This elegant little Italian grain grinder has three hardened steel rollers that flatten grain for making flakes or crack it for making hot cereal or granola. I'd never had fresh oats before until my friend showed me this device, just after he gave me a breakfast bowl of fresh oatmeal along with flax seeds, shredded coconut, a little hemp oil for flavor, and brown sugar. As you grind oats you're taking the whole oat grain (groat), and crushing and flaking it just before you cook it. You get nutty, delicious oatmeal, the flavor of the whole grain just released. Clamps to any surface up to 2" thick.

-- Lloyd Kahn

Lehman's Roller Mill
$120
Available from
Lehman's

I like using mechanical pencils but their big shortcoming is a tendency for the narrow tip to bend, which makes the lead break prematurely. This is especially a problem if you carry the pencil around; they tend to last much longer if they stay on your desk. Pilot has a mechanical pencil which neatly solves this problem. The tip is retractable, so it is protected when it's in your pocket or your briefcase. It also, as a side benefit, means that it's less likely to poke holes in your clothes. Plus, it's a good looking piece of writing equipment and has a nice heft to it. I've stockpiled spares in case Pilot stops making them, but maybe wider familiarity via Cool Tools will keep them in production. For me, it's essential equipment.

-- Ed Murphy

Pilot Vanishing Point Mechanical Pencil
$12
Available from Amazon

Or $16 from
Pilot

This is probably the single most wonderful item of clothing I've ever owned. It's 100% Merino wool. Soft, useful, light, washable, warm, stylish. I've been wearing this whenever it's cold, over a cotton or silk t-shirt. Or if colder, over a lighter weight Merino wool shirt.

I used to wear mostly natural fibers. Then along came Patagonia and other outdoor outfitters with some great artificial (usually polyester) products: fleece, Synchilla, Capilene, warm lightweight coats, polyester shirts for travel that could be rolled up in a backpack, and look wrinkle-free when worn. Now I'm back to layering with natural fibers. 100% wool in various combos works wonders. Icebreaker has an elegant line of products (in spite of the very weird cover photo on their home page). They have testimonials from athletes who wear Merino wool clothing in various combos (there are 3 weights): climbing Everest, on kayak trips, wet or dry, hot or cold. How great, natural fibers outperforming artificial! Also check out Smartwool clothing, another line of beautiful Merino wool products. Go to Backcountry and do a search for "smartwool."

-- Lloyd Kahn

Icebreaker Sport 320 Wing Zip
$130
Available from
Icebreaker

Cartoons rule as the densest form of information packing known to humans. This slim 48-page book of cartoons contains just about all you need to know about fly-fishing, and covers more material than most wordy 480-page books on the subject (of which there are many). First published in 1978, this funky manual is still the one that veteran fly-fishers hand out to newbies with the command: "Read this first." It is not the last word, but everyone agrees it is where you start.

-- KK

The Curtis Creek Manifesto
Sheridan Anderson
1978, 48 pages
$10
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpt:

These hefty four-way rubber bands are so much more useful that a plain old rubber band. Also they can be used decoratively on a simple brown-paper-wrapped gift. Or as a solid tie for bundles of magazines or newspapers.

-- Kaz Brecher

Box
$5 / 6 bands
Available from
Paizo
Available in other sizes and manufactured by Flying Buffalo

Also see the 2-in-1 Rubber Band from Amazon

At Costco I found a 15 MILLION candlepower rechargeable flashlight for $29.99. It pretty much stopped me in my tracks. After charging all day, it's incredibly bright. The only analogy that I can think of is the spotlight on a police helicopter.

It's a model CYC-S1500, made by Cyclops Solutions of Bedford, Texas. It uses a standard automotive H4 130W halogen bulb and what appears to be a motorcycle battery. It has a high and low-power setting and it comes with both AC/DC charger and 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter. Manufacturer's claimed burn time on high power is 40 minutes.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a light like this would ever be available for thirty bucks. My friends and I are already talking about upgrading ours with super-duper PIAA H4 bulbs and Optima batteries, to hopefully create a real monster...

