if you have trouble with non-flushing 1.6 gallon toilets, than the Toto UltraMax will change your bathroom life. You can store that plunger away. Created by clever Japanese engineers who figured that if you could make a toilet that worked in space, why not one that worked at home? They rethought the standard design, and came up with the G-Max system. It inserts a vortex in the bow of the throne's bowl which satisfyingly sucks everything down in a split-second quiet whoosh. Shit be gone!

Even better, I found a site that would mail me the Toto UltraMax to my home via DHL (and with free shipping!) Two days later I had a very large box on our front porch, and a few hours later, a low-flush toilet running that has not clogged once since installation. (Previously we needed a plunger every third time).

I've been so happy.

-- KK

Toto Ultramax Toilet
MS854114S
$406
Available from
Performance Toilets

Or $421 from Amazon

Terry Love's Consumer Toilet Report

When I was 11, my dad got me a soldering iron for Hanukkah. After my seventh burn, I started wondering if I was being punished for something. Enter the ColdHeat Pro - I can now solder stuff without scorching myself. It's cordless, light, and heats up quickly. I love it.

-- Ian Lurie

ColdHeat Pro Soldering Iron
$30
Available from
ColdHeat

With three extra tips
$49
Think Geek

Manufactured by
ColdHeat

My favorite technology of the week is our Windows Media Center PC. At home we resisted a TiVo or any DVR for years because we hardly watch any television, but as the kids got older and more numerous we found ourselves putting them in front of the TV more often to have a few moments to ourselves. Random cartoons are just awful, so we finally had a good reason to get a DVR: to limit the kids to just the TV that's worth watching.

As it happened, my wife needed a new PC. We realized that by picking one with Media Center 2005 pre-installed we could get a DVR essentially for free (or, to be precise, $150 extra to add a dual-tuner TV card and a remote control to the configuration). You can now find Media Center PCs for less than $700.�Anti-DRM zealots who think we should have home-brewed our own open-source DVR instead are invited to make this case to my wife.

The cool thing about the latest (2005) version of Windows Media Center is that it can run in the background of a regular PC. So as far as my wife is concerned, it's just her standard workhorse PC, sitting in the study. But while she's doing email and such, it's recording TV on a 400 gig hard drive or streaming it to TVs around the house. Since we already had the cable TV line coming to the study for the cable modem, installing the PC was simply a matter of a Radio Shack adapter that split the coax into three--one to the cable modem and one to each of the PC's twin tuners.

The other cool thing about Media Center 2005 is the way it works with "extenders", which are set-top boxes that you place next to each TV you want connected to the DVR. This allows the Media Center to act as a central media server for the whole house, giving any TV simultaneous access to the same recorded content. We already had an Xbox on one TV, so turning that into an extender just required inserting a disk. We bought a wireless Linksys extender for the other TV.

For us, Media Centers have five big advantages over traditional DVRs, including TiVo.
* No monthly fees.
* Centralized storage means that all TVs around the house have instant access to the same content.
* Unlimited storage capacity.
* Can stream all the other media on your PC to any TV, including music and home videos.
* By DVR standards, it's a relatively open platform (certainly compared to the DVRs offered by your cable company), and there are an increasing number of plug-ins that expand its features.

Don't forget that the Media Center PC route also effectively gives you a free TV (the PC itself).��All told,�our total investment was about $440, which gave us the equivalent of three�DVRs and one LCD TV, with all the advantages of centralized media serving. You really can't beat that with dedicated devices.

There are, to be fair, a few disadvantages, too. It's a Windows PC, so you have to restart it once in a while. If you do that while the kids are watching television upstairs, they're going to yelp. And because it's a PC that's running all sorts of other software, there is the risk you'll install something funky that messes things up. I put in a new sound card and the DVR stopped recording TV sound until I undid most of the changes. Finally, the Linksys extender, which is the only hardware extender available and feels a bit V1.0, freezes every now and then and has to be restarted.

At its core, the Media Center is a platform for unlimited-choice TV. It connects the Internet to the TV screens around your house via a simple, TiVo-like interface. Right now, most of the video content comes over the broadcast network. But that content can just as easily come from the web, and independent video marketplaces such as Brightcove and Akimbo are planning to release their services as Media Center plug-ins to deliver just that. It feels like a glimpse of the future.

