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Here are my recommendations for cool tools. I include books, gadgets, software, videos, maps, hardware, materials, websites or gear that are extraordinary, little-known, or reliably handy for an individual or small group. I depend on friends and readers to suggest things they actually use. Particularly welcomed are old items that you still dote on after years of use. I only post things I like and I ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
I mail out a few cool tool reviews each week to a small list of cool tool fanatics. These are later posted here. But if you'd like to be on the list, send me one cool tool review and I'll add you to it.
Tell me what you love.
We badly need more "wide history" as developed in this remarkable work by John Man. Rather than go linear, Man goes wide with a view of dispersed cultures interacting at one time--in this case in the year 1000. He shows what's happening during this "year" in each region of the planet (say, Tibet, Oceania, South America) and how events then resonate across the globe. The first millennium was the first era when most of the world was settled, and the first time immigration and travel created a robust communication network. Globalism, it turns out, was a medieval event. The picture I got from this book of diagrams was of a world far more sophisticated in its reach and depth then I knew.
-- KK
Atlas of the Year 1000
John Man
1999, 144 pages
$14
Harvard University Press Amazon
Excerpt:
It is often said that the year 1000 has no 'real' importance, that it acquires significance only from its zeroes, from our determination to read significance into birthdays and big numbers. Far from it: the time has a real historical significance, rooted in the way human society developed, from scattered diversity to today's 'one world.'
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The significance is this: by pure coincidence, the year 1000, or thereabouts, marked the first time in human history that it was possible to pass an object, or a message, right around the world.
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This is very different from history as written in Europe, China or the Islamic world, where the story of the past is in large measure rooted in human character--history as narrative. In the American drama, this element is missing. This section of the Atlas, like other sections on nonliterate cultures, necessarily has a wide focus. There are few incidents, few individuals--in all of North America around 1000 there was no native American whose name has survived.
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India: Fleeting Power, Enduring Glory
The Chola dynasty sprang from the rice-rich plain of the River Kaceri, today's Tamil Nadu. They had ruled here as minor chieftains for 800 years when, in the middle of the 9th century, they emerged as heads of a small independent state.
One of the things I picked up from the Japanese was their appreciation for group games. My initial response to join a bunch of Japanese adults playing clapping games at a youth hostel was "No way. That's for kindergartners!" But once I gave into the hilarity, it was the most fun I had had in years. Good clean fun seems in short supply these days, but one place it prospers is in "youth ministries" at churches. Youth leaders have the job to keep American teenagers engaged, responsible, helpful, generous, and highly entertained, without demeaning others. The games included in this book are the best games some of the best youth leaders know. Because they are church ministries there is a small amount of church lingo, but mostly the "all-stars" trot of some very funny and high-spirited games that will work for anyone. The selections range from competitive photo scavenger hunts to New-Games-style encounters with no "winners." These were all designed for teenagers, but good clean fun is highly contagious among adults, too.
-- KK
All-Star Games: From All-Star Youth Leaders
Mikal Keefer and Bob Buller
1998, 109 pages
$14 Group Publishing Amazon
Excerpt:
Blackout Musical Chairs
Play this game in a completely dark room. If you can't darken your meeting area, have kids play blindfolded.
Set up a circle of chairs, all facing out. Place one less chair in the circle than you have kids in the game. Tell kids that they'll be playing Musical Chairs...with a twist. Unlike regular Musical Chairs, this version is played in the dark.
Ask kids to form a circle around the circle of chairs and to stand with their arms folded across their chests. When the music starts, kids are to march slowly around the circle in the clockwise direction while maintaining the crossed-arm position. When the music stops, kids will have five seconds to find a chair. Anyone still standing or sitting on someone else after five seconds will be eliminated from the game.