-- Curt Nelson

Cyclops S1500 Spot Light
$45
Available from
beeGool

Previously available from Amazon

Manufactured by Cyclop Solutions

The Nadachair and Slouchbuster are based on the ropes that Tibetan monks use to sit upright for hours on end when meditating. The monks use these ropes between their knees and back to help them stay upright. The Slouchbuster is a small, much more elegant version than ropes. The Nadachair is a larger version.

I'm a yank who lives in Perth Australia (West Coast). I fly often to the US and Europe, in coach. I've found this little thing is what allows me to sleep and survive 19-22 hours of crowded coach seats. I use the Slouchbuster when I travel because:
(1) It is very small. It is the size of a paperback book when folded up.
(2) It folds up and then zips up inside itself. It is totally self contained. No bags or anything needed.

I also own a Nadachair, too, which I keep at work. I use that a couple times a day to keep my back straight. I write software for a living, so I'm sitting for hours on end. It really makes a difference, especially if you have any sort of lower back problems (like me). I owned them for a couple of years now and I found that I no longer need a monthly chiropractor visit. So it has paid for itself within a month.

-- Ron Larson

Slouch!Buster
$39
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Nada- Chair

[See the more-recently reviewed S'portBacker --sl]

Small enough to fit in your tool bag. The flared end gets thinner and thinner towards the edge and is great for removing base trim with minimal damage. It is also a scraper and a wedge. The nail puller is orientated 90 degrees to the pry bar. Women in the trades really like them because they are strong and lightweight. As a do-it-yourselfer and a woman, smaller smart tools like this one get my attention.

-- L.C. Boyle

Dogyu Kenzai Hagashi Moulding Pry Bar
300 mm (about 10 inches)
$15
Available from
eHardwicks

[Orders must be placed via phone at 206-632-1203, because eHardwicks' site is offline as of Jan. '08; We'll update the link as soon as they do. --sl]

For heavy-duty release applications, a Seacatch is THE thing to use. I've never found a better way of releasing a heavy line under tension. It's a better solution than a pelican hook (not strong enough, tough to get a smooth release), or a sacrificial line (inelegant, and can foul up launch). Personally I use a Seacatch model TR7LM for homemade trebuchets and ballista releases. Ballista -- as in a giant crossbow, suitable for launching bowling balls, pumpkins, etc. (It's one of the more bizarre hobbies that has arisen in the last 25 years.) But I've also seen Seacatches used by tractor-pull people, construction, you name it. Comes in a wide variety of sizes as well. Beautifully engineered, bombproof, cool.

The action of a Seacatch is smooth, the construction is top-quality. I've never heard of one failing. Their electrically/pneumatically/hydraulically actuated models are commonly used in the Hollywood special effects industry for dropping things at precise moments. They were originally designed for shipboard use (tugboats, fishing boats, etc.) but they've found niches elsewhere.

This is an expensive specialty item for sure, but if you need what it does, it is absolutely worth its price. Before I learned they existed, I spent at least that much on materials and machining yet without being able to create a better release mechanism.

-- Olai Skjaervoy

Seacatch
TR3 (capacity .65 tons) $283
TR7 (capacity 3.52 tons) $595
Available from Seacatch

Wow! What a fantastic book. The digital revolution has completely overhauled nearly every aspect of photographic method. It isn't just the cameras that are different. The whole process from conception to final output is all new. Now we have sensors instead of film, raw capture instead of negatives, Photoshop instead of the darkroom, lab color space instead of the zone system, ink jet printing instead of silver halide paper, and the web instead of galleries. Till now there hasn't been a front-to-end guide to this new photography good enough to recommend. Most digital photography guides (there are hundreds!) deal with photoshopping and cameras, and leave everything else to art. I've been looking for a guru that will take me to the "why"at the bottom of things like"color profiling," give me the tools of control in a scientific way, and stitch them together in a way that allows me to consistently produce the image I had in my mind. This masterpiece by Michael Freeman does all that. It is by far the best one-volume operating manual for serious digital photography I've seen. In fact, now that it is all digital, this is simply the best introduction to the craft of photography there is. I can't praise it too much. Forget the Pro in the title; it's for anyone intent on mastering this technology. Even someone who is new to cameras. The Handbook is extremely visual, with tons of diagrams, examples in color, great insights and practical tips, and a very systematic approach to the new path. Like the best guides, it strikes the perfect balance between simplistic overview and too much nerdy detail; every page has useful information new to me, and I've been photographing analog and digital a long time. Freeman is is also incredibly up-to-date. I can't think of much important that he misses. There are some other great guides for specific tasks, like Raw capture, or digital printmaking, which I will review later, but for all around mastery of today's photography (more than cell-phone shots), this is the best (re)education I know of.

