Heat Transfer And Cooling A Space School Lesson Plan: Fill & Download for Free

I was a sort of problem kid in grade school Written up with notes home "Disruptive element, always talking with his neighbor students"I was picked on and beaten up a lot, since I was told to never fight back by my mother who was basically mentally ill. "They'll get their reward in hell." I understand now what was the point, but back then in welfare, white trash Pittsburgh, I needed to learn to stand up for myself.I moved around a lot, 18 times before I was 17. Many, many different schools. I was slow in learning to read and write, because the schools taught it all differently. Different schools, all over the city. Picked on all the time.I quit High School at 17, in 1983. I had flunked 11th grade twice. Mostly because I was picked on so badly, and often beaten up (off school grounds, so the school "Could not do anything") that I didn't go to school to avoid getting beat up.My last year of 11th grade the second time around, I missed 180 days of school. I would just go to the public library, and read fantasy and science fiction novels. I told myself, "One day, I will be a science fiction Author." So I finally was old enough to quit school. I decided to quit, and get on with my life.I was told by multiple teachers, and the principal, that I was making a bad decision, I'd "never amount to anything." "That I would be a criminal" "That I would be a Juvenile Delinquent." I quit school. I took the GED test the next day, In April.I scored the highest score on it ever recorded for the GED in the state of Pennsylvania. I thus was out of school with a High School diploma, 2 months before the rest of my peers who still had 2 months of 12th grade left until they graduated.I was still just 17. I got a job selling newspapers at a stand in the red light district of Pittsburgh. Turns out I was good at selling, and regularly earned rewards for high sales. I didn't care who people were, I sold to all kinds of people tailoring what i had scanned in the news stories to passerby, like you see in those 40's movies "Read all ABOUT it!" news in each section to my potential clients.Computers were the hot thing then. I realized I did not want to sell papers all my life, but I also got really good at just walking up to people and talking to them. I also got a little bit tougher, because I was regularly dealing with pimps and scammers and similar.I then went to the local goodwill thrift store and bought a used Atari 400 for 5.00 US. I taught myself how to program BASIC in a few weeks from a book.I enrolled in a computer technical course, and borrowed 1200 Dollars Student loan to take a Business programming course that was 1000 hours of programming. 7 months into it, I was bored. I saw all sorts of rampant cheating by other students, girls who would flirt with the teachers get passing grades, but doing no work in the class. I completed all of my homework while I was in the data processing lab. It turns out I am lucky to be good at languages, and those include programming languages.I eventually learned C++ Self-taught, over the better part of a year. I'm now working on apps for Windows 10, also self taught. I am trying to develop some real-time language translation software, to take advantage of the new gigabit internet that's been announced this month in the news from Comcast.This will be paired with Quantum computers in about 4 or 5 years. Once Google makes them small enough to go on a desk. Maybe 8 years. Or maybe, they will have a breakthrough in comms tech, and it will be something like a smartwatch is these days, where it's all voice activated everything. Hard to say, I don't have a lot of knowledge of these things yet.Anyway, at 18, I thus decided I would join the military and work in the outdoors, and travel. I wanted literally to "Go around the world" March, 1984, Age 18, I told myself "I will go around the world." I joined the navy that day, and told my family. Many of them told me "I'd fail, I'd quit, I'd get killed, it was stupid to give up my life for "The government."" But a few of them were military veterans, and they more or less silently approved.I joined the Navy, Got some training in explosives, was told I was not fit, and told I was not who they were looking for. But I ended up working suring 9 months of training to make myself tougher, and went from a class of 12 at the bottom to 3rd from the top, where 7 had completely flunked out. I realize now, that that is where i really learned to just work, and apply myself, not the top, I still had to learn how to plan better, manage my time better.But I worked and worked. I worked at a shore facility, in an admin job, putting marks in a ledger by hand, when the Navy did not tyet at that time have desktop computers.I did not do well. My work fell behind. I was then "Punished" by being placed into a mechanical job, which I found I had a talent for so much so that I was able to come up with new maintenance procedures to save time, and design new parts for specific weapons to improve efficiency, and I got some awards and recognition for that.In the end, what i got out of that was the idea of teamwork, working long hours, and being dedicated, and really not letting social stigma get to me. Just doing the best job i could, and plowing forward.I really wanted to travel. So I volunteered for a ship, hoping to go around the world.I traveled around the globe less than a year later, and was off the coast of Iraq on a ship exactly 5 years after I had initially joined the Navy.When I was there, a member of my family died. I was told by the Weapons officer, and the Captain that I could leave the Persian Gulf, free and clear, get on an evac helo, transfer to Diego Garcia and then onto a plane and be home in the states out of the combat zone in three days. I chose to Stay. The kid who was years before picked on, who was called coward, and punk, became trained on and taught others to use machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers, night vision, large caliber cannons, and ultimately had a leadership role on the Security force, and the lead position on the ship's fire-fighting team, as the first guy through the door in any shipboard fire, surrounded by flames, leading a team of fire fighters.We were one of a pair of two ships in the northern gulf, no carriers, no submarines, no other support. We escorted 104 tankers safely through the strait of hormuz, despite iranian speedboats, mines, and doing 72 hours awake, and 4 hours of sleep then 72 hours awake for months and months. We only lost one guy, who was electrocuted in an accident. we never lost a ship we were escorting. We got a medal for that.That situation taught me endurance, and exceeding what I thought I could.We helped rescue some dozens of people adrift at sea near the Philippine Islands. Some of the crew got medals for that.We helped repair schools in Thailand, damaged by storms. The very young kids there were well behaved, not picking on each other. Teachers were respected, not ignored or assaulted.It was quiet, peaceful, and harmonious in Thailand. After months of hair trigger tension, and encounters, I needed a break. Thailand was it.I told myself "I don't know how, I don't have the money, yet, but one day, I will return here, and I will retire." That was my next sort of big goal, after "Going around the world" was accomplished.In Thailand, I met a monk along a forest path. He showed me a monastery, and peace. I told myself, "I will gain an understanding of Buddhism. I will leave this life of warrior, and try and do better. Do more to help people."When the ship came back to port in the United States, within a few months, we helped earthquake victims of the Loma Prieta / San Francisco Earthquake in October, 1989 (Where the freeways in the Bay Area pancaked on top of each other) and the entire crew got a medal for that. The event was really nasty. Lots of aftershocks. It was a 7.9 Richter Scale event, I think.I decided to transfer from my ship to Shore duty. I was told by my last, and by far the worst division officer on the ship, "You'll never make it. You belong on a ship. You should stay, you are screwing up."I went back to shore. I took courses in Driving every type of vehicle we had. Forklifts, five ton trucks, ten ton trucks. I also had a motorcycle. I became a driving instructor. I served another 4 years. But I was tired. I was doing an okay job, but I was .. just feeling the stress of working with explosives every day.The second best Division officer I had in my career was a woman, who asked me if I wanted to get out. I took early out after the 1st Gulf War. She was one of a small handful of people in my life who had confidence in me. She arranged for me to get out in the Post Gulf War Navy force reduction plan, that was offerred to a lot of people.I asked for training in a new career, as part of a special program so that the vets getting out had something to do, and training. They told me they could train me in HVAC, in welding, In photography. Pay for school.I said "I want to be a writer. I