-- Chris Anderson

Gateway Windows Media Center
$700
Available from
Office Depot

This is a companion to the previously reviewed Allen and Mike's Really Cool Backpackin' Book--- same droll cartoonist, different author: Don Ladigan, teacher of light backpacking at the University of Oregon.

The revolution started by Ray Jardine in his Beyond Backpacking (2000) continues. Every year sees drastically lighter and cleverer gear, and the savvy to match also grows apace, as you'll find in this book. "Ultralight" even has a definition now: it's when your pack and everything in it (except consumables such as water and food) weighs 10 pounds or less. Backpacking becomes a jaunt instead of a slog, and that liberates the whole experience.

How about a luxury breakfast with minimal kitchen gear and zero clean up? See the example below...

-- Stewart Brand

Lighten Up!
A Complete Handbook for Light & Ultralight Backpacking
Don Ladigin
2005, 99 pages
$10
Available from
Amazon

Sample excerpts:

Boil-in-bag Cooking

If you want to cook an omelet but don't have a frying pan, you can always use the boil-in-bag method of cooking. Put the eggs and other ingredients into a plastic freezer-storage bag, close the bag securely, and heat the bag in boiling water until the eggs are no longer runny. When it's done you can eat the omelet directly from the bag with a spoon. This method makes no mess and generates few cooking smells to attract animals.

*

*

As the future arrives, it gets harder to keep up. Here is how the professional futurists run in front of the curve: they read Future Survey. Global Business Network (a scenario-practicing consultancy to which I belong) sends a copy each month to all its network members.

Every 30 days, Michael Marien summaries the current crop of future-oriented books and articles. Because he seems to read and see EVERYTHING published in the realm of the Next, no matter how obscure or academic, his comparative evaluations of books are astoundingly useful. Each issue I usually discover one or two great works of forecasting I had not known about. But more importantly, Future Survey extracts the key ideas from piles of mediocre books -- books I no longer have to bother with. Marien synthesizes these reviews into emerging notions, which then become indispensable for tracking mega trends, not mere fashions and fads. Marien has been doing this for 20 years, and his database of 5,000 reviews (available online) is as good a history of the future as we have. For his almost single-handed crusade to tame the uncertainty of what-is-coming, Marien should get a medal.

Remarkably for such a future-oriented publication, Future Survey is stuck in the paper past. It has no web presence to speak of. Its database of past reviews are only accessible via an extremely clunky and crude search. Nonetheless, its monthly 24-page newsletter is highly evolved and perfect for study and scanning.

-- KK

Future Survey
12 issues/year
$98
Available from
World Future Society

Sample excerpts:

The Palgrave Companion to North American Utopias. John W. Friesen and Virginia Lyons Friesen (both U of Calgary). NY: Palgrave Macmillan, April 2004/274p/$35.

Some key drivers of change in sport: the blurring distinction between work and leisure, the drive for instant entertainment, the growing power of sports governing bodies, and the loss of core values in society. From these drivers, four possible long-term scenarios are sketched: 1) Religiosport: major sports replace conventional religion with shrines (stadiums), rituals, high priests, piety (fan loyalty), and actively condoning violence against rival sects (teams); 2) Machosport: associated with the worst forms of idolatry, individual sports people become popular idols, and the ideal of modern man or woman; 3)�Technosport: developing when winning is everything and ethics counts for nothing; sport managed entirely by large businesses; 4) Valuesport: an end to the big business of organized team sports and events, with advertising no longer linked to sports and all teams backed by their community; the preferred future of large sports events may not be the Olympics, but "Global Community Games" backed by a growing values-based movement. (sport trends and scenarios)

Most people take journaling either way too serious, or not serious enough. For such a key life-skill it should be more like you -- expressive, idiosyncratic, unique. This tiny chapbook is the best guide I know of to get you started in journaling, and keep you going. Hand drawn with inspiration, it properly emphasizes the value of graphic thinking in the examined life. It is wise, brief, and fun. I've given one copy to each of my kids. Although it does not mention blogging, and assumes you'll use a notebook, I think every blogger and blogger-hopeful should read it.