-- KK

Pro Digital Photographer's Handbook
Michael Freeman
2005, 256 pages
$60
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpt:

The image below left appears at first glance to be better exposed than the one below right, because the histogram shows the midtones to be fairly central. However, some of the highlights are clipped, and these are unrecoverable in image-editing. The lower exposure below right (one f-stop less) gives an image that looks darker, but note that nothing has been lost in the shadows and the highlights are also preserved. Optimized in Photoshop Camera Raw, it has a fuller dynamic range, evidenced by the lower peaks and higher troughs in the histogram.

Gicl�e - This odd term crops up occasionally on American websites, purporting to refer to high-quality printing, as in "gicl�e fine art prints." It is, in fact, pretentious nonsense. A French term meaning "squirted," it is totally unsuited to its intended application, which is inkjet printing. Companies offering this as a service should be approached with caution.

I've tried a few automobile GPS devices in the past and usually been disappointed, mainly by the absence of a voice command that talks me through directions before they are needed. I bought a Garmin StreetPilot C340 recently and have to say it is simply astounding. It's plug and drive -- you plug it into your cigarette lighter, wait a few minutes till it acquires satellites, answer a few set up questions, type an address into a touch-screen keyboard and hit "go". It's like having a perfect navigator beside you.

It contains the entire US maps. I have found it accurate (so far) in the most obscure areas with roads and it has shown me faster ways of getting places that I assumed I knew well and have driven to for years. Whenever you make a wrong turn or run into traffic or a closed road, it immediately recalculates the best route and tells you (in a never-critical woman's voice!) what to do. It's one of those tools that will just keep you saying "wow". It is a life changing, time-saving, stress-reducing tool.

Once you're tried it you will think it's cheap for about $650. This is also a tool you will want for people you love.

-- Vincent Crisci

Garmin StreetPilot C340
$624
Available from Broadway Photo
Also from Amazon

I find myself reaching for this tool a couple of times per week. It is like nice sharp pair of scissors with (almost) the power of tinsnips. It is VERY sharp and will cut through tough materials like vinyl cove base, nylon pallet strapping, or rope quite easily. I recently had to cut some vinyl trim that was too thick for scissors, but got mangled up with tinsnips. This tool cut the material perfectly. Fiskars says this about the Titanium Nitride coating: "EXTREMELY DURABLE Titanium Nitride coating resists wear, nicks and scratches as well as corrosive chemicals and sticky substances while reducing friction for easier cuts." I found the rubber grip is comfortable and the tool is very easy to control. It seems very well made. It has nice little touches such as: the tab that keeps the blades locked closed is powdercoated.

-- John Nichols

Fiskars Titanium Nitride 8 inch Shop Snip
$17
Available from
Amazon

Thanks to several dozen Cool Tool readers, I received many suggestions for boosting the strength of my cell phone signal indoors. Basically, the suggestions broke down into four major categories:
1) Use call forward system to forward cell calls to my land line.
2) Use a VOIP solution that would ring to both my cell number and land line number.
3) Use a wireless indoor antenna booster. This requires mounting an antenna outside the house and running cable to a smaller antenna in the room. Typical cost of this solution starts over $400.
4) Use a wired indoor antenna booster. This requires having a cable connect from the phone to an indoor antenna. These solutions range from about $40 to $100, depending on the size of the antenna.

I ended up going with option 4, as a low cost "good enough" solution. I bought an ARC Freedom Antenna. The antenna comes with a three foot cable attached, with a female adaptor at the end. You then have to buy a cable specific for your phone. I have the Palm Treo 600 and got the cable from http://www.MaxMost.com for $12�plus shipping. (Note that Radio Shack apparently also sells this same antenna, but they have a unique cable terminator which requires you to choose only from their limited assortment of phone cables.) The antenna itself is encased in black plastic, about 4 inches wide by 7 inches high and very thin. It has a small detachable stand for table top use, or also comes with suction cups if you want to mount it to a window or wall.�(This antenna can also be used in your car.)

