My granny bought this for me when I first left for university, and I've taken it with me everywhere since. I love baking, but proper scales are either too heavy or too delicate for my semi-nomadic lifestyle. This cone like cup is absolutely perfect - it measures liquids and dry ingredients like flour, sugar and lentils quickly and accurately, and creates a minimum of mess.

Every time someone wanders into the kitchen when I'm baking, they'll stop and comment on how useful it is. (I swear Tala should be paying me commission; I must have recommended it to several dozen people by now.) It's very light and takes up hardly any room, but it's proved to be surprisingly sturdy - mine's getting a bit battered by now, but it's served me well for years and it hasn't leaked yet. The best bit is that it measures in metric, imperial and cups, so there's no more need for irritating trans-Atlantic conversions.

I was first introduced to the Israeli emergency bandage several years ago as a medic in Iraq. It was a huge step up from the standard military dressings that we had been issued. The old military style dressings hadn't changed since WWII and were not really effective as the canvas ties didn't always hold the dressing where you needed it. A lot of guys were using gauze pads and elastic wrap which, while better, was cumbersome.

The Israeli emergency bandage was the first of a new generation of bandages that made a difference when it really counts. It combines a sterile dressing, elastic wrap and a pressure bar to make a fast and easy to use trauma bandage. The long tail can be configured in various ways to hold the bandage in place or to immobilize the limb, plus it can be configured in to an improvised tourniquet. I consider it must carry item since I can use it as a multipurpose bandage, use the tail as an "Ace" wrap for sprains or to immobilize a fracture to a splint. The bandage comes in 4" and 6" for around $5-$11 and everyone in my family has one in their car first aid kit, backpack or office.

Method foaming soap dispensers are inexpensive, reliable, and refillable. The soaps are widely available from retailers like Target. Method's 300ml reservoir has a stable base and is larger than most foamers. The reservoir is transparent: if you have multiple dispensers, you can use the color of the soaps to tell them apart. I've used the Method foamers for over five years. I use them for hand soap, in the shower (soap and shampoo) and for hand-washing dishes. Foam soap cleans eyeglasses astonishingly well.

Foaming soap dispensers work by extruding the foam through the precisely-aligned pump mechanism. The foamers can be refilled; the trick is to dilute the soap the right amount. If the soap is too dilute, the foam will be wet and runny. If the soap is over-concentrated, the pump will be difficult to press. Foaming soap is white because the soap's surfactant has no color. If you see color in the foam some soap is getting pushed through the extruder without foaming. This damages the foaming mechanism — use less soap! The foamers will eventually wear out but well-treated ones will work for at least a couple of years.

Lotions will not foam. The wonderful soaps from Burt's Bees will not foam (I'm not quite sure why). Other than that, virtually any liquid soap or shampoo will foam. Method's soaps use sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) as their surfactant. I'm not fond of SLS; I prefer soaps made with saponified natural oils.

Foaming soap is a simple and effective green technology. The foam provides an optimal ratio of soap and water for cleaning. You can completely wash before turning on the tap for rinsing. It's good for sponge baths or camping when you have limited access to water. Foam uses the soap far more efficiently: you will be using a fraction of the soap from your pre-foam days. Less soap also means fewer chemicals for the wastewater treatment facility to remove.

I've used this fantastic multi-use Hyde Pry Bar for 30 years. If my house were burning down I would grab it, along with my computer backup and photo albums.

With it we have scraped paint, removed nails without having to run to get another tool, pried things apart, scraped gum off the floor. It doesn't stay bent out of shape like other more cheaply built products, but instead springs back into position. It's also sharpenable. My son wants to inherit it.

I have gone through several boxes of these over the years. Not only are they great for stirring the last 2" of paint and epoxy, but they are also so precisely cut that I used them on a measuring table for shims when we measured parts for prototyping using a high accuracy measuring tool.

You can build them up in almost perfect 1/16" layers and since they are made of hard wood they are surprisingly stable with moisture and temperature changes. I have repaired door jambs, precisely spaced decking, leveled flooring by taping bundles together, and tweaked jigs of all kinds for household projects. They are a must have for the creative handyman. Cheap and useful for a never ending array of things.

I have used hearing aids for the past seven years. I initially paid $1600.00 for a set of Siemens inner ear digital hearing aids which worked well, but required constant care and tuning by the audiologist. Worse, there was only a 3 year warranty. After that, warranty costs from aftermarket repair facilities are on average $250.00 and up per year. Frustated by the hype and upon learning that the same hearing aid is sold in other countries for as low as $300.00, I started to search for an alternative.

