I got quoted in this Travel + Leisure article about some of the best destinations in the world for young adults to consider for moving abroad. This is not meant to be a definitive list, but it’s a good article if you want 8 options to consider instead of being overwhelmed with choices. You don’t have to be young to enjoy these places, but they’re strong on the vibrant qualities people look for when they’re in their 20s and 30s, plus the cost of living is another favorable factor.

More Airlines Raise Baggage Fees

The airlines never met a fee they didn’t like and when one of their competitors raises the price, the execs usually match them in lockstep. So after JetBlue went first, as mentioned last week, many of the other lemmings followed, with $45 for the first bag being the most common amount now, blamed on fuel costs. For budget airlines, you’re going to pay extra to bring anything unless you travel with just a “personal item,” but for the legacy airlines you can usually still get away with bringing a carry-on into the packed cabin. Otherwise, Alaska Air, Air Canada, JetBlue, and United all offer credit cards with free bag checks on all flights, not just a subset of them. This includes at least one companion if booked together. The current United sign-up bonus with Chase is huge too, enough for a round-trip ticket to almost anywhere.

Are You Buying Bottled Water out of Habit?

“You’ve got a bottle in your bag pocket, remember?” the woman said to her significant other in the line at the airport coffee shop in front of me yesterday. He put it back and saved $4.99 (plus tax) because he was 20 steps away from a filtered water dispenser. I saw another guy pay $6.89 for bottled water in our second airport of the day while being equally close to another dispenser. Since numerous studies have shown that bottled water is more contaminated than your average tap water, paying a premium and then throwing away more plastic seems like a bad idea all around if you’re flying in the USA or Europe.

A Looming Worker Crisis for US Hotels

If you’re having trouble finding a hotel staffer when you need one, it’s probably not your imagination. We’ve already seen the reduced influx of immigrants to the USA impact the food industry, but the next big hit will be where you lay your head when traveling. According to those in the industry, there’s already a serious worker shortage and it’s going to get worse. “The hospitality industry ended 2025 with 98,000 fewer workers than the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” With immigrants making up one-third of the labor force for hotels (and more for the construction of new ones), don’t expect rates to go anywhere but up in the coming years stateside.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

PHYSICAL

• Garmin Forerunner 965 — After a decade of loyalty to Fitbit, my wife finally talked me into making the switch to Garmin — and I haven’t looked back. As someone running about 30 miles a week, the depth of data it provides is genuinely useful: VO2 max, HRV, sleep scores, route maps. I’m not just collecting numbers — I think it’s actually made me a better runner and healthier person.
• Rogue Hoe/Pick — If you live in the American Midwest, bush honeysuckle is basically a villain — invasive, stubborn, and once you know what it looks like you’ll see it absolutely everywhere. I picked up this hoe/pick while volunteering with the Missouri Conservation Corps and it’s the best tool I’ve used in a decade for chopping, pulling, and hacking these things out at the root. Simple, brutal, effective.
• Urban Chestnut Brewery — My cousin owns this St. Louis gem, and I have it on good authority that he’s a good guy. But the beer stands on its own — Urban Chestnut leans into classic European styles done really well. If you’re in St. Louis their two taprooms are worth your time, and you can find their beer at retail locations across the region. You won’t be disappointed.

DIGITAL

• Waking Up — I’ve been a Sam Harris fan for over 20 years, so I was thrilled when this app came out. Harris once wrote that spending every waking moment lost in thought leaves us at the mercy of wherever our minds wander — and that meditation is a way of breaking that spell. This app makes that accessible without being intrusive. From 30-second mindfulness moments to daily quotes to a vast library of guided sessions, it meets you wherever you are and whenever you’re ready.
• NotebookLM — I hadn’t interviewed for a job in nearly 20 years, so when I decided to get back on the market I started with NotebookLM as a thinking partner — uploading personality assessments, personal reflection notes, and an honest account of what I wanted from my next role. Once I landed an interview, I shifted gears: fed it company research, the job description, and all that personal data, and it helped me figure out where I could genuinely add value. It synthesized everything into a custom podcast I could listen to on my runs, and during cooldowns I’d switch to Gemini Live for mock interview questions. After a few weeks of that I felt genuinely ready. And wouldn’t you know it — I got the job.