In my case, I am in a windowless basement with poured concrete walls. Without the antenna I had 1 bar on my Treo with Verizon service, and with the antenna I now have 2 bars. For $52, I can at least now�consistently dial out, receive calls and move around the office, although I am now tethered to the antenna. (Hey, maybe I'll rig up a way to connect this antenna to my belt!) Anyway, problem solved.

-- Bob Cooper

$40
Available from
WPS Antennas

Manufactured by
ARC Wireless Solutions

What a marvelous treat! This exquisite documentary transforms the hugely institutional (if not imperial) Apollo journey to the moon into something very intimate and personal. Sort of a home movie version of "my trip to the moon and back." The film score by Brian Eno assists the lift-off. This film really made me proud to be a human.

-- KK

For All Mankind
1989, 79 min.
Directed by Al Reinart
$36
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix

A wonderful series of cinematic speculations on what animals could evolve into in the next, oh, 500 million years. The same skill and techniques that resurrected dinosaurs of old and made them seem real and natural (see Walking With Dinosaurs ) are applied here to possible animals millions of years into the future. It's a fabulous job of scientific imagination and a great lesson in following the logic of evolution.

-- KK

The Future is Wild
2003, 3-Disc Series, 328 min.
$27
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix

A superb genesis story about that most essential invention, the personal computer. Before it was an industry, the personal computer was a strange hobby for nerds, who were definitely not cool back then. In three parts, tech gossip columnist Robert X. Cringely gives a very personal, breezy, witty, and remarkably lucid technical summary of the origins of Microsoft and Apple. Even better, he focuses on the forgotten founding companies and figures who did not make it. Cringely turns this story about hardware into one about humanity. By taking you step by step through the process of invention, counter-invention, claim of theft, bankruptcy, and bad timing, you see how accidental success was for the winners. And how vital their ability to listen to the technology. This classic documentary series should be required watching for anyone who uses a computer -- that is, everyone. It's that good.

-- KK

Triumph of the Nerds
1996, 165 min.
Directed by Robert X. Cringely
$50
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix

Cool and useless. That's my definition of art. A midnight engineer and MIT professor creates totally useless machines. They are exquisitely beautiful. They do absolutely nothing. At best they whir and click and shake. A genuine artist, he also has filmed his machines obliquely, only partially seen, behind a veil of mystery. You want to know how they work, what they do, how come? No answers. Only peeks at cool and useless machines in marvelous varieties and cleverness, turning, turning, turning. Utterly riveting, supremely inspiring, and very geeky. �Show this at a party, and everyone stops transfixed.

-- KK

Arthur Ganson Presents a Few Machines: Created between 1978 and 2004
70 min.
$20
Available from Arthur Ganson

This super educational series from the Discovery channel is now on DVD. �The two hosts, veteran Hollywood effects experts, test urban myths. You know, folklore such as: you get less wet if you walk, not run, in rain. Or, you can kill someone with a bullet of ice that leaves no evidence. Or, a small hole in an airplane at altitude will rupture into a large one and suck everyone out. If it involves explosives, all the better -- can a cell phone cause an explosion at a gas station? In each episode they build elaborate equipment to recreate the conditions of the myth in order to determine if the myth is remotely possible. Sometimes the apparatus is formidable. They bought a steel ship to test whether sinking it would suck you down if you were swimming nearby (a la Titanic). Their comprehensive recreation of the myth that a penny dropped from the Empire State Building will kill you is brilliant and probably the final word on the subject. The cool part is the techie way they approach the problems: make stuff yourself. As in the series Junkyard Wars, you learn a lot by watching tinkerers quickly build things that really work. But here, they are not just engineering. They are actually doing an entertaining kind of science experiment, with controls, measurements, and results. Once the defined experiment is completed they push it to the limit. In other words their approach to investigating an urban legend is this: first they test the conditions as stated in the myth, and then if that does not work, they try to recreate the results of the urban legend. For instance, if they can't get an ordinary cell phone to ignite overflowing gasoline at a gas station (and they couldn't), they'll keep modifying the phone, gas supply, voltage, whatever it takes until they can get results -- a spark from something like a phone that blows the station up. Cool! My entire family, including teenage girls, watches these with glee, and more than once, since there's a lot going on. And as a bonus, you wind up with a fairly good grasp of which urban legends have any veracity. Now on the third season, they cover three myths per episode.