want to write science fiction." The Navy career counselors were dumbfounded. Okay.. so.. "Can we buy you a typewriter?" "How about a box of pens?" It was like they had no clue how to deal with an outside the box thinker. So be it. But they taught me how to interview for a job, which was very helpful.I enrolled in college, and studied Physics, International Studies, Southeast Asian Languages, and Culture. I took every writing course they offered at the school. I learned to speak a little Japanese, and Chinese, more than a little of others [Russian, and German 3 years], and Thai (Self Taught, from a self-paced course).Recently, I read that The U.S. is seeking startups to mine the asteroids in about 10 to 15 years, when Lockheed gets a handle on fusion rockets.I am thinking about doing some crowd-funded thing so that in 10 to 15 years, I will have everything in place. I don't know much about aerospace design. So that's not really a plan, sort of a "hm. I need to study this, before I make serious moves in that direction."Life Happened. I did a lot of writing. I got rejected by Paramount, Rejected by publishers. Worked odd jobs. Sold Electronics. Sold Insurance to Nuclear power plants. Did some work in private security. Sold Coffins and gravestones to people still breathing. Still writing. Not quitting. Produced a movie. Shot a film. Worked on a camera crew for a feature.I came into contact with people that were in control of lots of capitol.What I got out of that was learning how people who were millionaires lived. I wasn't one myself, But I learned what they did, how they functioned. I studied success coaches like Tony Robbins. Barbara Sher. All sorts of big name people. I absorbed TED talks, and anything on youtube about doing good works, making money to help people, and not just myself. Studied Buddhism.Now, age 50, I am not so to speak rich, but I am doing okay, retiring to Thailand. Relatively well off. I am a Buddhist Scholar, and I am working on my first science fiction novel that I will publish this spring.At the suggestion of a well respected science fiction author I am friends with, I took the test, and joined MENSA 3 years ago. I want to be able to write like that guy. He's not a quitter, he's always been cool and given me help and suggestions, which I take on board 100%.I am also a fan of Alan Watts lectures about living to your potential. I learned to use Facebook, and Twitter, and Google +. Simple things for kids, but When I was in High School a 1200 Baud Modem was the big thing, and files were saved on a cassette tape, and 8k storage memory took a good 15 minutes to read and save all on casette, on a TSR-80, Model I. Black and white screen.Seeing as my plan to retire to Thailand is in play now, I need a new goal.My next plan is to travel to Alpha Centauri. That's the next star system over, a mere 3-something light years away. I say "Mere" because if I say too far, I will shut down my imagination, and not reach it as "impossible."I take my lessons from Einstein, Sagan, Hawking, Oppenheimer, and yes, Yoda.I can't wait to have someone tell me (oh, hold on, they have already, ha!) "You can't go to another star system, it's too hard. You'll never make it, we don't have the technology. It breaks the laws of Physics."I estimate I will be able to do this, one way or another, by about 2050, I will be about 84 years old, likely near the end of my life, unless nano technology, or organ cloning comes into widespread use. If I make it there, in all likelihood, I will die there. Or, by then, perhaps human beings will live forever. If so, step two will be to travel the Galaxy. Step Three will be to Travel to other galaxies and that's assuming one day people can be augmented to live forever, If not, a clone of me, or a machine intelligent AI copy of me will make it. Or I will have, PAVED THE WAY, and INSPIRED OTHERS. It doesn't have to be me, per se.The ultimate one-way adventure of a lifetime. It might be aboard some type of commercial space liner, where we just pay a ticket or something. In any case, I'm going. I refuse to limit myself to the Pale Blue Dot. Carl Sagan is one of my heroes. We never met, but his examples taught me well. There are more galaxies in the universe than people on the earth.People say it's impossible. People say I'm a nut job, for even thinking such "Craziness"I was born to a pair of addicts, one of which was a criminal that abandoned the family, and I lived my first decade of my life on welfare.Don't tell me what I can't do, or what I will fail at.I have failed at a lot of things.Failure teaches us one more way to not do it, until you hit the method(s) that work. I have had a lot of life challenges, But I have never quit. Edison invented the light bulb that way.And success isn't the best revenge.I am not seeking revenge, I am seeking creativity, wellness, harmony, balance, and a vision of a better future for all of Humanity. I'm going to write more about these kinds of things, living in Thailand. Until it is time to move off of the Earth.I know there are people here reading this, thinking this I wrote above, everything I write is maybe all lies and / or bullshit.Good luck to you. My neighbors in Thailand are all retired, generally socially, financially and spiritually wealthy people who no longer worry about money, or car repairs, or lack of heat in winter.I am going to travel the world again. I will try and share what I have learned.Life is what you make it, your choices, and values, and is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tay tay taught me to "Shake it off."Tony Robbins taught me to reach beyond what I thought I could do and imagine a better life, and achieve it.Barbara Sher taught me to find work I love to do.Lizzie Velasquez taught me to overcome my limitations, and do the best I can, work with what I've got. Flexible thinking, turn things around. Sometimes it's really tough, but do not quit.Decide what you want, and go for it. Go on youtube, and listen to some Alan Watts, and wake up.The world is a curse, or a blessing. You decide which.

Learning the art and craft of writing a logline is essential for screenwriters — but it’s no easy task. You need to condense your screenplay’s concept, genre, story, characters, and plot to into just one to two sentences using just twenty-five to fifty words.Anything below twenty-five words — with a few exceptions as you’ll read below — is closer to a tagline, which is used as a marketing tool on posters and advertisements and is always written by the marketing staff of the producing studio, or a professional copywriter from an ad agency. Think of a tagline as a slogan for the film.In space, no one can hear you scream. (Alien)There are 3.7 trillion fish in the ocean. They’re looking for one. (Finding Nemo)The longer you wait, the harder it gets. (The 40-Year-Old Virgin)Just because they serve you doesn’t mean they like you. (Clerks)One dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty below zero. (Cool Runnings)Those are all tag lines.Anything above fifty words is turning into a short synopsis.Writing a compelling and engaging logline is an art form unto itself. But much like with screenwriting, there’s no secret formula to success. The best you can do is learn by reading and studying what has already proven to be successful — and then apply those lessons to your screenplays and what fits well with your vision.With that in mind, here are 101 movie loglines that you can learn from to craft your own.Fun Challenge: How many of these movies can you name by the logline alone… no cheating (be honest)?1. The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.2. After a simple jewelry heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.3. A depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis decides to turn his hectic life around after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s attractive friend.4. A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.5. With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.6. During the U.S.-Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.7. An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maid’s point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.8. Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.9. A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures then must retrace their steps in order to find him.10. A cop has to talk down a bank robber after the criminal’s perfect heist spirals into a hostage situation.11. A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.12. The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.13. A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.14. A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.15. A quirky family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.16. A group of seven former college friends gathers for a weekend reunion at a South Carolina winter house after the funeral of one of their friends.17. A man creates a strange system to help him remember things so he can hunt for the murderer of his wife without his short-term memory loss being an obstacle.18. A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO.19. When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.20. A fast-track lawyer can’t lie for 24 hours due to his son’s birthday wish after the lawyer turns his son down for the last time.21. An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.22. Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.23. A nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim’s families.24. A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.25. A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.26. During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.27. A Lion cub crown prince is tricked by a treacherous uncle into thinking he caused his father’s death and flees into exile in despair, only to learn in adulthood his identity and his responsibilities.28. After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness – conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.29. In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper, and a drifter named Max.30. A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.31. In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.32. A teenage girl raids a man’s home in order to expose him under suspicion that he is a pedophile.33. When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories.34. A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes after he narrowly escapes a bizarre accident.35. A self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover.36. A boy who communicates with spirits seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.37. Seventy-eight-year-old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his home equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.38. In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, two monsters realize things may not be what they think.39. When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it’s up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.40. In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.41. A prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman’s love.42. A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.43. Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers goes behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.44. A 17-year-old high school student is accidentally sent thirty years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, a maverick scientist.45. A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as top toy in a boy’s room.46. A team of explorers travels through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity’s survival.47. A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.48. With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.49. A young soldier in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.50. A young janitor at M.I.T. has a gift for mathematics but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.51. The lives of guards on Death Row are affected by one of their charges: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift.52. An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.53. After a young man is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic.54. In 1954, a U.S. Marshal investigates the disappearance of a murderer, who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane.55. An insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show.56. A small-time boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight a heavy-weight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.57. A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.58. A retired Old West gunslinger reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner and a young man.59. A determined woman works with a hardened boxing trainer to become a professional.60. Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.61. A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.62. An NYPD officer tries to save his wife and several others taken hostage by German terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.63. After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as a distress call, its landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious lifeform, and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.64. Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.65. A weatherman finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.66. After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.67. A group of professional bank robbers starts to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist.68. As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen — one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy — investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.69. When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor, and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.70. After discovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the lunar surface, mankind sets off on a quest to find its origins with help from intelligent supercomputer HAL 9000.71. A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit.72. After a tragic accident, two stage magicians engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.73. After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy.74. A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.75. A tale of greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two best friends: a mafia enforcer and a casino executive, compete against each other over a gambling empire, and over a fast living and fast loving socialite.76. A seemingly indestructible android is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs.77. A Phoenix secretary embezzles forty thousand dollars from her employer’s client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.78. A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.79. A sole survivor tells of the twisty events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which began when five criminals met at a seemingly random police lineup.80. Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.81. A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.82. A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies.83. A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student’s potential.84. Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.85. A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.86. A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.87. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.88. An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.89. A toon-hating detective is a cartoon rabbit’s only hope to prove his innocence when he is accused of murder.90. Two 1990s teenage siblings find themselves in a 1950s sitcom, where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world.91. A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.92. Two astronauts work together to survive after an accident leaves them stranded in space.93. An I.R.S. auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death.94. The spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home, and hire a malicious spirit to drive them out.95. A young African-American visits his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.96. A young couple moves into an apartment only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins to control her life.97. In a post-apocalyptic world, a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing.98. The monstrous spirit of a slain janitor seeks revenge by invading the dreams of teenagers whose parents were responsible for his untimely death.99. An eight-year-old troublemaker must protect his house from a pair of burglars when he is accidentally left home alone by his family during Christmas vacation.100. A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving with an obnoxious slob of a shower curtain ring salesman as his only companion.101. A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his homeworld.So, without using the internet, how many of these movies could you name from the logline alone?Please follow me on Twitter — @KenMovies — and read my film and television industry articles on ScreenCraft and The Script Lab!