-- KK

How to Make a Journal of Your Life
Daniel Price
1999, 116 pages
$10
Available from
Amazon

Sample excerpts:

*

*

This is the same headset with microphone used by NBA courtside broadcasters. Yes, it's around $250, but instead of the crappy sound from those $19 cheapies at OfficeMax, you'll sound like a real pro; people will think you are on NPR! The mic travels with your head, making this ideal for people making audio info products, doing radio interviews, and of course generating podcasts.

For casual headset/mic use (like on the phone), I do not recommend this unit. The Beyer Dynamic DT290 is really a pro tool. You will have to understand all of the audio hook ins to sound cards, etc. Not exactly a plug-and-play solution. It is not all that difficult, but for novices, it would be problematic. It is really for those who want essentially pro-quality sound in their radio interviews, audio recordings, etc. It does take some effort and expense to get to the next level, but IMO it is well worth it. Especially if one wants to do lots of podcasts. You get the greatest improvement with upgrading the mic. (For the casual user, the best mic at the moment is the Plantronics DSP 500 -- a USB digital headset with mic that gives great, even amazing quality.)

From time to time, you can find the DT290 on EBay. Comes with an XLR connection, but can be modified to use a 1/4 jack.

-- Hakim Chishti

Beyer Dynamic DT290 Headset
$181
Available from
Amazon

Even before Gillette announced its over-the-top Mach 5 blade, I made the switch from my Gillette Mach 3 shaving razor (using a standard from-a-can shaving cream) to this "classic" safety razor (with a badger hair brush and good shaving soap) and am amazed at the difference. I switched after years of razor burn and irritation, and after reading an article and visiting a website devoted to classic shaving. This Merkur razor hefts nicely in your hand, and delivers an amazingly close shave without irritation. I believe the safety razor causes less irritation than the Mach 3, because of the quality of the safety razor blade itself. I think that the marketing strategy of the Mach 3 is to dazzle the user with 3 blades, implying that three blades is three times as effective as one blade. Because the value (to the user) lies in the quantity of blades, the quality of each individual blade can be lowered. Furthermore the multiple blade design of the cartridge razors is actually ineffective--the spacing between the blades gets clogged with hair and shaving cream very quickly into the stroke, seriously comprising the efficiency of the higher blades. Another reason is that the cartridge razors are designed to encourage the user to press harder to get a closer shave (not the case with the safety razor). So now if you want a close shave, you are scraping a sub quality razor hard against your skin--resulting in irritation. YMMV. I've never enjoyed shaving so much.

At $26, the Merkur might seem a bit expensive compared to Gillette or Schick, but the real expense for a razor is its blades. Quality double-edge blades for this razor run around $0.45, compared to 3-blade cartridges, which cost at least $1.50.

-- Seth Partain

Merkur Classic Double-Edge Safety Razor
$26
Available from Classic Shaving

Or $32 from Amazon

It's amazing to me that it took thousands of years before we humans really began to understand how best to swim, and how best to teach swimming. Terry Laughlin is perhaps the nation's best swimming coach. Over his lifetime in pools he has figured out the best ways for teaching all kinds of people how to swim. His teaching is all about lowering your resistance in the water, rather than increasing your strength or force. He teaches every kind of swimmer, from beginners to Olympic athletes, how to be more like fish and less like the humans we are. The advent of underwater viewing and particularly video taping and slow motion helped Terry make breakthroughs in understanding the basis of efficient swimming. Terry's methods still suffer the slings and arrows that any breakthrough idea that dares to challenge conventional thinking endures, but the truth and usefulness of his ideas are winning out.

I love when a book or DVD can teach me physical things. (I've also experienced this with kayaking, particularly learning to roll, but that's another story.) I had a mortifying experience in my first triathlon. I can run and bike pretty well and thought I could swim. But out there in the ocean I exhibited the grace of a wounded wildebeest. I had to flop over on my back and gasp the whole way, arms flailing. I was close to panic from it all. I swore I'd either give up this nonsense or learn how to swim well. When I found Laughlin's DVDs and books, I felt they had been created just for me.�Through him I discovered for myself the benefit of lining up my head and using my core body to move. There's no pulling at the water and hardly any kicking. I could try to describe it more fully but Terry does it so much better in his DVDs and books.