INVISIBLE

“Proceed as the way opens” — Quaker Proverb

I first encountered this Quaker proverb in William Least Heat-Moon’s River-Horse, where he called it his “precept of last resort” while navigating 5,000 miles of American waterways. It stuck. There’s something in it that echoes what evolutionary biologists call the “adjacent possible” — the idea that each step forward opens up the next one, even when you can’t see very far ahead. I find it grounding. It’s never hopeless. There’s always something you can do, and one move usually reveals the next.

Sign up here to get What’s in my NOW? a week early in your inbox.

Beautiful Birds
by Jean Roussen (author) and Emmanuel Walker (illustrator)
Flying Eye Books
2015, 56 pages, 8.9 x 12.2 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

In Beautiful Birds, author Jean Roussen and illustrator Emmanuel Walker fly through the alphabet with dozens of feathered friends. It begins, of course, with “A is for albatross, the admiral of the skies,” and progresses all the way to “Z is for zos-ter-o-pi-dae…” with details about all kinds of avians in between. The writing brims with clever rhymes and colorful words (ogling orbs, polychrome quills) making it delightful to read out loud. If I had to guess, I’d say Roussen is a fan of E.B. White’s idea that “children are game for anything… They love words that give them a hard time, provided they are in a context that absorbs their attention.”

Walker’s vibrant illustrations give kids all the context they need. His graphic, full-bleed drawings feel like those of mid-century masters Saul Bass and Charlie Harper. As an added bonus, the book’s design is also gorgeous. It’s bound in a neon salmon linen, with patterned endpapers to match. The neon color can be found on almost every page in varying doses, giving the optical effect of spying a ruffle of feathers in the wild. – Sara Distin at Tinybob

THE BOTANICAL TREASURY CELEBRATES 40 OF THE WORLD’S MOST FASCINATING PLANTS

The Botanical Treasury : Celebrating 40 of the Most Fascinating Plants through Historical Art and Manuscripts
by Christopher Mills (editor)
University of Chicago Press
2016, 176 pages, 8.5 x 11 x 1.6 inches (softcover in clamshell box)

Buy on Amazon

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England has just come out with a sumptuous collection of “40 of the world’s most fascinating plants.” What makes them the “most fascinating”? For some it’s their appearance or structure, for others it might be their medicinal properties or economic impact. But from the bizarre-looking banksia to the quinine-packed cinchona to the functional bottle gourd, what they all have in common is a fascinating story.

The Botanical Treasury, which comes in a richly textured cloth-covered box along with 40 reproduced frameable prints, devotes four pages to each plant. Each entry includes an interesting tale pertaining to the plant along with copies of historical drawings, photos, letters, maps, journal entries and newspaper clippings. Most of the stories are about the naturalists and explorers who hunted for and studied these plants, but the book also celebrates the plants themselves, highlighting their unique features, uses, and capabilities. This makes a gem of a gift for any botanical nerd. – Carla Sinclair

Best guide to music production

Tape Op Magazine

Tape Op is the only music geek magazine worth buying — and it’s free. Widely eclectic and ever encouraging, the main premise seems to be “Try, and trust your ears.” Pro, semi-pro, and DIY info sits comfortably side-by-side. Pros read it, hobbyists read it, some kids read it, all get something from it. Tape Op will give step-by step demos of, for instance, modding a certain low-cost microphone to get more bang for the buck written by a guy who sell his own mics for thousands. Or they talk to a guy with a barn full of home-made analog synths or someone who makes music out of sounds from antique recordings. The mag offers information in all kinds of directions, but it only wants you to do your own thing with it, what ever that is. Tape Op’s philosophy: use your ears and twist some knobs, learn all you can, then forget about it. Standards are explained, history is explored first-person, but rules might be thrown out the window. An undercurrent regarding how unrealistic and difficult it is to run a studio coexists with inspiring tales about the pleasure and pride that comes from recording music. The contributors work hard in their own studios and know what they’re talking about. A large community of recordists supports contributing articles and a lively online Q and A page (later edited and published). Recent profiles have run the gamut from legendary producers/engineers to seriously indie/outsider recordists; all have a jones for doing what they do their own way.