UPDATE: This is a long answer, and it’s been collapsed once for lack of attribution. There is no way to attribute the findings contained herein, as they are all my own. What you see here is my personal list of interesting inventions and technologies. Some of them I found through my work, others I found in the technology and new-gadget press over the years. Some, in fact, my wife bought for me. All of these are items I have either personally tried, had experience with or read about on the same pages I link to for each item, and I receive no compensation, perks or attention for having compiled them. As Malcolm Gladwell described in his book ‘The Tipping Point,’ there is a type of person, whom Gladwell calls a ‘maven,’ who collects information and from whom others get said information. I have been informed that I fit this description. This is not an inappropriate attempt at viral advertising, nor is it unattributed research. This is just a Gladwellian maven, industrial engineer and safety manager doing what we do, and my only hope in posting it was that other people, who are or may later face problems these technologies have helped me solve over the years, may also be helped by them. I earn nothing but perhaps an upvote for this, that and the satisfaction that my amusing little gadget-list may help, or at least amuse, my fellow humans.After all, I’m an engineer. Collecting gadgets is one of our favorite activities.The ToolboxThe best multimeter ever – MooshimeterMost multimeters are the size of wallet or a book, and can only display information in a string of digits. You must be within a foot or two of what you want to measure, have three hands, and the meter can’t save the information it displays any better than binoculars can.The Mooshimeter changes all that. It’s a bit smaller than a normal meter, runs for six months on two AA batteries and connects wirelessly to your cell phone. This means you can tuck it under the hood of your car and monitor that finicky electrical hiccup while driving down the highway at eighty miles per hour. It also records up to six months of data, so you could record voltage and current (yes, both at once) on a given circuit breaker to compare spring vs summer AC usage at home. The auto ranging display also makes diagnostics much simpler by showing complicated information in a simple graphical format. Take a look at the link above to see all the details.Armored heat seeing cellphone – Cat S60-This phone is does everything you expect a good Android phone to do, and so much more. If the Nexus series phones were a team of trendy sedans, the S60 would be a mad max armored truck. It can survive a six foot drop onto concrete and a one hour swim in the 16ft deep end of the pool.This thing can literally see in the dark; not night vision or by amplified star light, no, it see’s the heat emitted by everything around it. Animals in the dark, overheated machinery in a factory, hot water pipes hidden behind a wall, they literally glow in the S60s thermal camera. If you work with your hands it doesn’t take long to find uses for this technology. Handyman? See drafts and missing insulation through walls, trace water pipes, check for overheated circuits in a breaker box and find out where that infernal drip of cold water is coming from. Police officer? See which cars have been driven recently by their glow and track suspects in total darkness by body heat and the hand prints they leave whenever they touch something. Parent? Find your daughters pet when they get lost in the woods or hide in the crawlspace. Take your sons temperature when he’s sick or help him get the oven temperature right to bake cookies.Radiation detecting wrist watch $250This is a Russian made watch called the Polimaster PM1208 with a built in geiger counter that warns you when you’re exposed to nuclear radiation. The alarm option keeps the watch silent until there is something dangerous to report, and it also has a counter mode that chirps with every detection. It’s sold with different cases ranging from $200 to $550. A good gadget to wear if you work around radiation or are worried about otherwise undetectable and deadly radiation.Steel wire banding tool strong enough to clamp a hydraulic hose on – Clamp tightClamp tight is like having hundreds of high quality stainless steel hose clamps, zip ties, and fasteners of every time, yet still it still fits in your toolbox. This thing was developed for use on ocean sailing boats as there tend to be very few hardware stores floating out at sea, and boats break down like everything else. To use it, you wrap the wire around the piece to be secured, then around the tool. Turning the bolt pulls the slack out of the wire then rotating the tool locks the wire down like a giant copy of the wire tie that holds a bread bag closed.It does have one obvious weaknesses – you have to have enough clearance to rotate the tool, so some automotive repairs are out of the question because there just isn’t enough room. Overall though, it would be tough to find a more compact and lighter way to repair so many different breakdowns.Nice self-contained butane soldering iron the size of a highlighter – Weller $50I can’t vouch for this one personally, but a small reliable iron that heats up in seconds and can be used on no notice anywhere it’s needed is a huge help. How often have you needed an iron, but not had a ready plug and stand for it where you were working under the dashboard of the car?1000 lumen rechargeable flashlight by Nitecore $55Growing up, ‘flashlight’ was a word that meant ‘that big heavy plastic thing we keep in the kitchen drawer that glows a dim yellow and always has dead batteries when we need it’. No more. Nitecore makes a variety of good lights, but this is the one I keep clipped to the lip of my pocket. Because I work with my hands, I like to be able to see what I’m working on, and very few things break down in the middle of a well lit work bench in the garage. When something needs attention, it always seems to be at night, up underneath a dashboard, deep in a computer cabinet, or some similar difficult to see location. Since I got this light I’ve never had trouble seeing what I’m doing. It has the usual high/medium/low settings with some flashing options for emergency use, and when I need everything it can do, 1000 lumens is as bright as two car headlights. The battery usually goes a month or two between charges, and any 18650 charger can recharge it in a few hours.$300 CNC Laser cutter/etcher toolThese $300 laser cutters have become available recently on Ebay, and they offer remarkable utility at a very reasonable price. Various reviews are available; the user interface takes some getting used to, and the mirrors often need alignment after being shipped in from overseas, but after that the cutter will cut and etch words, pictures and just about anything else onto an area the size of printer paper (about 8 by 12 inches). The cutter can be used to make puzzles, pet tags, precision cut wood and plastic, etch metal and glass, etc. A very helpful maker tool.Paper thin microscope lens that sticks to your cell phone - BlipsThe link says it all – this thin slip of plastic the size of a post-it note will turn your cell phone camera into a microscope. Useful for outdoor adventurers, detectives, teachers and anyone else interested in the world around them.$6.50 tiny pocket telescope you can carry everywhere - DXThis inexpensive tool weighs next to nothing and is tiny enough to fit in anywhere. Good for tracing wiring in a high ceiling, aircraft or bird watching, hiking, playing spy with the kids, etc.Pipe style building materials that use electrical conduit at $3.50 per 10ft section – Maker PipeThere are many build systems that can be used to build anything, but most of them like 80/20 cost a fortune (think $15 per ft!). Maker pipe uses simple, inexpensive clamps plus cheap 3/4inch electrical conduit to build nearly anything you could imagine. If you need to build anything from carts to furniture to equipment, give this one a look.Must have Chemical identification – WISER web site and WISER app downloadWISER is a chemical identification book long carried by firefighters who need to quickly find out: “what’s in that burning tanker truck, and what will it do to us?” The book used to cost less than $20, but today the entire program is available for free download as the WISER app. If you ever find yourself facing a mystery chemical spill, do you want to be one of the clueless people wondering what to do, or do you want to be the person who looks up the chemical in the first thirty seconds and tells everyone what it is and what you have to do next? The app is free and will happily wait on your cell phone until you need it; don’t be clueless, be WISER.Industrial and special purpose toolsLaser paint scraper and cleaning tool – P Laser and in action videoAn interesting scraping process similar to sand blasting, CO2 blasting and bead blasting. I can’t vouch for this product, but I’ve never seen anything else like it either (as of 2016).MAD speakers for extreme distance, volume and clarityPlanar speakers like the ones above are very different from standard paper cone speakers. If normal cone speakers are like light bulbs spreading out in all directions, planar speakers are like lasers. Where cone speakers fade out over distance and interfere with each other, planar speakers can be heard at ridiculous distances, and over other noises. Probably their neatest trick is that in a noisy 90 dB environment, this speaker can clearly be heard an understood even at 80 dB.On site, eco-friendly cleaning and sanitizing liquids from saltwater – Pathosans - video-If you use cleaning chemicals in any significant quantity, you need to watch this video and check out this system. Just as your water softener uses salt to remove minerals from your drinking water, this system uses bulk salt and tap water to produce huge quantities of cleaning