-- Steve Leveen

I'd start by watching the DVD and then go on to the book for supporting details.

-- KK

Freestyle Made Easy
DVD, 42 minutes
$40
Available from
Total Immersion

Total Immersion
Terry Laughlin, John Delves
2004, 320 pages
$10
Amazon

Produced by
Total Immersion

Sample excerpts:

In 1988 I had the good fortune to meet Bill Boomer, who planted the intriguing idea that the "shape of the vessel" might have just as much influence as the "size of the engine" on a swimmer's performance. I had been teaching balance in an instinctive way - and with exciting results - to butterfliers and breaststrokers since 1978. Also in 1978, while watching my swimmers from an underwater window, I had realized that swimmers moved fastest while just gliding in streamline after pushoff. Once they began kicking and stroking, far more of their energy seemed to go into making bubbles than into effective propulsion.

"Fine," you say. "If all kicking does is burn energy and cause drag, why bother to kick at all?" Well, because that's not all kicking does. An efficient kick will improve your stroke and, in fact, is essential for the kinetic chain to produce anything like the power it's capable of producing for you.

Only a cool tool fanatic would appreciate a $70 dishrack when you can get a plastic one for just a few bucks. The folks at Simplehuman have designed simple, functional, and beautiful kitchen products that many folks don't think twice about (including paper towel holders and trash cans).

I saw (and used) this flip-top dishrack during a visit at my sister's, and both my wife and I were amazed at how good design can improve an everyday tool. I hunted down and ordered one as soon as we got home! Made of stainless steel with ABS plastic parts, it comes with a "dual position" draining mat that actually works, a "knife block" that fits into the utensil holder, and clip on holders for cups and wine glasses. It is especially useful for washing the miscellaneous stuff as well as pots, pans, and baking tools.

-- Aaron Ebata

Simplehuman Flip Top Dishrack
$70
Available from Amazon

Also Cooking.com

Manfuctured by
Simplehuman

The Bonzai Expandable Flash Drive is a typical USB flash drive, except you can plug in a memory card in the back, meaning that it:

1) is infinitely upgradeable
2) (and here's the rub) can be used to rapidly copy photos/files from a camera, phone, mp3 player, or other flash device that uses an SD/MMC card, meaning that you don't have to travel with those pain-in-the-neck cables.
3) it's cheap: less then $10. Use a card you already have.

I keep one SD card in the Bonzai, and one in my camera. This way I always have a USB drive for my files, a spare card for my camera, and a way to get my photos onto a computer, at all times. I've seen a CompactFlash version (made by another company), if SD/MMC doesn't work for you. Obviously, though, that one was a bit bigger.

The Bonzai is small enough to fit in the coin pocket of my jeans, so I hardly realize it's there. In fact, it's gone through the washing machine at least once (with a card in it). I just let it dry it out, and it still worked like a charm. I love mine.

-- Kevin Cooney

Bonzai USB Card Reader
$9
Previously available from
Amazon

[online stock of this item appears limited; if you have recently purchased this item and have a reliable source, please let us know; OR if you use a newer model/version of this item to recommend, please let us know --sl]

Lynda.com is a great resource for digital-video tutorials of some of the more advanced design tools. You can buy discs or subscribe for $25 a month for Quicktime online access (a real deal). I find the tutorials quite useful--it's fun to see how much more I have to learn even in the programs I have used for a long time (Photoshop for example). It's also instructive to see how others accomplish the same tasks and do it from a completely different angle.

-- Chuck Green

I tried some of the free sample classes streamed on Lynda.com and found that I remembered much more from these movie tutorials than I did from the many guidebooks I usually use. Must be how my brain works. I retain the tip, shortcut, or method long afterwards, which is not true after I am done with most computer manuals. Normally I close the book, and then have to look it up months later when I forget again. If you think visually (and most of the software covered here has a visual basis) then you might find this style of learning superior, as I do. But it is harder to search/find a solution to a specific nagging problem with this online library, because they do not yet have a fine-grained index or search beyond section headings. For expanding your reach with software packages, their subscription deal for online tutorials is a fine bargain; for hunting down a needed fix, I'd use your standard software bible.