A recent, typical issue reviewed a mic you can buy for a steal on eBay for $40 and a mic that streets for $7,000. They don’t waste time writing slagging reviews; they review only what might be useful to someone on some level. On one hand, you can learn a lot by reading about something you may never be able to afford. On the other, you see that despite how amazing, desirable and beautiful that thing is — and this where most music mags stop — you don’t really need it. It might be a great tool for someone, but you don’t have to need it. Record reviews, written in the same “we like this” spirit, lean indie and outside, but might go anywhere. I always read about something I don’t know, but wouldn’t mind hearing. It’s independently published and paid for by ads from all kinds of audio-related concerns, but beholden to no one, so it’s neither slick nor slimy. Other recording magazines often seem to be trolling for sales or hyping an image. Their editorial decisions are suspect, noising on about last year’s retreads, repeating a press release, offering the same tutorials you could find in another magazine — or the library(!). The ‘net offers a lot of basic DIY sites you can learn from, but will they print an interview with Rupert Neve, as issue by issue, you learn about the products that riff on his designs? How about talking to Rudy Van Gelder (who recorded all the classic Blue Note jazz) about taping John Coltrane in the living room of his parent’s house in New Jersey?

I’ve been subscribing since 1997-8 when a producer I met turned me onto it. There is absolutely nothing out there like it. Nowadays my job is production manager/soundcheck and rehearsal substitute/backline tech for a three-time Grammy winning artist. I work with and have hired top-notch audio pros and I learn a great deal from them. Tape Op has often given me insight that keeps me apace in our discussions and what I learn from them takes me deeper into the magazine. However, Tape Op also has allowed me to nourish a side-line in sound designing/composing for theatre when I am off the road. When no one’s paying me and I’m home with the kids asleep, I record my music or occasionally, friends. That is where the knife really gets sharpened and what I have taken in from Tape Op gets put to the test. — John Stovicek

• I finished a session the other day where I went 10 hours without eating anything and kept suggesting breaks. It never happened.
  It’s funny you brought that up. That happened to me last week. A person came in to record five or six songs for basic tracks in two days. It was that sort of scenario. It felt like if they weren’t doing something every second that an opportunity was being wasted. I can deal with that for two days or so. The longest session I worked on was 3 1/2 months. It was four people, and their mom, who never wanted to take any breaks. It was a trial. I remember saying, “You know, I’ll do this again but I need a significant amount of money.” The studio salary didn’t cut it.
  You lost three months of your life!
  Exactly. I broke up with a long-term girlfriend. Everyday was noon to midnight. It was a mixed blessing. Usually the types of bands that come in here are short and quick. They’re paying for everything themselves. We never got into that stride of a big studio getting big sessions that last for months and months. But our main fuel is bands that come in from three to twelve days. No one’s had to give up six months of his or her life to babysit.
• Seating a new head
  Here’s a good way to quickly seat a new drumhead (which allows the drum to better conform to the specific contour of the drum’s bearing edge): Put the head on and tighten it slowly, making sure to maintain even tension around the head. When the head is fairly tight (and evenly-tensioned), take a heat gun or blow dryer and slowly work your way around the outer edge of the drumhead, just inside the hoop and along the bearing edge. Don’t try to get the head hot, just warm to the touch. The heat will make the Mylar conform to the bearing edge almost instantly. Be careful not to get the head too warm, as too much heat buildup will deform the head in a destructive way.
• Tape down one end of the Slinky inside the cone of an expendable speaker (eithera raw loudspeaker or one in a cabinet) – gaffer’s tape works well – and place thespeaker on the floor as shown in Figure 5. Clamp your contact mic to the otherend of the Slinky with a strong spring clip and attach this assembly to the end of a mic boom 3-6 feet up from the speaker, with the Slinky stretched between (Figure 6.) Plug the contact mic into your mixer or a guitar amp and pluck the spring to check your level. Now play some audio through the speaker and listen to the contact mic as the speaker shakes the Slinky – you may want to use headphones so you can distinguish the sound of the Slinky from the music coming directly out of the speaker.You should hear a “spoingy,” vaguely spring reverb-y cloud around your originalsignal.