chemicals and sanitizing liquid on site.The process is simple but clever: electrical current is used to split the salt apart in salt water. Salt (sodium chloride) in water is split and filtered to become sodium water (Patho clean) and chloride water (Patho sans). Patho clean is good for scrubbing carpets, washing surfaces, etc while Patho sans kills germs wherever it goes. Agricultural companies use Pathosans units to sterilize live animal contact surfaces and hotel chains use it to produce cheap and effective cleaning products. The cost of the cleaner and sanitizer is around five cents per gallon. The machine itself commands a high price, but if your business buys its cleaner/sterilizer in 55 gallon drums, this system stands a good chance of saving you a lot of money.Wave glider, an ocean drone that can cross oceans and is powered by wave actionThese inventors figured out that while waves make the surface of the water go up and down, they have zero effect on the deeper water. The torpedo shaped bottom has fins that ratchet it forward every time it’s hauled up and down by the surface drone bobbing on the waves above. They work in very small waves and category 5 hurricanes equally well and so can be used to take readings, monitor for science/defense, or conceivably to transport illicit cargo from one continent to another.Industrial forklift crash prevention – sees around blind corners and runs on batteries – Collision SentryThis handy gadget runs on D batteries and uses magnets to stick to metal racking at blind 90 degree corners. When someone approaches from one side nothing happens, but when someone approaches from both sides simultaneously the device lights up a flashing warning to prevent a collision.Interesting ring knife for people who open a lot of packages – Handy Safety KnifeThis product is intended for people who use hand knives to open a lot of packages. It is inexpensive, disposable, and always to hand. There are plenty of places these would be unsuitable (any workplace with powered conveyors or equipment comes to mind), but the idea is so unique it deserves to be included for the one person who has the problem this tool answers.Two way radios for $15 instead of $300 –It turns out that two way radios have gotten a lot cheaper over the years, but just as a teenager can charge grandma money to fix her computer, so the contractors that most companies get their radios from are not in a hurry to tell everyone how easy the job has become. BaoFeng radios cost between $15 and $30, and do everything you expect from a walkie-talkie, but unlike what you’re probably using now, BaoFeng uses better equipment and lithium ion batteries standard. This translates into much longer run times and better performance. The simple $15 radio and more complicated $30radio can be found here, along with the cable used to program them. This link here discusses how to do it.Rust prevention in existing concrete structures courtesy of NASANASA has a lot of concrete structures near the coast, and saltwater corrosion is a problem for them. So they figured out a way to rust proof metal after it had been encased in concrete for years. If you have any concrete structure that’s showingits age, take a look at this link.The Bad AXX – an improved ax for fire fighters - $250 to $300This is a Swiss army knife for firefighting: it’s a step up to high windows, it’s a repelling anchor point to get you off the roof when it’s on fire and collapsing, its wrench to shut off gas lines and open fire hydrants, it holds you’re forced entry tool, and the head cuts without ever getting stuck. It’s real and in production – check out the video.TravelA handy power strip for world travel – Power donutA power strip that is tiny, travels easily, and adapts to different electrical systems around the world.Medical toolsEmergency blood stopping powder, a must have for first aid kits - Celox and how to useThis product is used to keep someone alive long enough for the ambulance to arrive in the event of severe bleeding. It forms a jell to stop blood flow at the injury and comes as powder packages, bandages, or a syringe full of the powder for gunshot wounds. Pioneered in the US military, this is one of several good haemostatic products that are must haves for any serious first aid kit. If you own a gun or a knife, does it really make sense to be totally unprepared for the results of gun and knife wounds?Emergency blood stopping pack – a second choice after Celox - QuikClot and how to useQuickClot stops severe bleeding by absorbing the water out of blood, thus causing the clotting agents to become super concentrated at the injury site and stop the bleeding faster. As with Celox above, this will help keep someone alive long enough for the paramedics to arrive and save them.Liquid band aid – a cheap, generic must have for first aid kits – example linkThis is a generic product for minor to moderate injuries that sterilizes a cut and protects the injury site like a band aid. Good for use on tight locations that flex where band aids wouldn’t work. Because of its utility and tiny size it’s a good addition to any first aid kit.Betadine – inexpensive sanitizing solution for cuts used by EMT’s - LinkIn the old days parents used to use iodine or alcohol to clean and sterilize small cuts and scrapes (hydrogen peroxide will bubble dirt out of a wound, but it does not sterilize). Today we all have access to the same inexpensive product nurses and surgeons use; Betadine. It cleans and sterilizes wounds with much less burning than the old options, and most of us are familiar with it already as the brown skin staining wipe that doctors use before drawing blood.Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS – a new treatment for depression, OCD, and Autism – Related techTMS is a revolutionary new tool that uses very strong magnetic fields to induce current flows near the surface of the brain. It’s essentially a big capacitor bank and a hand held coil employed for ten to twenty minute sessions to treat Depression and other mental conditions. Its painless, has virtually no side effects and is FDA cleared for a few conditions, but it’s in its infancy as a treatment. Promising studies have shown its potential to improve OCD, Autism and several other conditions.Ultrasound for your cell phone – production pending - ClariusFor those trained to use it, Clarius is a new handheld ultrasound probe that allows diagnostic procedures to be done anywhere you have a cell phone. Production is slated to being in 2018.Tech off the gridClean burning hyper efficient cook stove – see videoThe Aprovecho Research center designs and sells extremely efficient cook stoves for camping and long term use in the third world. These stoves have a core made from lightweight clay that reflects heat back into the fire box, allowing a few sticks and twigs to burn hot and clean with no smoke. The top of the stove is built to channel the hot gasses onto the cooking pot for maximum heat transfer with minimal fuel. To first world campers this translates into a neat (if heavy) stove that can burn almost any handy material to boil water and cook. For church groups and other organizations working in the third world these stoves are a way to drastically reduce expenditures of time and money on fuel for cooking – see video. For large orders, the stoves can be shipped in by cargo canister at prices as low as $5 a stove for the bare clay core that actually makes the unit work. Anyone that has to think about where their cooking fuel comes from could benefit from this technology.A light that runs on gravity like a grandfather clock – Gravity lightGravity light is a small generator that uses a sack full or rocks to produce electricity for simple indoor lighting. Just like a grandfather clock, as the weights descend their energy turns the mechanism, in this case turning a generator to drive the lights. While campers can use this product, it is intended for the third world where indoor lighting after dark means kids can learn to read and go to school. Anyone living without electricity could benefit from this product.One way to internet everywhere – Outernet – See videoOuternet is the best of the internet, broadcast one way only to earth from a satellite. The ‘Lighthouse’ model mounts to a standard direct TV dish and downloads many MB of data per day, while the ‘Lantern’ is a portable solar powered device that can travel anywhere and downloads at a slower rate. Both access the same information such as educational materials for students, warnings about local emergencies, weather forecasts, censorship free news, etc. Outernet devices slowly download this information and then allow users to log in and browse what is stored locally. The downside is that the data flow is one way only, but the upside is the system works as an end run around missing power and data infrastructure as well as censorship rules.Clean drinking water from any source - LifestrawAccess to safe drinking water is essential to health, and many of the worst diseases spread via contaminated water. The lifestraw family of products