When I first heard about Berkey Water Purifiers I wondered how such a simple looking filtration system can actually work, and to be honest I still don’t quite “get it”.  The company that makes Berkey filters has been around for about 200 years.  The filters are pretty famous in most parts of the world and work in some pretty nasty environments.

I got my hands on a Berkey Light water filter system and have put it through the paces.  Read on for a review of the Berkey Light water filter system.

When I review a product one of the first things I like to do is build a list of questions… and then try to get the manufacturer on the phone.  Sounds easy… but it usually isn’t easy to get a human on the phone these days.  I can tell you this, Berkey doesn’t try and hide their phone number and when you call them they know their stuff. 

I am not a big fan of plastics made of harmful chemicals like BPA, and was concerned about the Berkey Light Water Filter’s container.  Long story short, the person at Berkey let me know that the shell of the Berkey Lite is 50-mil thick and is made of BPA-free copolyester.  Dig further and you can find this info about copolyester, “New Eastman Tritan™ Copolyester is Ideal for reusable food and beverage containers, this new generation copolyester contains no bisphenol-A (BPA) and provides improved dishwasher durability.”

The first thing I did after assembling the unit was to run some food colored water through the filter to see what would happen, Berkey claims the filter will even remove the small food coloring particles.  They were right… red water in the top compartment came out clear in the bottom compartment after filtering.  Pretty cool.

One of the items that I like is that the unit is very simple.  It doesn’t need electricity, short life filters, water pressure, or a PHD to operate… it just works.  The unit comes with two black Berkey filters, a top tank with cover, a bottom tank with spigot, and a base.  It takes about 5 minutes to set up completely.  The filter works off of good old fashioned gravity… you pour water in the top tank and wait for gravity to do its thing.

In terms of costs… the filters come in many different sizes and shapes and all are priced  fairly.  The other thing is the filters are so cheap to use.  The filter elements are cleanable and last for thousands of gallons.

I ran some nasty San Jose tap water through the filter and was skeptical that the strong chemical taste would be removed by a gravity water filter system.  I couldn’t believe it… the water came out smooth and great tasting.  I had to make sure that it wasn’t just my palate so I started torturing my friends.  Long story short, I made several friends do blind taste tests of normal tap water, Berkey water, and a famous bottled water brand (sounds like sparrow bed).  Not one person liked the tap water… it is pretty bad.  Almost everyone else favored the Berkey with few exceptions. 

I am sold… Berkey water filters work!

Wii Fit nuts who want to add some cardio/weight training to their Wii gaming/workouts should check out the Riiflex Dumbbells.  The Wii dumbbells slide over the Wii-mote and Nunchuk controller adding a full 2 pounds for each hand.

The Riiflex Wii Dumbbells are made from strong polycarbonate with a soft rubber cover (for better grip) so that you don’t end up throwing your heavier Wii controller through the TV.

The 2-pound Riiflex Wii dumbbells are available now for $29.99 here.  Riiflex plans on releasing a 4 pound set in the future.

The company also has plans to release 4-pound (1.8kg) dumbbells at some point in the future so you better get into training now.

The Powerslide is fully adjustable and portable (rolls-up). Powerslide includes the Powerslide slide board with adjustable end stop, bumpers, ramps, booties, carrying case, and an instructional DVD.  Everything you need to get sliding. The Powerslide builds the quick, explosive power that athletes need for the court, field, and ice. Increased lateral power, strength, agility and endurance add up to the competitive edge an athlete needs!

• Sliding Surface – Specially formulated sliding surface designed to give smooth positive slide.
• Ramps – The heavy rubber ramps stabilize the end stops and prevent movement of the slide board across the floor. The angle of the ramps provide for the correct positioning of the foot at take off and finish of each stride.
• Booties – The nylon booties work with the slide surface to achieve smooth slides. The coating on the inside of the booties and the elastic trim around the opening help keep the booties snug against the wearer’s shoes.
• Pouch – The carrying case makes it easier to transport the slide board, ramps and the booties. The carrying case has a heavy duty strap and a lace closure at the opening.
• End Stop & Bumpers – Designed for stiffness, strength and durability, the end stops are the starting and finishing points of each slide. They are attached to the rubber ramps with heavy duty clamping knobs. One of the end stops is fixed to the slide surface while the other is adjustable over the full length of the slide surface.

“Great eyesight is not something everyone is fortunate enough to possess. Heck, even people with great vision have difficulty reading some of the super fine print legal mumbo-jumbo stuff that you see on certain things. If you need to get a closer look at something, you might reach for a magnifying glass. But in this day and age, there’s always a better way to do everything. In this case, you can use a handy gadget to project that tiny text onto your big screen TV.