Pocket-sized sound manipulator

Korg Kaossilator Synthesizer

For a number of years I’ve been into sound art and electronics, but never had the cash and space for an ARP 2600. I recently acquired a Korg Kaossilator, a fabulous little dynamic phrase synthesizer, which, for all intents and purposes, now serves as my main musical device. Pocket-sized and touch-operated, the Kaossilator is comprised of 100 sounds: electronic beats, synth chords and pads, squelchy bass tones and the odd acoustic instruments. The Theremin sounds alone are worth the price tag. The fun part is creating 8-beat loops in which you can control the tempo and the scales of the instruments selected. I’ve already “composed” a few pieces using just the Korg and will most likely start incorporating it into GarageBand or, perhaps, Max/MSP once my visual programming chops get happening. My only complaint is you can’t edit or remove instruments/sounds as you layer them or control individual volumes. Still, I highly recommend the Korg for beginners and semi-pros that haven’t got a cache of gear and/or software. For standalone equipment, I don’t think there’s anything really comparable to the Kaossilator, except it’s cousin, the Mini Kaoss Pad, which is more for effects.

A hobbyist that was a session drummer in another life (before children), it’s limiting to how often I can make music. Drummers have to deal with the confines of noise volumes (the neighbors), the amount of space required and the portability of your gear. Plus, your output is restricted to mainly the rhythmic aspects of music as well as performing in the more traditional acoustic genres. With two small children, I don’t get to play with the Kaossilator as often as I’d like, but the one-year-old loves to see and hear it in action. While you can use the sounds to record with in your audio software, you can also just plug in headphones and experience your public transit commuting time diminish exponentially. I’ve taken it out of the house a few times. It runs on either a 4.5V adapter (not included) or 4 AA batteries (included). I have yet to really clock the amount of time used with just the batteries, but it’s been a lot longer than you’d get on a laptop. — Gord Fynes

Software synthesizer

Moog Modular

I remember the first time I encountered a Moog Synthesizer: Switched-On Bach. I was all of 14-years-old and absolutely captivated. All those knobs and patch cords. And then there were the sounds that it made. To an adolescent boy growing up in the mid-late ’60s whose hero was Mr. Spock, it was like a futuristic dream come true — my own musical version of the Starship Enterprise and for only a few thousand dollars. The Last Whole Earth Catalog even featured a review of it by Wendy Carlos herself!

Then I learned how much a few thousand dollars actually was. I tinkered with resisters and capacitors, transistors and chokes, but I couldn’t do anything like that. But this is what led me inexorably to a career in music and recording. Well, and the Beatles helped, too. Flash forward 41 years and many synthesizers, guitars and amps later, I still could not seem to afford that big gleaming Moog dream.

Then a company called Arturia released a virtual software version of my childhood Holy Grail, the Moog Modular V. And there were nine — count ’em, nine! — oscillators. Filters, envelope generators. A fixed filter bank. A sample and hold module. A bank of configurable mixers. And with enough computer firepower, I could finally make the sounds I’d heard Wendy Carlos make. The software even has stereo chorus and delay lines, a very neat addition to the package to fatten up your sound without having to use any outboard effects. And did I mention polyphony? Yes, unlike its hardware predecessor, the Moog Modular V offers up to 32 voices, if you have the processor power to deliver them.