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Bob in the Basin
This game will create memories for your kids, especially if you bring a camera and take pictures of the contestants. To prepare for the game, find a new toilet. Toilets are surprisingly inexpensive at builders-supply stores or department stores, or you can borrow a toilet from a local plumber or plumbing-supply store. Make sure the toilet is completely clean and then seal the trap with duct tape or an easily removed plug--the toilet needs to hold water in the bowl.
Set the toilet in your meeting room before kids arrive. Then cut the bottom out of the cardboard box and set it over the toilet. Make absolutely certain no one knows what's in the box until you're ready to reveal the secret. When the kids arrive, have them form two teams. Explain that teams will compete in a game many of them played as children: Bobbing for Apples. Show the apples you'll be using and assure the kids that you have towels for drying their hair. Explain that, just as in the usual game, kids must grab the apples with their teeth or lips--no hands!--and lift them from the water.
If everyone understands the rules, remove the cardboard box to reveal that kids will be bobbing for apples in a toilet. Pause a few seconds, giving kids a chance to reconsider. Don't force anyone to participate, but remind kids that their team has a better chance of winning if everyone on the team participates.
It is essential that you have an absolutely new, unused, never installed toilet for this game. Of course, you don't necessarily have to share that information with your group. It adds a certain elegance to the game if--as kids participate--you hint broadly that you picked up the toilet at a very reasonable rate when the old city bus station closed.
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Kings of the Mountain
Ask kids how many of them have played King of the Mountain. The idea of that game is to see who can claim the top of a pile and then kick and throw off any challengers. Explain this is a cooperative version of King of the Mountain. Instead of seeing how many people one person can toss off, the goal is to see how many kids can simultaneously stay on top of or in a certain space.
* Sofas can hold far more people than you might expect. The usual safety concerns about keeping the sofa firmly planted on the ground apply - but any sofa that has made it into a youth room has plenty much sagged to capacity already.
* How many kids can fit into a phone booth? Note: Do not close the door! For an even greater challenge, use a cellular phone to call the booth after your kids have packed themselves in! (You got the number first, didn't you?)
* How many kids can get at least part of their bodies into a Hula Hoop? Count fingers, toes, ears - whatever. Better yet, how many kids can fit into a Hula Hoop so that their bodies don't touch the ground outside? Encourage kids to link arms so that their bodies hold each other in the Hula Hoop.
One doesn't read this; one falls into it, like an experience. Printed in lavish color in large format, this two-volume celebration of contemporary ritual in Africa is shocking in its lushness. It seems to explode with possibilities--of what ritual and ceremony could be, of how many different ways there are to find meaning in life. It also presents the best argument for why Africa should not be written off: it has difference, and difference is the engine behind innovation. Although expensive, this box set is cheaper than a rocket ship to another galaxy--which is the only other thing I can imagine having similar effect of this work.
Two remarkable women, who first started photographing the jewelry of Africa, developed these books over decades of fieldwork. Some of their work has been published in National Geographic and their other books. Beside eye-popping photos, there is outstanding text on what is pictured. This is spectacle with intelligence. To offset the pricey cost of this magnum opus, their publisher has recently issued a paperback selection called Passages: Photographs in Africa, which presents highlights from Ceremonies. But this abridgement has only one-tenth the 850 images in Ceremonies, and I feel it misses the point of the larger work: glorious, extravagant diversity.
-- KK
African Ceremonies
Carol Beckwith, Angela Fisher
1999, 744 pages (two volumes)
$105
Harry N. Abrams Amazon
Excerpt:
Wearing costumes fashioned from hibiscus fibers and cowerie shells, and with coconut shells as breasts, dancers on stilts rest before performing. Their teetering dance and flapping arm movements imitate a long-legged water bird, but it is also mischievously said that their antics mimic their neighbors, the tall, pointy-breasted Fulani women.
Katjambia summons all her powers to draw the lion spirit out of the woman. Her eyes roll back and she enters a trance, absorbing the evil force into her own body. Forced into Katjambia's body, the lion spirit remains so powerful that she is unable to expel it no matter how she tries. Barely able to speak, she whispers that she must retreat to her family village to call on the help of ancestral spirits contained in the sacred fire.