-- KK

Lynda.com

When I first realized that my housemates were serious about me using a push mower to cut our yard, I was a little skeptical. Eventually I was won over by the environmental benefits and the sense of accomplishment that I received from using a "reel mower". The first mower we purchased is literally called the "Prison reel mower" and I wouldn't recommend it. The Brill Luxus 38 Reel Mower on the other hand is a sweet piece of engineering. It is very light at 17 pounds, weather resistant, and has variable height ranges. It feels good in your hands and seems very well designed. Now that I use it, I wouldn't even consider buying a gas or electric powered mower for an average size yard. But let me warn you, using a manual mower is physically much harder, takes more time, and is very difficult if not impossible with tall grass (which means regular mowing). Whether you choose to look at that as an environmentally friendly and money-saving workout or a punishment is up to you.

-- Patrick Chen

For the past 20 years I've cut my lawn with a hand reel mower. Reel mowers are wonderful -- when they are new. The major drawback is not the mild workout, but keeping the blades sharp over time. You can't sharpen the helical blades of a reel mower without a special jig (at least I can't). Yet getting it sharpened at the shop will set you back $50 each time. That adds up real fast. And if a reel mower isn't razor sharp (unlike a power one) cutting the grass does turn into punishment. That's why the Brill is so interesting. Because its blades do not touch the cutter bar, it claims the average interval for resharpening is 8 years. I don't know anyone who has had one that long (German-made Brill is big in Europe but new in the US), but in theory this could prolong the duration between sharpenings and change the equation for keeping a manual reel mower going. That is good news because I've found that I can cut our small irregular lawn just as fast, and with no more sweat, using a sharp push mower.

-- KK

Brill Luxus 38 Reel Mower
$200
Amazon

FAQ
People Powered Machines

You live in the big here. Wherever you live, your tiny spot is deeply intertwined within a larger place, imbedded fractal-like into a whole system called a watershed, which is itself integrated with other watersheds into a tightly interdependent biome. (See the world eco-region map ). At the ultimate level, your home is a cell in an organism called a planet. All these levels interconnect. What do you know about the dynamics of this larger system around you? Most of us are ignorant of this matrix. But it is the biggest interactive game there is. Hacking it is both fun and vital.

The following exercise in watershed awareness was hatched 30 years ago by Peter Warshall, naturalist extraordinaire. Variations of this list have appeared over the years with additions by Jim Dodge, Peter Berg, and Stephanie Mills among others. I have recently added new questions from Warshall and myself, and I have edited or altered most of the rest. It's still a work in progress. If you have a universal question you think fits, submit it to me.

I am extremely interested in hearing from anyone who scores a 25 or better on the quiz on their first unassisted try. I'd like to know how you got your Big Here education. I have a few small prizes for anyone who scores (on the honor system) a perfect 30, without Googling.

The intent of this quiz is to inspire you to answer the questions you can't initially. I'd like to collect and then post the best step-by-step suggestions about how to answer a particular question. These are not answers to the quiz, but recommended paths on how one might most efficiently answer the question locally. Helpful websites which can provide local answers are wanted. Because of the severe specificity of local answers, the methods provided should be as general as possible. The emerging list of answer-paths will thus become the Cool Tool.

Post your methods in the comment section for each question linked in red to my Help Wanted page. I will award a copy of the next paper-book version of Cool Tools to the person providing what I consider the best solution method(s) for each question.

-- KK

30 questions to elevate your awareness (and literacy) of the greater place in which you live:

1) Point north. [Recommendations for answer methods]

2) What time is sunset today? [Recommendations]

3) Trace the water you drink from rainfall to your tap. [Recommendations]

4) When you flush, where do the solids go? What happens to the waste water? [Recommendations]

5) How many feet above sea level are you? [Recommendations]

6) What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here? [Recommendations]

7) How far do you have to travel before you reach a different watershed? Can you draw the boundaries of yours? [Recommendations]

8) Is the soil under your feet, more clay, sand, rock or silt? [Recommendations]

9) Before your tribe lived here, what did the previous inhabitants eat and how did they sustain themselves? [Recommendations]

10) Name five native edible plants in your neighborhood and the season(s) they are available. [Recommendations]

11) From what direction do storms generally come? [Recommendations]

12) Where does your garbage go? [Recommendations]