I’ve been using this powerful, flexible piece of software for almost four years now and I have to admit that it does almost everything I ever wanted a music synthesizer to do. It does things the hardware version couldn’t even do. My only complaint is latency (delay). I would never use it live, but then again I haven’t been playing live these days, and if I did, I’d probably sample off the sounds I want to use and do it that way. The software can be used stand alone or as a plugin, for Mac or Windows OS. — Jeff Bragg

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Dark Sky used to be the best weather app on the iPhone. Apple bought it years ago, incorporated its best features into their Weather App, but then never improved it. The folks who made Dark Sky are back with version 2.0, which they call Acme Weather. It produces extremely hyper-local forecasts with probabilistic scenarios, alerting you to how certain the forecast is. They also display crowdsource data, like rainbow sightings. I found it superior enough to pay for it ($25/yr), once the free trial ran out. — KK

Real-time airport delays

Flighty’s airport dashboard shows live departure and arrival delays for hundreds of airports around the world. A quick glance before you leave for the airport could save you a lot of stress — or at least help you decide whether to grab that extra coffee first. Free to use in a browser. — MF

Show about a dysfunctional family of gods

KAOS on Netflix is a dark, modern remix of the Greek gods that is both chaotic and entertaining to watch. The plot revolves around Zeus trying to prevent a prophecy of his downfall, the three humans handed the greater destiny of being the ones to topple the gods, and the betrayals of his dysfunctional immortal family. Dionysus, god of wine, pleasure, and wild frenzy, was my favorite character—a sad party boy god aching for real love and meaning. Because we’re dealing with gods and myth, there is of course sex and violence and a lot of death—nothing is sacred, not even babies. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you love mythology I highly recommend it. It will make you squeamish and it will make you laugh. I binged the first season in two weeks and was genuinely bummed to learn it was canceled. — CD

USB charger with a useful display

The Anker Smart Display Charger is a 45W USB-C block with a built-in color screen that’s genuinely useful. It shows real-time wattage, how close your battery is to full, which device is connected, and if your phone is fast-charging or just trickling. It is smaller than most 10W chargers, with 180-degree folding prongs that flatten for travel. — MF

Tiny rechargeable flashlight

The best flashlight is the one that you are carrying, which means the tiny one on your phone is what most of us use. However I like a lot of extra light inspecting work in my workshop, hunting for things in the house, and walking at night, so I carry a small dedicated light on my keyring and in my daypack. The Olight Imini 2 is only 2 inches (42mm) long, easy to turn on with one hand, and most agreeably, can be recharged with USB. No batteries ever needed! It’s 10 times brighter than a phone and easier to handle. I use mine far more than I thought I would. — KK

Visually traverse another planet

This website lets you follow the path of the Curiosity rover through every step and photo since it landed on Mars in 2012. You scroll along the rover’s path on a topographical map, and the actual raw NASA photos from that day fill the screen alongside it. It’s awe—and a super cool project. — CD

Sign up here to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.

Get Mindset

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck spent decades studying why some people bounce back from failure while others crumble. Her answer comes down to belief. People who see their abilities as developable (a “growth mindset”) consistently outperform those who see talent as something you’re born with or without (a “fixed mindset”).

Core Principles

Fixed Mindset Traps You

A fixed mindset assumes intelligence and talent are carved in stone. When you believe your qualities can’t change, success becomes about proving you’re smart, and failure becomes a verdict on your worth. You avoid challenges that might expose you. You get defensive about criticism. You start to see effort as a sign you don’t have natural ability. Every situation becomes a test of who you are.

Growth Mindset Liberates You

A growth mindset sees abilities as developable through effort, good strategy, and help from others. Failure isn’t a verdict. It’s information. People with this mindset don’t just seek challenge; they get energized by it, because struggle means they’re learning. Dweck’s key point: a person’s true potential is unknown and unknowable. You can’t predict what someone will accomplish with years of dedicated practice.

The Power of “Yet”

A growth mindset turns “I can’t do this” into “I can’t do this yet.” One word, but it changes your whole relationship to difficulty. When students learn they can strengthen their brains through effort, their performance improves. And there’s a physical difference: brain scans show that growth-mindset brains light up when reviewing errors, while fixed-mindset brains show no activity at all. One brain is engaging with the mistake. The other is ignoring it.