During my research I found the Acoustitone PRO that was designed by an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor to be an affordable alternative. I paid $330 from Amazon for a set of two. Overall, they work almost as well as the much more expensive Siemens and other similar types, which are also ridiculously priced. They are FDA registered and Audiologist approved. They are also designed to be simple and rugged. I've had these for just over a month, and they have been trouble free. Best of all, they are adjustable for either low or high frequency as well as volume. I highly recommend them if you are as sick of being ripped off by hearing aid companies as I was. At less than a quarter of the cost of other hearing aids I recommend giving them a try.

I have tried several 'universal' remotes over the years and the Harmony Remotes by Logitech are the best I have used. The basic idea of a universal remote is to free you from having to use a separate remote for every device you need to control. I can say that except for the occasional special need, like accessing a setup menu, I can use the Harmony remote to control my shelves of equipment while leaving their individual remotes stored in a coffee table drawer. This is no mean feat since I use two displays (projector and TV) several sources and also control my lights. The cost of all this convenience is a few minutes (maybe an hour or more initially) setting up the remote and then occasional tweaks when you change equipment or need another feature. Required accessories are a computer and Internet access.

The Harmony remotes improve on the typical universal remote in two ways: 1) The remote commands for all your equipment are stored in an online database 2) The controller is 'activity-based'.

The online database is very extensive and seems to have most makes and models. Once you find your device in the database, almost all remote commands are available for loading into the Harmony remote. For those commands or devices that fall through the cracks, the remote has a learning function that can record any command you like so long as you have the original controller. Once you have all the commands you need, you then use the online software to setup activities, such as 'Watch TV', "Listen to Music", "Watch a Movie", and so on. You then assign the various commands to the predefined buttons on the remote or to one of the softkeys that are user-defined. For me, "Watch TV" is a simple activity that turns on the TV and converts the buttons and softkeys on the controller to mimic my TV remote. "Watch a Movie" has to turn on the projector, DVD player, and AV receiver. The softkeys allow me to dim the lights or control the projector aspect ratio. The predefined controller buttons allow complete control of the sound (via the AV receiver) and DVD transport. All this with the press of one button.

It will take some training for casual users to get used to this remote. For one thing, it may take up to 15 seconds for all the commands to be sent and the remote needs to remain pointed at the devices during this time. The other adjustment comes in getting used to activity-based commands. Most people just want to pick up the control and look for the ON button. It is daunting to hold a remote with over 40 buttons on it and locate the correct one. Once you get used to it, the correct buttons are easily found however.

One weakness of any remote control system is that the controller does not know what state the equipment is in. This is a problem since many remote commands are not absolute. For instance, for many devices, "power on" and "power off" are the same command. Also many devices that have input switching use a simple 'go to next input' command rather than "go to input 5". The Harmony handles this in a fairly straightforward way. If any of the equipment gets out of sync with where the remote thinks it is, you simply press the Help button. This starts a question/answer process that continues until you respond that the problem is solved. Of course, it is up to you whether it is simpler to merely get off the couch and go press a button.

I will finish by listing one caveat. My experience is based on use of an older model that is no longer available. I have looked at the current models and I cannot see any big difference except that Logitech is apparently limiting the number of devices you can control with the simpler remotes. Read the features and capabilities carefully before choosing your model. Whether the remote will work well for you will depend on the number of devices you need to control, the number and type of predefined buttons you will need (such as channel, volume, menu control, etc.) and the number of activities you use. Also, although they offer a model with no LCD screen, I would not recommend getting this unless you have a very simple setup that only needs the predefined buttons. The LCD screen allows you to define softkeys. This not only allows you to define activity-dependent buttons, but label them so you know what they do - very helpful for the rest of the family that did not participate in programming the remote!

There are many salad spinner devices out there that do a fine job of shedding water from freshly washed salad greens (like the previously reviewed OXO Salad Spinner), but most are costly and take up a lot of space. None are as efficient, portable or cheap as Spin 'n Stor.

You simply place freshly washed greens in the bag, twist the top of the bag closed, make a fist around the twist and spin the bag vigorously a few times quickly. Water is automatically collected into a reservoir at the bottom of the bag and drains out from a channel running along one side. Works as well as any salad spinner I've ever used.

Both the packaging and the website have excellent illustrations to help you do it right the first time, but it's kind of obvious once you see the bag and there are brief written guides and arrows printed on the bag itself. It's so ridiculously simple that once you've done it, you'll never forget how.

Perfect for travelers because it's just a cleverly designed plastic bag that you can fold up and take with. It stores anywhere, even a pocket or tucked in a corner of a briefcase. Because I sometimes travel on a moment's notice and frequently make my own salads, I keep one stashed in every travel case, tucked inside a small zip lock bag.

The bag can also be used to store the greens. Just fluff the greens in the bag, use a twist tie to close and it keeps greens fresh in the refrigerator much longer than the bags they come in from the market.

A further advantage of Spin 'n Stor that I've discovered is that it can also be used for drying freshly washed fruits and veggies without risking bruising the delicate ones, which would occur in any other kind of salad spinner.