The Wireless Page To TV Magnifier does exactly what the name implies. You have a small device (which greatly resembles your average computer mouse) which views the text (or images) underneath and transmits it wirelessly to a base station. The base station is hooked to your TV where it is enlarged 25x. While it may come in handy when you’re reading through the finer points of your credit card statements (and that occasional issue of Playboy, which you read just for the articles) I doubt many people are going to justify the $150 cost.”

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I grew up in a military family and was always amazed at how fast my Dad could eat his food.  I always attributed this to his boot camp days when he had to eat his meals in a short period of time or risk not eating at all.  As a kid, I secretly would try and compete with my Dad when eating at the same table.  I remember trying to keep up with him on hamburgers and would only be about 3 bites in to the burger and he would be finishing.  Very disappointing  and a bit unfair… my mouth was smaller than his.  Now that I am full grown… I am a pro speed-eater and I am constantly told by friends that I eat too fast and how bad it is for me… just like Mom used to say.

Well now there is a Mandometer gadget that will help you eat at a reasonable pace.  Read on for details.

The Mandometer is basically a scale that weighs the food on your plate as you eat, and verbally tells you if you are eating too fast.  The eating too fast thing is actually pretty bad for you and the Mandometer claims it can lower your BMI by 2% over 18 months.  That is huge.

Ever since I first read about the Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) I was intrigued.  The idea of plugging in a gadget… waiting a handful of hours… then having “clean” drinking water out of the air just seemed like magic to me.  So… after reading about the AWG’s for about a year… I finally purchased an EcoloBlue 30 water generator.  Was it really All That?!  Read on for a review of the EcoloBlue 30.

Let me start off by saying I have only had the EcoloBlue 30 (newer version than the EcoloBlue 28) for little over a week.  In that time though, it has been running 24 hours a day and an office of about 10 has been putting it through its paces.  Some people in the office are (like me) excited by the technology of the gadget, some are amazed this thing works and wonder why it isn’t in third world countries, some quietly dig and respect the nerdiness of it all, and lastly there are the Beavis and Butthead types that claim we are drinking their farts.  I am not making this up (not one to point fingers…Craig, Nelson, and Ray are guilty of this) they claim that their fart vapor is being turned in to water.  We have low hiring standards here.

The Technology

Lets start off with the obvious.  An AWG is basically a dehumidifier.  The water is condensed from the air, collected, and then filtered and stored for drinking. Again to state the obvious, the unit’s optimum environment would be some hot and humid place (giggidy), but it still works pretty well in the 60+ degrees with 40+ humidity.  The idea is pretty simple when you think about it.  EcoloBlue has taken the idea, polished it a bit and sells it for $1,399, not cheap at all, and you have to buy filters every 6 months at a minimum, plus the unit sucks a modest 280W to keep itself going.  The upside is, you never have to buy bottled water again.

The water goes through a 12-stage filtration process which includes charcoal filters, carbon filters, a mineral filter, a Filmtec reverse osmosis membrane, a post carbon filter, and 3 Philips UV sterilization lamps.  There are two stainless steel tanks, one for water collection, and a 3 gallon storage tank on top.  In my opinion you can’t over filter the water.  After following the manual (more on that later) we turned on the unit and let it run constantly for a full week.  It took about 3 days to fill the tank with water with our office humidity levels around 48% to 55%.  Not sure who is getting the quoted “8 gallons a day”… maybe someone in the tropics where humidity is very high.  The humidity in the office drops a bit when the unit runs which I like.  The first two batches of water tasted like plastic, so we dumped about 6 gallons of water before getting to decent tasting water.

Some things from personal experience – the unit came awesomely packaged, box inside a box inside a big ass wooden box – kinda like that promiscuous lamp from The Christmas Story. One thing we noticed immediately, the manual and the quick setup guide were nowhere to be found, and unlike just about every company on the friggin Internets, the EcoloBlue website did not have it available for download *smack*. The upside was they answered their phone and emailed us the PDFs right away.  See this is the really important part!  Because being the adventurous soul that I am, possessed by the manly Manuals-Are-For-Pussies spirit, my first inclination was to just plug the frigging thing in and get some damn water… Ah, but the first thing the missing manual and the missing quick guide say is some scary shit about NOT PLUGGING THE DAMN UNIT RIGHT AWAY, LETTING IT JUST SIT UPRIGHT FOR HOURS, OR HORRIBLE SHIT WILL HAPPEN, YOUR UNIT WILL BURST INTO FLAMES (kidding, of course) AND YOUR WARRANTY WILL BE VOIDED…. Ummm yeah, thats pretty much what it said, and a good thing it came with it (not). Oh and BTW, the manual on the EcoloBlue 30 is not great by any stretch. Not the worst I have seen, but a fair amount of Chinglish.  We figured most things out, but if you get stuck you can call the company, they actually answer their phones.  Kudos EcoloBlue.