Praise Effort, Not Intelligence

Praising children’s intelligence backfires. They stop wanting challenges because they don’t want to look stupid. Praising effort and strategy does the opposite. If you want to give kids a gift, teach them to love challenges and be curious about their mistakes. This applies to how you talk to yourself, too.

Try It Now

1. The next time you avoid a challenge because you might fail, stop and ask: am I protecting my self-image, or am I learning?
2. When you catch yourself thinking “I’m not good at this,” add “yet.” Notice how one word changes the feeling.
3. Listen to how you praise others. Are you praising talent (”You’re so smart!”) or effort (”You worked hard and tried a new approach”)? Shift toward the second one, including when you talk to yourself.

Quote

“The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.”

It’s telling that no other airline exec has said, “Great idea!” yet and followed their lead, but JetBlue decided to use the Iran bombings as an excuse to raise baggage fees for passengers. This despite the fact that JetBlue was already charging some of the highest checked bag fees in the world. Fees are now rising to a range of $39 to $59 depending on the date and how far ahead you book. If you’re flying across the Atlantic, a situation where better airlines include one checked bag automatically, it’ll cost you a minimum of $74 for one suitcase, $109 or more for the second. Book accordingly…

Bargain Destinations This Summer

One of the frequent themes I cover is the benefit of leaving your variables open when planning a vacation. If you can snag a cheap airfare and get a bargain place to stay, you can easily spend half what you would have if you were set on one location at one particular time. This article runs down 10 destinations that will be a good deal this summer, based on booking info supplied by Kayak.com. It is aimed at North Americans, so your results will vary from Europe or Asia, but for this part of the world the deals include Costa Rica, Canada, Panama, and Peru.

Give a Birthday Playlist

In my younger days before digital MP3s, I would frequently make cassette mix tapes for my close friends, including ones living far away. Watch the circa 2000 John Cusak/Jack Black movie High Fidelity (or read the book) if you’re too young to know what I’m talking about. Anyway, my daughter knew I didn’t need any more “stuff” for my birthday and she made a 5-hour playlist on Spotify for me to listen to instead. I appreciated the time and thought she put into it and it’s a fun playlist that will make me think of our history together when I hear it. Here are the instructions. (This obviously works best if you know the person’s tastes…)

Canadian Heritage Immigration

More people left then USA than entered it last year, spurred in part by frustrated Americans moving abroad. Canada used to be out of the running for most people, even if they had a family history there, but that has changed recently. If you’re the type that sews a Canadian flag on your backpack to fool people, you may have an immigration path available now for you and your children if you can trace the lineage. See more info here.

PHYSICAL

• Five year diary – only a couple sentences a day, but the perspective that emerges once you are into the second or third year is incredible. Like, it turns out everything bad happens to me on December 11. Everything good is first week of April. I’m on year 7.
• Reading light (bookmark style from Glocusent) – this tiny thumb drive of a nightlight saves me from looking at my phone if I’m awake in the night, with warm and cool settings and different brightness.
• Mandoline slicer (from OXO Good Grips) – makes all slicing and dicing way easier, which makes me eat more veggies.

DIGITAL

• Duolingo – I am now competent in two new languages, but it’s also a way to be productive and not on social when I’m on my phone.
• Headspace – meditating on a streak!

INVISIBLE

I love this Toni Morrison quotation:

“Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.”

Sign up here to get What’s in my NOW? a week early in your inbox.

The Science Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)
by DK
DK
2014, 352 pages, 8 x 9.6 x 1 inches

Buy on Amazon

The Science Book is DK publishing’s “greatest hits” of science. Laid out chronologically and full of diagrams and photos, it gives you a coffee table book experience but in a manageable way. No book clocking in at 350-ish pages could be totally comprehensive, yet it includes most of the major scientific milestones from 600 BCE to today without being dry or overwhelming.