A cocktail of three popular antibiotics invented in the 1950s that is synergistically more powerful than any of the three alone or in sequence. Trials have shown that triple antibiotic combo reduces scarring better than double or a single antibiotic. It's an over-the-counter ointment.
-- KK
Triple Antibiotic Ointment
1 oz., $6
Available from any drug store, including Walgreens
I have five now and plan to get more. The 5.11 does everything I want in terms of comfort and pockets and yet looks dignified enough to serve as duty shirts for police, who are its primary market.
The 5.11 Tactical shirt is based on Royal Robbins' excellent Expedition Shirt (which I've praised elsewhere in Cool Tools); the main difference is that it's 100% cotton. The most appealing functional features for me are: 1) large document pockets hidden on each side of the shirt front (my cell phone/PDA lives in one, my Levenger notepad in the other); 2) a subtle vent on the back, with non-cotton wicking lining for the back and shoulders (which makes it a four-season shirt, good with or without a T-shirt underneath); and 3) the best keepers for rolled shirtsleeves (also a help for four-season use or variable weather).
Appearance features: 1) nifty upper-sleeve pen pocket, an improvement on noising up your chest with metal in a breast pocket; 2) shirt buttons that are colored to blend in with the fabric color, so you're not a row of dots; 3) velcro pocket closures, less conspicuous and handier than buttons; 4) sensible colors. There are optional features of interest to cops but not to me---hidden button-down for collar, sew-on epaulets, sew-on badge holder.
The shirt is available for women as well as men. Also comes in a short-sleeve version. Colors are white, sage, khaki, olive green, charcoal, navy blue, and black; I most like the green and black. (There is a variation of the 5.11 shirt called "A/B" which I suggest avoiding. It's too coppy---sewn-in pleats, epaulets, and badge-holder, and an unpleasant synthetic material emphasizing rayon. Get the cotton.)
-- Stewart Brand
The 5.11 tactical shirt is simply the best field/hiking shirt I have owned. If you are the kind of person who juggles maps and notebooks while outdoors, this is the only shirt to wear. At first glance, it looks like a typical hiking shirt, but the difference is in the details.
For example, the "Napolean" pockets ( large horizontal velcro-closed slash pockets behind the visible breast pockets) are huge --7-inches by 8-inches. Large enough to comfortably hold a folded topo map and notepad in the field or a wallet and and a PDA in town. The pockets were originally designed to hold pistols for cops, so one can comfortably carry heavy objects in them. Other details include pen slots on the left pocket and the upper left sleeve. The right pocket has a hidden zipper to securely store small items, and the sleeves have the first practical roll-up keepers I have found.
This is a truly versatile shirt, that fits in anywhere from the Sierra to casual business meetings. I was grateful to have all those pockets recently while standing on a wilderness ridge in a driving rain at midnight, juggling a radio and map and scribbling on a rite-in-the-rain pad. But I also wear my navy blue version of the shirt (I own five) as my standard casual business dress. It goes nicely with khaki dockers and lets me carry my wallet and other junk without resort to the usual pants-pocket bulge.
-- Paul Saffo
5.11Tactical shirt
$40
There are a number of suppliers. Brigrade Quartermaster is as good as any:
For the price ($70), you have to either be a really serious cook, or seriously tired of rubbery chicken and overcooked steak to buy one of these industrial-strength, instant-read digital thermometers. But once you've got one, you'll wonder how you ever cooked without it. The Thermapen takes all the guesswork out of the proper time to cook things.
I first saw this used on my favorite cooking show, "America's Test Kitchen." It looks very odd compared to the digital cooking thermometers you find in retail stores. But this is THE best kitchen tool I have, (well, maybe second best after my $3.00 spring-loaded tongs).