The user interface is a touchscreen LCD display.  The display is loaded with icons, pictures, and text which at first glance is a bit overwhelming to a normal-ish person.  On the other hand if you are a nerd, especially with OCD, this thing is seriously cool and the only thing that’s missing is the ability to stream porn and play MP3s… The LCD attempts to let you know what the machine is doing in an overbearing sort of way, but to a geek this is pure uncut LCD bling.  There are no standard buttons on the unit anywhere… everything is activated via the touchscreen including the cold/hot water buttons.  Some people like this (nerds)… some don’t (normal peoples).

All-in-all the machine has operated as expected and is making enough water for an office of 10.  We use the water for general drinking and the coffee/tea machine and it keeps up just fine. Make sure you set your expectations realistically, you can not use it to take showers.  Oh and Craig, you can hardly taste the farts, so stop whining!

I will update this review after a few more months of use. (Also, the picture showing cup storage is a bit of an internal joke here… those two doors are actually for carbonation tanks if you buy the ecoloblue 30s carbonated version)

Concussions and motorcycle crashes kinda go hand-in-hand.  One way to limit injuries and speed recover is to cool the affected area as quickly as possible.  The ThermaHelm motorcycle helmet does just that… when an accident happens the helmet cools down by mixing water and nitrate.  The cooling should last for about 45 minutes helping a riders chance of surviving a bad accident.  The helmet is expected to go on sale for around $800 in July 2010.

A Swiss design company has come up with a retro UFO looking humidifier dubbed the Fred humidifier.  The Fred humidifier comes in white, black, silver, green, chocolate, and orange and will set you back about $159 here.

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A bit like starwars lightsabers… but a tad nerdier I guess.  The Germ Guardian LW18 UV-C LIght Wand is a germ killing machine.  Pass this light wand over surfaces to help keep your home healthy and clean. Kills 99% of bacteria, virus, mold & dust mites on bedding, kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Produces NO ozone and shuts off automatically. UV-C Light is used in hospitals to sanitize surfaces and kill germs without the use of chemicals. Light automatically turns off after specified time to conserve battery life.  Yours for under $55 here.

You already know how I feel a bout cooties with the “poop on your toothbrush” story.

People who work on a computer all day know that your wrist/arm can get tired after a long days work.  Some switch to trackballs or trackpads and tend to just trade one pain for another.

Another option just arrived, the SmartFish Technologies ErgoMotion Laser Mouse ($49.95).

The Smartfish ErgoMotion Mouse features a patented pivot base that for the first time allows the mouse to move with your natural hand and wrist positions adapting to your unique movements while you work.

A Mouse that Rocks!

The ErgoMotion Laser Mouse doesn’t just rock, but swivels and pivots too. The ErgoMotion Mouse is redefining what a true ergonomic product should be by actually reducing your risk of Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). How? By adding motion! The ErgoMotion Mouse utilizes a patented motion-base that adapts to your natural hand and wrist positions while you work. The mouse will rock, swivel or pivot with your movement so your hand and wrist are never in a fixed position, creating the most comfortable and healthy mousing experience ever!

ErgoMotion™ — A Technology Movement

ErgoMotion is a revolutionary technology that applies motion to experiences, a solution that actually reduces the risks of Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). The ErgoMotion Laser Mouse challenges other “fixed position” mice by utilizing a patented pivot base that adapts to your natural hand and wrist movements. The mouse conforms to your unique positions alleviating discomfort and encouraging productivity while you work. ErgoMotion is a breakthrough technology that has been designed in collaboration with the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York — the #1 rated Orthopedics Hospital. Learn more about ErgoMotion.

Wireless Connection

The ErgoMotion Mouse connects wirelessly to your computer using 2.4GHz USB nano-tranceiver. No software is required. The nano-tranceiver is an intelligent plug-and-play device that provides instant, and uninterrupted connection, wire free. The nano-tranceiver is also small enough to leave plugged into your laptop so you are ready to mouse all the time, wherever you are. Saving battery life is easy enough by switching the power on/off while traveling.

Ambidextrous Design

The Smartfish ErgoMotion Mouse is symmetrical design created for both left and right-handed users alike, making the ErgoMotion™ Mouse the most comfortable device for everyone.