is invaluable to hikers and those working in the third world because it allows anyone to turn dirty water into clean safe water. The absence of safe water doesn’t just kill and sicken people, it drags down their finances, ensuring that those in crushing poverty stay there caring for the sick rather than using that time and money to send children to school.Freshwater from saltwater – the water cone.A simple plastic cone that makes 1.5Lts of freshwater from saltwater.Water transportation from river to home – Water wheelIn some areas of the world, even getting water to the home for cooking and bathing is a major job that pulls time away from education and other productive tasks. The water wheel cuts that time in half and improves quality of life.Fold-a-scopeThe one dollar paper microscope that fits in your pocket and is good enough for lab tests.The PaperfugeA centrifuge that works anywhere without power and achieves 125,000 RPMs. Under development for malaria testing. Development documents on how to build one.Kitchen ToolsPortable drink carbonator – Bubble CapA hand held drink carbonator that accepts standard CO2 bottles and standard soda bottles unlike the SodaStream.Parents corner$100 Life saving product to prevent SIDS in infants - Snuza Hero -If you or someone you know has a child under a year old, this is the most important thing on this page. The Snuza Hero clips onto an infant’s diaper to monitor motion and breathing. If no movement or breathing is detected for 15 seconds the device vibrates to wake the baby, but if nothing is detected by 20 seconds it sets of a loud alarm.When SIDS kills a baby, all too often it happens in the middle of the night when both parents are asleep and it’s completely silent. Without some kind of alarm it’s almost impossible to intervene in time, so this can be the most important $100 spent on your baby. It saved our daughter’s life, and a quick read through the product reviews shows many more parents with similar saves.Kingii flotation wrist band $90After losing a relative to drowning, this engineer designed a wrist band that uses common CO2 cylinders to inflate an air bag for emergency flotation. Unlike a bulky life vest, this thing can be worn easily in or around water, and if used in an emergency it can be easily repacked and reloaded after saving a life. It’s suitable for kids and adults, and easy insurance when working around treacherous bodies of water. Roughly 372,000 people drown every year, and $90 seems a small price to protect those you care about.Wetsuits for kids $35Most kids love the water, but little little kids inevitably end up shivering and cold even at indoor pools that are comfortable for adults. The problem is that children have lots of surface area to lose heat through, but very little volume, meaning they get cold very quickly and can’t swim as long as they’d like. A wetsuit like this one fixes that problem and drastically reduces the area needing sunscreen as well. If you’d like to guarantee your child sleeps soundly through the night, consider one of these to turn a one hour trip into a real afternoon outing.Free math and school tutoring - Khan academy - promo videoKhan Academy helps anyone at any level learn about math, science, and a variety of other school subjects using recorded lectures by skilled professors combined with interactive tests and automated tutoring. It’s hard to oversell this site; everything is free to use, nearly all subjects are covered, you can log in as a student, parent or teacher to monitor progress, and the site even has test prep for all the major tests like SAT and MCAT. The math section that started the site is particularly clever – when a student first logs in they take a ten question test that helps the program figure out their skill level, and then it suggests new math topics and tracks progress while periodically refreshing old topics as well. If you know anyone in school as a student, parent or teacher, tell them about this program. Odds are good they’ll thank you for it.The drug talk – “Licit and Illicit Drugs by consumer reports”The do’s and don’ts of drugs are usually right up there with the ‘sex talk’ when it comes to uncomfortable conversations parents really need to get right, but often put off or miss altogether. Fortunately, consumer reports wrote an excellent book on the topic which is available for free online. The organization has a well earned reputation for impartiality, and it shows as the book talks about what each drug does, how it was discovered, and how it got to be legal or illegal. Having the facts makes smart choices possible, and this free resource is a must read for anyone over ten.$1.25 calculator wrist watch loved by grade school kids – LinkKids 5th grade and younger find these to be the height of fashion and prestige. If you want to reward a child with an inexpensive gift that will help them academically, search Google for ‘calculator watch’ and order a few.How to get started in life and live well on less - Poorcraft.Unless you’re lucky enough to start life as a millionaire, most of us have to start out on very small incomes working long hours at unpleasant jobs. There are scams and businesses beyond count built to take advantage of the young and un-educated. If you or someone you know earns less than $50,000 a year, spend $5 and get this book. It’s an easy-to-read graphic novel packed to the brim with useful tricks and tips, plus plenty of humor to keep things interesting.(Cartoon thanks to xkcd)Kerbal Space Program - LinkThis game is a great way to build STEM interest in children and adults as you run a space agency for the ‘Kerbals’ and try to land on the moon or go to mars. All technology in the game also exists in the real world, rockets can be built from parts like Lego bricks and all the physics are as close to real as they can make them.Google Sky, Moon and Mars + Stuff in space, Impact earth, lightyearFM, the 100,000 stars project and the scale of our solar system.Bit of an astronomy dump here, but if you want to learn about our universe or teach your children, these are excellent resources. Google Sky, Moon and Mars let you explore these places in the same way Google earth explores the globe. Stuff in space maps satellites around the world, impact earth simulates asteroid impacts and Lightyear FM travels 100 light years out from earth playing the songs that could be heard at that distance. The 100,000 stars project is an accurate, searchable 3D model of the nearest 100,000 stars to the earth, and the ‘scale of the solar system’ video shows how small we are by building a huge model in the desert.FanFiction.net and Archive of our own (AO3)This is a good way to encourage reading and incentivize writing practice. For any book, movie or TV show, there are fans who write stories about the canon, such as ‘what if she did this?’ or ‘what if this happened this way?’. These works of ‘fan fiction’ can read just like the original work, or can be very different with only characters from the original work. Everyone enjoys some kind of media, and FanFiction is a good way to get them reading about something they already like. In many cases, the instant availability of interesting reading material on any internet capable device boosts reading skills and sets up a situation where writing is undertaken enthusiastically and for fun. We’ve all seen people type out angry rants when ‘someone is wrong on the internet’. Fan fiction sets up situations where the reader will find a story about characters they’re very invested in and say ‘This story is awful! I could write a better story that this!’. And they do. And the posted story gets comments about what the bran-new author needs to work on. And so they write some more to show them, show them all.After several months the same student who had to be forced to write a three page paper will be feverishly banging out ten page chapters twice a month to keep their fans happy.NSF testThe National Science Foundation periodically surveys the public to see what they know about science, and the results usually aren’t pretty. The link above is to the ten question NSF test and a series of answers, essentially a canned lesson plan for anyone running a science class at any grade level. The printed test fits on a single sheet of paper and can be used to quickly find out how much your students know and catch up those who have holes in their understanding.