Practical advice about being homeless or low-budget in-motion by choice -- camping on the edges, living simply, getting by on the road and loving it. This old-fashioned zine crams tons of tips onto a few sheets of paper printed in minuscule 6-point type. Holly and Bert Davis have been publishing this resource for several decades (formerly called Message Post) so they have a no-nonsense perspective. It's for modern nomads in the US choosing alternative lifestyles to working 9-5 in the same place. You get hard-won need-to-know wisdom like: How to live in cars. How to buy staples for 25 cents per pound. Can you camp in U-Hauls? Where can you find a cheap dentist? The dangers of social services taking kids without a house. Fixing a free bike for long-haul travel. etc.
Everyone should live in near-poverty at least once in their life, and this humble newsletter provides guidance and inspiration of how to learn the max from it.
-- KK
Dwelling Portably
$1 per issue
Back issues available (no website)
POB 190, Philomath, OR 97370
Sample excerpts:
Legality of salvaging from dumpsters. Amy Dacyzyn, who phoned several police officials, said (in The Tightwad Gazettte, July 1993), "Dumpster diving is generally considered to be legal with the following exceptions: -- If the container is on CLEARLY MARKED private land, behind a fence or locked up. However, most dumpsters in 'semi-public' areas such as parking lots are fair game. -- If the discarded items are outside the dumpster they should not be taken." A deputy district attorney in Santa Clara, CA, where many people rummage for high-tech discards, told Amy: "By putting items in a dumpster, the companies have abandoned ownership.... The idea that people are stealing is not a prosecutable case."
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For quick earning with little expense, consider cab driving. I can almost always get a job immediately, anywhere in the country. Drivers often quit, and cab owners are anxious to keep their equipment rolling. After 6 months, a driver will usually start to 'burn out' and not put in as many hours. That's okay: if you've worked hard and not spent much, you'll have enough money to move on. I just quit the best deal I ever had: 38% of meter plus owner paid gas. I did so much business I couldn't handle the stress. But I now have enough to live modestly for two years.
I usually lease a 24-hour (single shift) cab and sleep in it, bathing at public facilities. Generally, if one is working hard, the owner gives you a lot of leeway. You will need a valid drivers license with good record, and a sense of direction and ability to rapidly learn your way around. Cab driving is a good way to scout a new area, and gain information and interesting experiences.
Alas, driving is becoming increasingly competitive and, in big cities, regulated. Also, some cities are dangerous, even if one knows the streets well. I advise: small towns, or working-class suburbs adjacent to big cities. Depressed areas are actually good places to make money as many people there can't afford cars. You'd be surprised how many people I take to welfare offices. Waitresses and bartenders often tip well, because THEY depend on tips. Las Vegas is, by universal acclaim, the best place to earn big bucks. As with anything, ask the old timers -- which will be easier after one has 'hacked' a few times.
It used to be that if you wanted to get involved in micro-controllers, you only had a couple of options: 8051 or PIC. The 8051 is a old, tried-and-true architecture, which is fine if you're building a microwave or the controller for a car's fuel injection system. The PIC is an easy to use device, but it's slow and runs BASIC. What options are left for the basement mad-scientist intent on creating an army of robots to do his bidding? Enter Atmel.
Atmel makes the AVR series of chips. They're small (as few as 8 pins), low cost (they start around $0.75), and they're fast (execution speeds as fast as 16MIPS). The AVR architecture executes most instructions in 1 clock-cycle, and supports most modern languages. What makes AVRs great is the dizzying array of on-chip peripherals they support, their awesome developer friendliness, and the great user community that has grown up around them.