I found that I was able to gain a better understanding of principles that I only marginally understood, like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, which is clearly laid out in layman’s terms and with genuinely helpful visuals. Genetics is a particularly complicated topic that has always fascinated me, so I was especially drawn to the chapters that tackled it and found a diagram using bees to explain recessive traits to be one of my favorite features. The individual chapters are broken up into sections and use sidebars and trivia to keep things interesting, so no matter what topic you land on the information is always accessible. I haven’t read it cover to cover, but rather peruse whatever topic catches my eye and always find something I didn’t known before. Textbooks devoted to science have an unfortunate tendency to be dry and technical, so I am especially excited to share The Science Book with my son as he gets older, with the hope that it may help him develop a real interest in science and an appreciation of its value. – Amber Troska

SENSORS – THE FINAL VOLUME IN AN IMPRESSIVE SERIES OF ELECTRONICS GUIDES FOR 21ST-CENTURY MAKERS

Encyclopedia of Electronic Components Volume 3: Sensors
by Charles Platt and Fredrik Jansson
Maker Media
2016, 256 pages, 7.9 x 9.6 x 0.4 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

With this somewhat slim but jam-packed volume, Make: contributing editor and electronics columnist, Charles Platt (here joined by Fredrik Jansson), completes his detailed explorations of the modern, common electronics components most useful to today’s electronics hobbyists and other DIYers.

The first volume, which Wink reviewed earlier, covered batteries, power supplies, motors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, switches, encoders, relays, diodes, transistors, and more. Volume 2 covered LEDs, LCDs, audio, amplification, digital logic, and related components. This third and final volume examines common (and a few not so common) sensors for detecting location, presence, proximity, orientation, oscillation, force, load, human input, liquid and gas properties, light, heat, sound, and electricity.

Like all of the volumes in the series, each component section in Sensors is divided into what it does, how it works, variants and values of the component, how to use it, and what can go wrong with it. Each entry is generously illustrated with clear color photos, charts and graphs, and cut-away diagrams of the components (all done by Platt). Thoughtfully, the component images are all photographed on a graph paper background, so you can get some idea of their actual size.

One of the things that I think has made the Make: Electronics series such a great success is that Charles Platt is a smart, endlessly curious, and details-oriented electronics enthusiast who knows what questions fellow enthusiasts might have about how a component functions and what it’s useful for. He is not an engineer, he is a professional amateur and I often find that such amateurs write better tech books than professionals. In Volume 3, he and Jansson do another admirable job of writing in a style that is non-intimidating to the beginner, but no less rigorous to the more seasoned circuit designer/builder.

These three volumes, taken together, provide you with the reference material you need for spec’ing components for most common hobby-level electronics projects. Or, if you wanted to, you could significantly increase your understanding of basic electrical engineering by working your way through them, one component at a time. And given how lovely the books are, how well photographed and illustrated, how readable, doing so would not be a hardship.

Over the course of the past seven years, Charles and Maker Media have released five books in the Make: Electronics series and two component packs. I’m biased (I helped instigate this series as an editor at Make:), but I think this collection is one of the most significant things Make: has done. We set out to create the Getting Started in Electronics [http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-Mims/dp/0945053282] for the early 21st century. The success of the series speaks for itself. I’m now just waiting for a new generation of high-tech innovators to tell us enthusiastically how they cut their teeth on the Make: Electronics series. I like to imagine that they’re teething on the resistors, capacitors, and ICs as we speak. – Gareth Branwyn

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Quick folding bike

Brompton

My new best friend is the Brompton T6, a foldable 6-speed bicycle made by the Brompton company in England. Living in an urban area and having a bike that folds is basically like having wheels for feet; and in the world of folding bikes, Bromptons simply cannot be matched in their compactness and riding quality. They ride beautifully and smoothly thanks to a conical rear shock absorbing block. They take about 10 seconds to go from fully unfolded to fully folded and are compact enough to take inside anywhere — metro, hotels, restaurants. I, at least, have never had a problem storing it. There are other makes of folding bikes (like Dahon) but time and time again I see people that own Dahons who simply won’t bother folding them and chain them up outside because they’re so cumbersome. What’s the point of owning a folding one? Brompton spare parts are amazingly easy to install yourself (the manual is very comprehensive and detailed in how to upkeep the bike). I bought mine six months ago and it has completely transformed my day to day existence. It’s a true lifestyle changer. Check out the front carrier accessories too. Fill that with other cool tools and that’s basically all you need.