-- KK

MythBusters
Season One
13 episodes, 11 hours
$50
Available from Discovery Channel Store

To me, as a commuter, one of the most impressive parts of the EZ Pass toll-paying system is the hardcore industrial "velcro" tape they give you to attach your transponder to your windshield. It's not really velcro, though -- instead of hooks and loops, both surfaces have these tiny hard plastic mushroom-shaped things that grab each other by the hundreds and don't let go. Both sides are the same, so there is only one tape (called self-mating). And unlike the loosy-fabricky velcro connection, the Dual Lock surfaces don't join until you've positioned them exactly, and then pressed them together with a satisfying "chunk." They're primarily used in industrial applications as a replacement for mechanical fasteners, but I use mine to attach my iPod to my dashboard, and tools to the wall in my workshop.

-- S.S. Flanders

3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener Tape
$13/ 10 feet
Available from Amazon

More varieties and quantities available from iTapeStore

Manufactured by 3M

The Sun EZ-3 USX is a human-powered, recumbent, three wheeled vehicle. It engages me in a way that the Segway did not. I am amazed this product, what some call a "bent trike," is not better known.

What's significant about the USX? It's the most comfortable human powered vehicle ever, more comfortable than many cars. It's safe, practical, and affordable. I hate exercise but I find myself impatient to get my next chance to ride this thing. The USX is potentially a major step forward in promoting conservation and healthy exercise in America, but only if it becomes better known.

It was designed by Easy Racers near Santa Cruz, California, the same shop that designed the first bike to break 65 MPH, and is manufactured in Taiwan. Riding the USX is eerie, because it feels like relaxing on a perfect easy chair and performing aerobic exercise at once. You can go fast or slow, and both are wonderful. You can load the thing with 450 total pounds. You can pull carts. Some riders have decked out USX's with ipod sound systems and other amenities. You can get rain roofs and car hitches.

There are some downsides. It's heavy: 65 pounds. Going up hills is pleasant, but slower than on a bicycle. Some of the parts (bolts, screws, and bearings, in particular) are low-end and might need to be replaced sooner than you'd expect. It doesn't come with some essential features, like rear view mirrors. (Mirrycle handlebar mirrors are the best after-market choice.) It's hard to mount a front headlight. The best solution I have found is the rechargeable NiteRider Evolution. (I used nylon ties to extend the radius of the included universal handlebar mount so that it would fit on the frame.)

Some other upsides: Unlike a lot of bent trikes, the USX folds for easy transportation. I put it inside the back of our SUV instead of on a rack. There are three vendors of car hitches for it, though. (To fold, you have to undo two bolts and the chain guide. I added quick release fasteners to make folding easier. Be careful to choose a heavy-duty fastener to replace the bolt that releases the frame suspension.)

Another big plus: you sit high enough to be noticed by car drivers, though I also added a flag and extra lights to err on the side of caution. Although it looks wide, and encourages cars to give more room than is commanded by bicyclists, it is actually narrow enough to roll through a standard door. You can stand it up on end so it takes minimal room when parked. You can just stop and rest while going up hill- it has a parking brake.

There are lots of other bent trikes -- dozens -- but most are "performance-oriented" -- made for athletes. Some of the athletic brands are Greenspeed, Catrike, and Windcheetah. I have tried some of them, and I think they are fun and interesting, but not what I want. They are expensive, very low slung (you're practically on the ground while riding), and not so practical for non-atheletes. What I want is something that's super easy to get in and out of, that's fun to sit on while standing still, that's high up enough to be safe around cars, and that is fun to ride slow, while on the phone or catching up on treo email. I want something for life, not for sport, and there's not much competition in this niche. There is another interesting comfort-oriented bent trike, the Hase Leupus, from Germany. The Leupus is lighter and made of higher-end parts, but is disproportionately more expensive. The seat isn't as comfortable as the USX -- though it does have better suspension. Hase also makes super light versions, including titanium models.