To get started with AVRs, you need a developer's kit. There are 70+ different boards available from various vendors, ranging from base-bones starter boards to boards that have onboard LCDs, ethernet jacks, or FPGAs. The best board (in my mind, at least) for general experimentation is the STK500, distributed by Atmel. You can pick one up for $79 from DigiKey, but remember to get a 12V power adapter as well, as one isn't included. Atmel makes a free assembler and IDE, and you can get a copy of gcc for the AVR from the good folks at ww.avrfreaks.net. The board has a serial port, LEDs, and pushbuttons, as well as headers for all of the ports your AVR may have. The STK500 will program any device in the DIP form factor, and with the optional STK501 daughter-board, it will program surface-mount TQFP's as well. Of course, since all AVRs are in-circuit programmable, you don't need anything except 4 wires to program them.
I know these are supposed to be joke books, but they contain sensible answers to sensible questions. Why not rehearse the solution to a worst case scenario if it ups your chances of survival even a few percent?
-- KK
The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel
Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
2001, 190 pages, $10 Amazon
The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook
Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
1991, 176 pages, $10 Amazon
How to Jump from a Moving Train
Stuff blankets, clothing, or seat cushions underneath your clothes. Wear a thick or rugged jacket if possible. Use a belt to secure some padding around your head, but make certain you can see clearly. Pad your knees, elbows, and hips.
Cover and protect your head with your hands and arms, and roll like a log when you land. do not try to land on your feet. Keep your body straight and try to land so that all parts of your body hit the ground at the same time. You will absorb the impact over a wider area. if you land on your feet, you will most likely break your ankles or legs. Do NOT roll head over heels as if doing a forward somersault.
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How to Fend off a Shark
Hit back. If a shark is coming toward you or attacks you, use anything you have in your possession - a camera, probe, harpoon gun, your fist - to hit the shark's eyes or gills, which are the areas most sensitive to pain. Make quick, sharp, repeated jabs in these areas. Sharks are predators and will usually only follow through on an attack if they have the advantage, so making the shark unsure of its advantage in any way possible will increase your chances of survival. Contrary to popular opinion, the shark's nose is not the area to attack, unless you cannot reach the eyes or gills. Hitting the shark simply tells it that you are not defenseless.
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How to Perform a Tracheotomy
This procedure, technically called a cricothyroidotomy, should be undertaken only when a person with a throat obstruction is not able to breath at all - no gasping sounds, no coughing - and only after you have attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver three times without dislodging the obstruction. If possible, someone should call for paramedics while you proceed.
Excellent website with useful information on hiking trails all over the world. From it I get an awareness of obscure and out-of-the-way trails globally. It has trails on my secret Greek Island of Karpathos, and in the central Asian neo-countries of Kyrgytzstan and Tadjikistan, where there are presently no trail guidebooks. Even in places with lots of guidebooks (such as the Coltswolds, England) this site has useful first-person notes and suggested routes.
Stand alone web cams have been around for a few years but only recently have dropped in price to a few hundred dollars. Stand alone web cams differ from standard web cams in that they have a server and connectivity built in making them independent of a computer. That means you can put these web cams somewhere far from a computer (say in a cabin, or the top of a building) as long as you have a phone or ethernet connection. The cameras made by Axis seem to be the most compact and well-designed. These cams use a Linux-based server and come with an ethernet port so you just plug it into the network, assign it a public IP address, and presto, you are live on the web. Far from a network, you could even plug the camera into a phone modem and have a PC call the camera to see the images. We've had an Axis working in our office window for a few months without problems. There is a choice of models depending on whether the camera will be indoors, outdoors, or wants sound, etc.
-- Alexander Rose
Axis 2100 Standalone Network WEB Camera
manufactured by AXIS
Item #155185
$280
available from PC Connection
888-213-0260
Axis remote network cam used as a London "Jam Cam" for web-based monitoring of traffic. Can be viewed here
One of the things medical staff used to nip from hospitals to bring home is inexpensive moist wound pads. Keeping a wound moist - particularly a burn wound -- has been proven to aid its healing. Moist wound pads contain a layer of gel that holds either sterile water, or additional therapeutic ingredients, wrapped under a large adhesive bandage. Doctors' offices stock these aids, but they are only now getting into the consumer market. Drugstore over-the-counter pads like Spenco 2nd Skin Moist Burn Pads come in a package of 5 small (2 x3 inches) sterile packages. New-Skin (UK-based) Burn Relief Dressing comes in 3 3x3 pads -- but these have less than half the useable surface area of the Spencos. Johnson and Johnson is introducing household bandages with moist gel pads inside, too. These pads aren't cheap, but hopefully you'll only need them occasionally.