[*Today, the closest available model to the T6 is the M6R.] — John Root

Premium folding, touring bicycles

Bike Friday

A folding bike is a compromise between ride quality and foldability. Moulton makes great artisan folding bikes with very unique design. Brompton also makes lovely folding bikes (previously-reviewed), but kind of artisan and pricey. I like the previously-reviewed Strida if all you have to do is ride 1-2 miles to the transit station. It’s not much good if you have to ride for more than 15 minutes. Citizen Bikes are awful, but some people who have never ridden a nice bike seem to be able to tolerate it. Dahon is starting to make some pretty damn good folding bikes at reasonable prices.

But my favorite is Bike Friday. It can fold into a suitcase that won’t incur over-charges on airplanes. Super light. Rides like a real bike, in some ways better. They have a few different models (even tandems!); I’ve ridden most of them — they are all good. I optimized my choice for quality of ride, but you can build them with ease of folding in mind by specifying what you want in terms of tools/no tools. For instance, some models require tools to fold for airline travel, but not for folding to stash on cars/buses. The Tikit models, on the other hand, explicitly requires no tools for folding at all.

These bikes are not cheap. I am a self-admitting bike snob. I value ride quality. Most low-cost folding bikes just feel cheap. The difference is in the custom-fitted frame, and better design details, higher-quality components and etc. (Bike Friday has been doing it for years). But you can get on a good Bike Friday for $1200. If you want, you can spend up to $3000 or even more for extras, but the frame is the same. These guys have great customer service, too.

I love mine. When it was recently stolen, I was heartbroken. Bike theft is like pet death. If you see my yellow Bike Friday (it has my wife’s name “Arwen Griffith” on the top tube), throw rotten fruit and stones at the asshole who stole it. — Saul Griffith

Portable transit for urbanites

Strida Folding Bike

This folding bike has won both design and race awards. I’ve used it for seven years to traverse New York City, commuting two miles one way: in and out of Grand Central, the subways, buses, etc. A lot of folding bikes break down so that they’re bulky and awkward. The Strida is long and narrow, and carries like a photographer’s tripod — I can fold it while running down the platform at Grand Central. An easy way to visualize it is to picture three tubes in a triangle. Two points are hinged, and the third is a latch. When unlatched, the tubes fall together to look like a group of parallel tubes with a seat and wheels. Assembly is just forming the triangle, then click and go. This design is very clever, yet simple and robust.

The bike is unusual because there isn’t much maintenance (tire pressure and brake adjustments only). Unlike the Brompton, the Strida is a single gear with (dry) belt drive, which means no shifter or greasy chain, no tension adjustments and no caught pant legs. Even though there is only one speed, I can still climb reasonable hills. The tires are mini fat tubes, so you can jump curbs and hit potholes without any problems. The bike has a very, very tight turning radius, and while riding, your posture is quite upright – like a boulevard bike, not humped over like a road bike – so you can see traffic while riding in a suit and tie. The construction is solid, not flimsy in the least. I stripped mine down for size: removing the luggage rack and fenders so that it would easily fit in the overhead rack on the train. No one has ever bothered me for a bike pass on the trains or buses. If you buy one, be prepared: people will stop you often to ask what it is. I once had two teenage girls run out of a restaurant (and hang up their cell phones) to stop me and ask what it is. For a brief moment, I actually felt trendy! — Bruce Hartleben

Bike hacking

Atomic Zombie’s Bicycle Builder’s Bonanza

A fun and detailed guide to hacking unusual bicycles from old bike parts. With a bit of welding here and there you can take castoff bicycles and repurpose them in dozens of imaginative ways. Here are notes for customizing choppers, tandems, unicycles, and crazy stunt bikes with frames found at the dump. How to strip down a bike to its useful components, and what to keep in mind as you modify its design and performance. — KK

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.