13) How many people live in your watershed? [Recommendations]

14) Who uses the paper/plastic you recycle from your neighborhood? [Recommendations]

15) Point to where the sun sets on the equinox. How about sunrise on the summer solstice? [Recommendations]

16) Where is the nearest earthquake fault? When did it last move? [Recommendations]

17) Right here, how deep do you have to drill before you reach water? [Recommendations]

18) Which (if any) geological features in your watershed are, or were, especially respected by your community, or considered sacred, now or in the past? [Recommendations]

19) How many days is the growing season here (from frost to frost)? [Recommendations]

20) Name five birds that live here. Which are migratory and which stay put? [Recommendations]

21) What was the total rainfall here last year? [Recommendations]

22) Where does the pollution in your air come from? [Recommendations]

23) If you live near the ocean, when is high tide today? [Recommendations]

24) What primary geological processes or events shaped the land here? [Recommendations]

25) Name three wild species that were not found here 500 years ago. Name one exotic species that has appeared in the last 5 years. [Recommendations]

26) What minerals are found in the ground here that are (or were) economically valuable? [Recommendations]

27) Where does your electric power come from and how is it generated? [Recommendations]

28) After the rain runs off your roof, where does it go? � [Recommendations]

29) Where is the nearest wilderness? When was the last time a fire burned through it? [Recommendations]

30) How many days till the moon is full? [Recommendations]

The Bigger Here Bonus Questions:

31) What species once found here are known to have gone extinct? [Recommendations]

32) What other cities or landscape features on the planet share your latitude? [Recommendations]

33) What was the dominant land cover plant here 10,000 years ago? [Recommendations]

34) Name two places on different continents that have similar sunshine/rainfall/wind and temperature patterns to here. [Recommendations]

With digital editing tools, stop-action animation (think Wallace and Gromit, or Tim Burton) has become more forgiving to make and therefore more new artists are trying their hand at it, making stop-action film more common in commercials, shorts and MTV-ish channels. But it's really difficult to make a decent flexible figure for stop-action that will not move unless you want it to, but will move exactly as you want it to when you do, and even more challenging to make one that looks alive. I know I've tried. There's really no other way to do this; you have to make a special armature figure. I can't imagine there are more than five readers of Cool Tools interested in how to make a really good latex puppet for use in animated videos and films. But for you five, here's some gold: an all-you-need-to-know step-by-step DVD from a gal (Kathi Zung) in New York City who's perhaps the only professional animated latex puppet maker in the galaxy. She does everything in her loft kitchen, and is very eager to tell you what she has learned. It's as thorough a workshop course as I've seen, with no detail or potential problem unattended.

-- KK

Do it Yourself Foam Latex Puppetmaking 101
$25
Zung Studio

A great kit will allow you to make something you probably wouldn't make any other way. You are given all the parts, and then you assemble and finish. Musical instruments, with their exactness, fit into that category for me. Years ago I used this kit to make a simple dulcimer. It was easy to build, and beautiful to behold and hear.

-- KK

Black Mountain Dulcimer Kit
Hourglass Spruce, Model 56
$123
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by
Black Mountain Instruments

Science is the only new news. There is more and more of it than ever and I have trouble keeping up. I've been an off-and-on subscriber to the richest source, Science, but I am currently off it simply because I could not keep up with the weekly deluge of diamond-dense information it dumped on me. Scientific American is drastically uneven, and recently too preachy, so although I subscribe, it is not essential. Discover is okay but not as, well, scientific. Over the years, the only periodical that has remained a constant source of readable science news, with no dumbing down, and much uplifting of ideas, as well as providing a great sense of important frontiers, is New Scientist. It is smart, ahead of the curve of other publications, deep, accessible, and reliable. If you can only subscribe to one source of the new news, New Scientist is it.

I value it most for what it does not run. It doesn't explain what DNA is again. Rather it talks up to its readers, assuming you have basic science literacy. Think of it as an Economist for science. It wisely selects pattern-shifting stuff, and I've come to concur with its nose for interesting news that will stay new. Issues from years ago still read fresh. Yet it avoids hype and sci-fi wet dreams.