-- KK
Spenco 2nd Skin Moist Burn Pads
2 x 3 in. 5ea.
$6.50 Walgreens
I wear a reflective yield symbol pinned to my bike pack. It's arrestingly bright, alarmingly visible. I've been stopped by motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists alike inquiring about or thanking me for wearing it. It can be seen from 3000 feet.
You plug this solid-state inverter into your car's lighter socket and power whatever 110 volt AC appliance you want, 75 watts max. No need for special DC gadgets. It's made for recharging cell phones and other batteries, but I've used it for my scanner and my printer while on the road. Also, I've run a small B&W; TV set (5'5), and more important, my baby's bottle heater (I admit is a small one). You can power almost anything that doesn't use large resistance like hair dryers, waffle makers, bread toasters, small ovens. I haven't tried a coffee maker yet.
The same company offers an assorted line of automobile inverters with more output power (200 watts on up). This is the smallest one.
-- Juan J Gil
XPower MobilePlug 75
$20 from among others Buy.com
Lately I've gotten into bread baking. Via various news groups I found and fell in love with Peter Reinhart's new book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It has beautiful photographs which motivated me toward experimentation. I am now 1/3 through baking every formula in the book. I find his explanations very clear and I really like that he includes enough theory to allow me to make my own informed decisions about baking different styles of bread. It is not rocket science, but there are a lot of non-intuitive (for me) details that he covers well. All this teaching has elevated the quality of my own breads. He also provides detailed recipes for each type of bread he is describing, so those not interested in the fundamentals of bread baking can also follow recipes easily. When I got the book, about the only thing my breads had going for them was that they were "home made." Now I like my breads just as much or more than the expensive artisan style breads I get at my local bakeries.
-- Christopher R. Carlson
Some masters are great at craft, and some at teaching, and every once in a while a person like Peter Reinhart comes along who is grand master of both. This book is considered the best all around guide to making fancy and rustic artisan breads; some would say for making any bread, period. Grounded in theory and practice, it is superb teaching.
-- KK
The Bread Baker's Apprentice
By Peter Reinhart
2001, 304 pages
$25 Amazon
Excerpt:
It is easy to see the subtle difference in color and texture of various flours when they are placed side by side. These are, from left to right, cornmeal, semolina flour (coarse durum), fancy durum, dark rye, white rye, bleached cake flour, unbleached pastry flour, unbleached bread flour, clear flour, and whole-wheat flour.
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For perspective, here are the twelve stages in order:
1. Mise En Place ("everything in its place" is the organizing principle)
2. Mixing (in which three important requirements must be met)
3. Primary Fermentation (also called bulk fermentation, in which most of the flavor is determined)
4. Punching Down (also called de-gassing, in which the dough begins to enter its secondary fermentation and individuation)
5. Dividing (in which pieces are weighed or scaled, while continuing to ferment)
6. Rounding (in which the pieces are given an interim shaping prior to their final shape)
7. Benching (also called resting, or intermediate proofing, during which time the gluten relaxes)
8. Shaping and Panning (in which the dough is given its final shape prior to baking)
9. Proofing (also called secondary or final fermentation, in which the dough is leavened to its appropriate baking size)
10. Baking (which may also include scoring the dough and steaming, but in which three vital oven actions must occur)
11. Cooling (which is really an extension of baking but must occur before cutting into the bread)
12. Storing and Eating (in production baking it's primarily storing, but home baking usually emphasizes, ahem, eating)