+Chemistry article referencing the periodic table and nuclear tableHow different engines workAnyone teaching STEM classes or with an interest in engines may find these animated diagrams useful. They’re not the most detailed, but they cover many different basic types of engines. This link shows the standard four cylinder auto engine in more detail. And this link shows more of the peripheral systems like cooling. Mechanical link.Scan expensive text books or digitize your library – CZUR scannerCZUR is a $300 machine that connects to any computer and scans books into e-books. Scanners that automatically turn the pages cost more than a luxury car, so this unit is an inexpensive way to digitize pricey school textbooks, unusual books from your library, or just anything you want to read but don’t feel like lugging around in paperback. Speed is about one photo (which covers two pages of the open book) per two seconds, so a 300 page book will take about eight to ten minutes to scan. If your college still uses paper text books, consider spending the $300 once on the scanner, instead of two or three times a year at the bookstore.Bizarre wheels for projects, forklifts and robots – Mecanum WheelMecanum Wheels are wheels that allow a vehicle to slide sideways by counter-rotating its wheels. They’re used on forklifts that work in narrow aisles, and in other specialty applications. Anyone building a wheeled robot for a competition should be aware of these because of the performance edge they provide.Fun projectsThe Long Now foundation building a clock that will run for 10,000 years.The long now is a society dedicated to long term thinking, which involves several projects including a four story tall stainless steel clock that will run for 10,000 years, a project to record all human languages, and another to record old computer operating systems for backwards compatibility.Hundred year time capsule for a dollarA simple article on how to build a time capsule from a wine bottle that will last for one hundred years or more. This is a quick afternoon project that lets anyone from grade school kids to adults send a message to people decades or centuries in the future.Free satellite TV for $250 of equipmentIt turns out that free to air satellite TV is still around, and $250 worth of equipment will get you everything you need to watch it. This is a Ku band system (think direct TV sized) and mounts anywhere with a clear view of the southern sky. The programs are a mishmash of low budget shows and international content, but there are hundreds of channels, and they work anywhere you can see the sky. This package is understandably popular with members of the armed forces who want access to their own TV programming while stationed abroad.They also sell the old huge C band dish systems (8 ft across and larger) that still pick up content as well as direct downlink video received by news trucks. Programming varies wildly, but there are some reliable shows – Nebraska, for example, broadcasts their PBS stations down on C band.Telecom – how antennas work + satellite coverage map + how bandwidth works+ KU vs C band pro con +Jumping shoes that give 6 ft of air – Kangaroo shoesKnow as ‘acro stilts’, ‘power striders’ or ‘kangaroo shoes’, these toys allow for ridiculous jumps and let anyone run faster than the world’s fastest sprinter. They use a composite spring very much like the flexible part of a compound bow and arrow to greatly increase the efficiency of running and jumping, and like skate boarders, are popular for the tricks skilled users do with them.Kniterate – a $5000 automatic knitting machine / cloth printerFor those who do serious amounts of knitting or want to design their own clothes, this home machine allows you to program and create whatever you want from common yarn.Seaboard – a $2000 to $9000 keyboard with silicone keys that let you bend musical notes while you play.Software defined radio – see and hear everything on every channel with this thumb stickWe all know AM and FM radio from cars, and some know more types of radio like citizens band, ham radio, etc, but until recently, receiving on more than one channel required many different radios. Not anymore. Software defined radio uses a computer to translate the signal, and this model costs $25, is the size of thumb drive, yet can receive anything from 500 Kh up to 1.7 Gh. In automotive terms, this would be like a car that could fly, drive, float on the water, dive under the water, rocket into space, yet it fit in your back pocket and cost $25. If you’ve ever thought about dabbling with radio, it’s never been cheaper or easier than this.A bee hive that dispenses honey through a tap – no mess, simple and easy.Not something I ever thought about before seeing this, but smoking out bees and opening up a hive of angry stinging insects isn’t the easiest way to get honey, especially considering the resulting comb still has to be scraped and filtered. These guys figured out how to get bees to fill an artificial honeycomb with honey, and it can literally be emptied with a tap.Learn to knit… steel rings into medieval body armor – ringlord.comAnyone into the SCA may find this old news, but some people still make armor and jewelry out of steel rings called chainmail. This site sells everything necessary to weave just about anything you want to make.Incredibly powerful magnets designed for particle accelerators – United NuclearFor all your incredibly powerful magnet needs. These magnets were intended for use in physics labs, and while prices range from $80 to $200, they are strong enough to amputate an arm if careful handling is not used.Magnetic wedding rings for magicians – Super magnet manThese magnetic rings look and feel like normal jewelry, but can be used in magic acts. I have been informed that it is theoretically possible for a cashier to use one to demagnetize a particularly abusive or obnoxious customer’s debit card, though I don’t know of anyone who has. While there are many potential applications, take care not to touch your wallet while wearing one.Multitool business card – about $1 per card to be remembered by clients/employers – Card + Label (Avery 5317)Business cards tend to lead short lives, but they don’t have to. The listed multitools are the size of business cards, yet they can perform a variety of useful functions, and with the addition of the linked label, they can easily become unusual, useful business cards. If you think it’s worth one dollar to have a client keep your card in their wallet for the next five years, consider some of these. (My then-fiancee made my first batch for me as a college graduation present. Not only have they proved impressive for networking and business purposes, but my wife still designs all my business stationery.)Gallium – the inexpensive liquid metal that turns aluminum to mush.This one is largely self-explanatory – got something aluminum you don’t want in one piece anymore? Try Gallium!Ultimate privacy monitor – no one can see your computer screen but you! – Hack how toThis clever hack is useful for those who need a privacy monitor. Essentially, all monitors have a thin skin of polarizing plastic in the display to produce a useable image. If you take the monitor apart, peel off this layer and apply it to a set of glasses, only the person wearing the glasses can see the screen – everyone else just sees a blank white light.Millennium-Disk or M-Disk $5 a disk, $50 for the burner driveAn M disk is a CD, DVD, or Blue ray disk made from a stone like material that will read in any conventional drive but retains its data for 1000 years. Most disk media becomes unreadable after a few years of storage, and the same holds true for magnetic hard drives and solid state drives like thumb sticks. Up till recently there wasn’t any way to preserve digital material short of constantly transferring it from one machine to another. Now it’s possible to send video and photos into the future through time capsules, well wishes with our lost loved ones through coffins, or just archive important documents for years to come. What do you want the world to remember when you’re gone?Home, construction and architectureBuy a $2000 cargo/shipping container for an indestructible backyard shed - LinkCargo canisters are ugly but very durable and less expensive than most methods of construction. Suitable for backyard sheds, or even as the basis for tiny homes and larger structures, it can be useful to know this is an option.Color changing heat sensitive tile for showers – Moving colorMost of us have seen that black plastic that changes color like a mood ring when held in a warm hand. It turns out someone made them into bathroom tiles that change from black to a rainbow of vibrant colors when the hot water comes on.In floor heating tubes for very cheap winter solar heating (no solar cells needed)If you ever build your own home, remember this trick. Home heating is usually done with forced air through ducts, but this requires a very small area to be very hot (the firebox of the furnace). We all know burning gas and oil gets expensive, but most of the time it’s our only option; solar concentrators can heat water to 150 degrees F, or even 180, but they can’t approach the high temperatures needed for a forced air furnace firebox. However, if you cast plastic water tubing into the floor of the building when its being built, now you have a very larger area that only needs to be warm in order to heat the whole house. A solar hot water panel made up of black copper pipe encased in vacuum tubes can be hooked directly to the system to heat your entire house for free even in the dead of winter.ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) are lego blocks for building concrete homes (watch a one day build)For anyone building a new home, ICF blocks are a great way to increase build speed, lower cost, improve insulations and finish with a much stronger structure than a wood only build would provide. To quote some statistics, a home build with ICF blocks can save 70% on energy bills, lower insurances costs by 10%, has 75% less outside air infiltration, is 10 times stronger and 3 times quieter than a wood home, comes with a 4 hour fire rating is literally bullet proof! Floor example. Roof example.Hunting, ballistics and security relatedZ-Modo home camera systemTrying to secure a home or business is never easy; almost by definition anything that gets broken/stolen happens when you aren’t looking. An eight camera system with DVR is a good fix for this, and Z-Modo makes many fine systems for around $200 to $300. Have you ever heard of a break-in that cost less than $300?Normally when you find out about a break in it’s far too late to intervene, and in most jurisdictions the police need three to six months to get the results back on a fingerprint search, and that’s assuming there are prints to find and the person leaving them already has a record with prints to search for. If someone gave you an assignment at your job would you still remember three months later?By contrast, an eight camera system deters some break ins, and if a break in does occur, it preserves video of everything that is taken, and everyone involved. The police normally have a pretty good feel for who is causing problems in a neighborhood, but can’t do much about it without clear evidence. With a camera system you can run the video back while you wait for the police to arrive, and then play them the video with everyone’s faces. Quite often the result is “Hey, I know that guy! Wait here while we go pay him a visit.” In this way a camera system can permanently remove bad actors from a neighborhood and help everyone sleep better.Krav MagaThis is an unarmed combat system developed by what became the Israeli army to deal with NAZIs in the 1930s. This is not a ‘martial art’ full of training dances and karate chops against empty air, it’s a way to take down an attacker trying to kill/rape you. It was built to defend an oppressed minority from F-ing NAZIs and it works, so it’s ideal for children, women, and many others.The slingshot channel. Yes, this is a thing.If you want to see things hit by overpowered homemade slingshots built by an engineer/body builder and his wife, take a look.How to build a potato cannon for fun and ballistics demonstrations – spud gun & Pumpkin chuckingFor everyone who ever wondered how to build an air cannon to throw potatoes, here is an expert. See also Pumpkin chucking for similar designs.Pocket sized slingshot $20– Pocket shotA remarkably tiny slingshot that still throws for distance.Super compact Taser $300- PulseA recent shooting taser that is a nice mix of small size and functionality.Cheap disposable pepper cannon $40– Pepper blaster - test videoA tiny but highly effective way to deliver capsaicin to the face as cheaply as possible. While not a firearm, the device uses percussion caps to propel the pepper sludge, meaning it works at any temperature, in the rain in the wind, and doesn’t need to be charged up like a battery or a pressure can.Blackpowder derringer $180– yes they still make themAn interesting tiny firearm that loads just as it did in the 1850s.World’s smallest full power bow $900– Liberty Bow - test videoThis manufacture figured out that compound bows no longer need the heavy aluminum bar between the spring arms, so they removed it to create a bow with a 70lb draw weight that fits easily in a backpack. Pricy, but interesting.Computer toolsRun a ‘who is’ search to find out who owns a website –eg, slanted news vs propagandaThere are many sites on the web that purport to say something, but are owned by someone who has every reason to lie. A ‘who is’ search is a way to quickly find out who owns the website you’re reading. For example, if a web page claims solar panels cause cancer, a ‘who is’ search might reveal it to be owned by British Petroleum.Find old versions of software to roll back bad updates – Old versionSometimes it’s handy to be able to undo a bad software update, or re-install a program for the distant past; Old version allows you to do just that, simply and easily.Google Earth and Google Maps to navigate and explore our worldThese are known to almost everyone, but on the off chance someone hasn’t heard of Google maps, or its portable 3D parent Google Earth, take a look. Navigation and exploration has never been simpler.Aircraft and pilotsYes, you can fly small planes if you want toAircraft are not solely the domain of the rich and famous. You can buy or build an aircraft for the price of a luxury car, and with a small propeller driven plane, your time is suddenly much more valuable.Draw a circle on a map with your home at the center and a radius of 8 hours driving. That’s about what most of us can do in a weekend; anything outside that circle is out of reach, or requires careful advanced planning. With an aircraft, that circle suddenly grows to 1000 or 2000 miles. Someone living in DC can hop into their plane after 5PM on a Friday and be relaxing on the beach in Florida before the sun sets.Cars and automotiveTesla model S, X and 3 – The best car ever (as rated by consumer reports).By now most people have heard of Tesla motors and their three production cars, but if you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000 then read on. Tesla makes two $50,000 cars – a sedan and an SUV and one $35,000 sedan and they are the safest cars on earth as rated by multiple agencies. And they’re the fastest production cars in existence. And they’re all electric, silent and have a +200 mile range. And they come with autodrive standard, meaning the day self driving cars are legalized in your state, you already own one. Consumer reports has been rating cars for more than fifty years, and not only did the Tesla score higher than any other car or truck ever, they rated it the best car ever. Stories about it abound, like the time an insurance company tried to test the rollover strength of the roof and the car broke their hydraulic car crusher.Automotive DashCam by ‘Boomyours” for $60This strangely named camera of Russian manufacture is an indispensable tool for any car. When paired with a $5 micro SD card and adapter (not included, must be purchased separately or it won’t run), the camera suction cups to the windshield like a GPS and records everything happening inside the car and visible through the front window. It starts up as soon as the car starts, records about a month of driving, and automatically overwrites the oldest videos so no action is required by the user, just plug it in and forget it.If you are hit by another driver, now you have video of the other person’s mistake and no amount of lawyers can change who is at fault. “It was my fault because I was on my phone? No, actually, the video clearly shows you hit me and I was not on my phone. That, and the GPS and G-force data shows where, when and how hard you hit my car.”In addition to crash uses, the camera also records what happens during a traffic stop, and many users find the police are more polite when they are being recorded. If not, well, you now have video of exactly what happened and YouTube is free. Finally, the micro-SD to SD card adaptor allows you to quickly pull the card after a hit and run, put the video onto the responding officer’s laptop, and show them exactly what happened within minutes of the accident, resulting in an APB and a much higher chance of catching the hit and run driver.RainX to improve visibility in wet/snowy conditions - $3 bottle lasts for many yearsMost people already know about RainX, but if you are one of today’s lucky 10,000 to whom this is news, then read on. Being able to see while driving is pretty important, and RainX makes the task much easier, especially in hard rain or snow. Basically it’s a wax you rub onto your windshield in two minutes using a paper napkin or whatever you have handy in the car. Just as water beads up and runs off a waxed car, the same thing works on glass. The bottle above doesn’t leak like the spray bottles do, and can be tucked into the door compartment and re-applied every three months or so. One $3 bottle will often outlast the car it’s kept in, and it’s a cheap way to reduce the risk of a road accident.BlueTooth OBD2 car diagnostic scanner for $7This tool links to your Smartphone using the Torque app and allows you to read and reset trouble codes and check engine lights. It’s a cheap but invaluable tool, and great to have in any glove box.Convert your car to run on French fry grease – Golden FuelsFor those interested in free fuel, Golden Fuels sells all the equipment needed to run your diesel truck on waste vegetable oil. The process is simple enough, mainly centered around filtering, and if you find yourself driving many miles in a diesel truck, using McDonalds as a fuel stop can be quite appealing.Thank you for reading, I hope you found something interesting : )