Much of its power stems from its reliance on subscribers rather than consumer advertisers for its income; it really does serve readers. But that also means this weekly British publication is on the expensive side. Rather than the normal $18 per year that most ad-inflated magazines in the US charge, this weekly will run you $150 annually. (There's a cheap intro price to get you hooked.) It is well worth the investment. May it live long and prosper.

-- KK

New Scientist
51 issues per year
$72 new print/online subscriptions
$40 online access only
Available from
New Scientist

$150 (renewals)
Available from Amazon
$70-$150 custom subscriptions & renewals available for students, educators, seniors, low income, and others. Call Elsevier publishers 888-822-3242.

I've been using one of these carpet sweepers so long I forgot to think of it as a Cool Tool. You've probably seen them used in restaurants and hotels. They just plain work. No electric, no plugs, no noise & lightweight. So convenient to grab for a few second cleanup. Just push and they clean, even small crumbs. They go forever. Around $50. And when you flip them over to empty, you're always amazed how much stuff they picked up.

-- Vincent Crisci

Hoky PR-2400
$64
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Hoky

If you mess around in boats (and you should), a life jacket is a very good thing to have, or even better, to WEAR. Over the last few years there has been a revolution in life jacket comfort as a variety of automatically inflatable life jackets have come on the scene. Inflatable PFDs (Personal Flotation Devices) overcome the two primary reasons people don't wear a life jacket: the bulk and heat a life jacket captures. I recommend a full collar auto-inflatable type since it will bring you to the surface if you go into the water unconscious (for example if you knock your head).

I hardly notice mine (a Mustang Survival Classic) when I have it on. Whether you kayak, jet ski, or boat, there really isn't an excuse not to wear one. In addition to the Mustang Survival line, another source for inflatable life jackets is Sterns, which produces the Sospenders line. Both manufacturers are approved by the US Coast Guard.

One important note: Wear your inflatable life jacket OVER your outwear. You don't want to be sharing the inside of your zipped up jacket with one of these when you go in the water. Something will break and it is likely to be you.

-- Daren Lewis

Mustang Survival
Automatic Classic
Model 3031
$160
Available from Landfall Navigation

Manufactured by
Mustang Survival

Also, Sospenders made by Sterns

For the closet beer geek in all of us, ProMash allows a brewer to virtually brew a recipe before ever setting foot in the home or professional brewery. It frees the user from the tedious "carry the 1" calculations that abound in the brewing process and helps you keep track of the history of a beer as it develops over time. Updates are provided yearly, free of charge to registered owners.

-- Drew Beechum

ProMash
(For Windows)
$25
Available from
ProMash

I first saw this toy construction set at a front-door exhibit in the San Francisco-based Exploratorium. You arrange the rectangular plastic pieces in endless formations, limited only by your geometrical imagination. The squares interlock loosely, cleverly. A baby can do it. Every time you come to the set, you see new possibilities. But unlike other complicated construction sets, this ingenious one has just four simple sizes of one shape. I think of Wedgits as a 3D version of the ancient Tangram game. In fact you can get a booklet with profiles of shapes which you can try to build, in Tangram mode. Wedgits will challenge an adult, yet are easily manipulated by the small hands of an infant.

This toy was first called the Diamant, and it was invented in 1981 by the German designer Peer Clahsen. You can purchase an exquisite museum-quality wooden version (and other amazing toy-art) from the Swiss design company Naef. Here is what reader John Edmark has to say about them: "Swiss-made Naef toys are some of the most intelligent, well-crafted, creativity-promoting toys ever made. They are also very expensive, but well worth it. I possess and cherish but three of them to date: Diamant, Cella, and Ellipso. Cubicus is next on my list. These are not just toys for kids, but for anyone with an inquisitive mind. Nor are they puzzles to be solved, rather opportunities to enter into a creative dialog with spatial geometry. The quality and craftsmanship is outstanding. I've never seen better."

However, for plain fun, the cheap plastic version of the Diamant, or Wedgits, works just as well. I'd get the Deluxe Set version with 30 pieces. A great gift for kids. If you want art, go with the Naef.

-- KK

Wedgits Deluxe Set
$30
Available from
Fat Brain Toys

Also from Amazon

Manufactured by Wedgits

Naef Diamant
$350
Available from Nova

Manufactured by Naef Toys