Beware that sometimes enthusiast cults get lost in fantasy. The enthusiasm in the bent trike world sometimes reminds me of what happened with high-end consumer audio. Superstitions crowded out reality. People started to spend insane money on audio cables with impossible physical properties, for instance. The culture of high-end bent trikes is infected with nonsense physics and silly ideas.

Even though the USX is ridiculed by some hard-core bent bike enthusiasts, it is an important product, even aside from the low price. The ONLY company trying to support "regular" people with bent trikes right now is Sun. Hopefully there will be more soon. The USX is available online for about $800. If you buy online, know that Sun ships the USX without the parts well-tightened. If you can afford it, it makes more sense to buy retail from a good local bike shop for about $1000. The service will be very much worth it!

-- Jaron Lanier

Sun EX-3 USX Recumbent Tricycle
$1050
Available from
Cactus Outdoors

Manufactured by
Sun Bicycles

I present to you my low-tech solution to a common hassle: what to do with all those business cards you collect? If I were an organized person I would purchase one of those nifty electronic card-scanners and input the card's data into my contact software. But I am lazy and unorganized. Instead I use an off-the-shelf binder full of transparent sleeves with 10 card-sized slots into which I pop the biz cards as I get them out of my pocket. That's the key for me: they are "organized" only by the chronological order in which I receive them. That single bit of data, which costs me no energy, seems to be sufficient to locate most cards. "Let's see I met her before him, and after that meeting." I reckon I have about a 90% percent retrieval success rate, even when hunting back a few years. Good enough for me. I've been doing this for 15 years now and am working on my fourth book.

There are a bunch of different brands. Get the ones that are a one-piece vinyl book rather than 3-ring binder. More compact, handy and cheaper. Each holds 480 cards. I use mine all the time. As a bonus, I have a remarkable fossil record of past industries, companies, and careers. If you've ever given me your card, its most likely layered here. Let's see, I met you right about......

-- KK

Rolodex Poly Business Card Book
$19
Available from
Shoplet

Also from Amazon

From 1930 to 1987 the Lister company made diesel motors for pumps, generators, and general-purpose use, using mostly the same design of big, slow-speed, heavy flywheels and simple, easily-repaired parts. The Lister company then sold the designs. Today there are many Indian and Chinese companies that produce Lister copies (aka: "Listeroids") for export. These are fairly faithful to the original design -- with varying quality. The price for these engines *per kilowatt* is cheap, when compared to the more commonly found gasoline-powered generators, though they are not very portable. What is truly amazing is the efficiency of the Lister: one user reports an average of 8000 watts and 0.3 gallons of diesel per hour. They can be made nearly silent with cheap car mufflers or a water muffler. They run fairly cool, and home-built radiators (water tanks, house radiators, car radiators) seem to work well. These slow-rotating workhorse machines are good for nearly 100% duty cycle if properly maintained. (A 100% duty cycle means running 24/7, with no down time due to heat and lubrication needs). The Listers can run all the time, and there are even some people who have figured out how to do oil changes while the motor is still running, thus removing even the lubrication issues. Their efficiency and raw power makes them perfectly suited for electrical generation for long-term use versus "emergency-only" generators which have an extremely short lifespan. They are also works of mechanical art, and will keep a mechanically-minded hacker occupied for weeks, experimenting and tuning. I'm sure that vegetable oil or waste motor oil would work as fuel in these engines as well, but more research is needed.

There are quite a few US-based vendors for engines and gensets. You'd still need to rig a mount for it (concrete pad) and a radiator. This is as close to a "complete" system as you can get. The utterpower.com website sells a cheap CD with loads of useful information; well worth the cost before you start looking.

-- John Todd


One home-built Listeroid-powered 7.5 kilowatt generator with water-tank cooler.

Listeroid Engine
$800 and up
Available from
listeroid.com
Powerful Solutions
eBay

How-to information from:
utterpower.com
Old Style Listers
Anand Enterprise
Rocketboy Aircraft Products