KWBaker

For 27 years, Deanna Dikeman took photographs as she waved good-bye and drove away from visiting her parents at their home in Sioux City, Iowa. She started in 1991 with a quick snapshot, and continued taking photographs with each departure. She never set out to make this series. She just took these photographs as a way to deal with the sadness of leaving. It gradually turned into their good-bye ritual. And it seemed natural to keep the camera busy, because she had been taking pictures every day while she was there. These photographs are part of a larger body of work she calls Relative Moments, which has chronicled the lives of her parents and other relatives since 1986. When she discovered the series of accumulated “leaving and waving” photographs, she found a story about family, aging, and the sorrow of saying good-bye.

I love this so much.

(via Coralie)

Boating With Your Pets

On #NationalLoveYourPetDay, Learn how to safely take your pets boating with you.

The 5 words your dog always loves hearing “Wanna go on the boat?”. If you enjoy boating, there’s no reason not to take your best friend with you. After all, dogs love going places with their owners. Safety is important on a boat and it is especially important if you take your dog along with you.

Let’s start with the basics for what you need to know when taking your dog boating:

1. Invest in a K9 Life Jacket
2. Visit the boat with your pet prior to your trip
3. Develop a plan in case your pet goes overboard

Life Jackets for Dogs

You can find life jackets for your pet at most pet shops or boating stores. Remember when buying a life jacket for your dog make sure it’s a good fit. Even though most dogs can swim, high seas or fatigue can cause drowning in even the most avid of swimmers, so don’t risk it, get your dog a life jacket.

First Aid

Make sure you have a stocked pet first-aid kit aboard. The Humaine Society of Amercia suggests the following items

• Absorbent gauze pads
• Adhesive tape
• Cotton balls or swabs
• Fresh 3% hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting
• Ice pack
• Disposable gloves
• Scissors with blunt end
• Tweezers
• OTC antibiotic ointment
• Oral syringe or turkey baster
• Liquid dishwashing detergent (for bathing)
• Towels
• Small flashlight
• Alcohol wipes
• Styptic powder
• Saline eye solution
• Artificial tear gel
• Phone number, clinic name, address of your veterinarian as well as local veterinary emergency clinics.

Going to the bathroom onboard

Take plenty of dog waste bags and paper towels with you on your trip as well as an odor neutralizer to clean up after your dog. If you can train your dog to use puppy pads this is ideal as it will make cleaning up after the dog much easier.

Keeping your pet hydrated

Bring plenty of water on board your boat for your pet. Long days on the water could leave your dog dehydrated. We suggest buying a collapsible bowl such as the one’s listed here on Chewy.com. It is suggested that you do not allow your pet to drink water from the lake or sea.

Sunscreen

Just as we need sunscreen to protect ourselves from the sun, so do some of our pets. Sunscreen should be applied to the dog’s belly and inside the hind legs. Most breeds of dogs can get easily sunburned, it is recommended to use a light sunscreen such as SPF-15 on your dog.

Taking these simple tips into consideration can help make your pets first boat ride one that they will cherish. Just remember to plan ahead, train, and prepare your pup for the adventure!

Have a great photo of your pet on the water?
Submit your photos to Marketing@southernboating.com for a chance to be featured in our April 2020 Issue of Southern Boating Magazine.

The post Tips for Boating With Pets appeared first on Southern Boating.

This Key’s for You

Trailer your boat down to Key Largo to experience the island life.

By Steve Davis, Southern Boating March 2020

Key Largo is the first key that land yachts go through on their way into the Florida Keys. Key West is last and in between lie approximately 1,700 islands in the archipelago, including the Dry Tortugas. The Florida Keys is divided into five regions: Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine and the Lower Keys, and Key West.

Because Key Largo is just over an hour’s drive from Miami, it’s an easy escape from the hustle and bustle of life, which isn’t hard to do when the key has one of the largest tracts of West Indian tropical hardwood hammocks in the United States, the first undersea park in the United States, and is part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. By land or by sea, Key Largo is a place full of natural life to explore. Sure, there are the usual civilized stores to provision and get eclectic gifts, as well as resorts, restaurants, and bars, but it’s nature’s abundant diversity that is the real draw.

The Wild Side

Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park is a tropical paradise full of native plants, birds, wildlife, and the delicate balance of the park’s ecosystem. There are 84 protected species of plants and animals in the park and the two-mile loop Port Bougainville Trail guides bicyclists, hikers, and birders to see it all. A self-guided nature trail winds through the tropical hardwood hammock, including a native plant butterfly garden, and a half-mile paved walk has guided tours to get a feel for the park’s diversity.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park has what most people expect from a state park—tent and RV camping, showers, picnic areas with barbecues, playgrounds, and the like, but it also features an underwater and aquatic playground. Coral formations and colorful marine life welcome snorkelers and divers, while 50 miles of mangrove trails take kayakers, canoers, and paddleboarders on a wilderness adventure. Bring your boat down to launch at the park or rent one of the park’s 21-foot Release center consoles. Slips (with water, electric, and facilities) and moorings are available for overnight stays.

What’s nice for many Floridians and visitors is there are plenty of places to launch trailerable boats, which makes for an enjoyable weekend or weeklong stay. Hurricane Irma wasn’t kind to the Keys, but many resorts, large and small, are reopening after extensive remodeling and rebuilding.

Dolphin Point Villas

Dolphin Point Villas is a small, family-owned resort that showcases Florida Keys living. The property features six freestanding Caribbean-style homes consisting of six villas and four suites to accommodate a family vacation, a guys’ fishing trip (or bachelor weekend), a company retreat, a wedding, or a honeymoon.

Dolphin Point, a sandy jetty outlined by coral boulders and surrounded by water, is a perfect spot for wedding vows (or a sunrise or sunset) and can hold up to 125 guests. The beautiful waterfront lawn is big enough for a large reception, and the facing 4,235-square-foot Nautilus House features five bedrooms, each with a full bath, to sleep up to 16 guests. There’s a private pool, and the open-air pavilion on the ground level is a great place for wedding gatherings.

Located a mile from Pennekamp State Park, the resort also sports a private beach, a figure eight pool, complimentary paddleboards and kayaks, and a protected marina with a free boat launch and dockage for vessels up to 24 feet.

Another cool aspect to the resort is Dolphins Plus Bayside, a marine mammal facility where you can swim with Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in an enclosed lagoon. What’s perfect is it’s right next door (and where you check in for the resort). There are a variety of programs for all ages, swimming abilities, and interaction levels, from a simple dolphin kiss to a dorsal fin ride. With so many restaurants nearby, Dolphin Point Villas is a quiet, private, clean, and comfortable place convenient to everything required when on vacation.

Baker’s Cay Resort

Hurricane Irma ravaged the Keys just as the windup to the winter season was starting in 2017. Now, resorts have come back to life, and Baker’s Cay Resort reopened last year after an 18-month closure, so, basically everything is new. Just as visiting the Florida Keys puts you into another world, Baker’s Cay takes it a step further and blends luxury with island life. As part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, the resort’s rooms and suites inspire a sense of relaxation with a modern décor and private balconies tucked in the natural flora along bayside waters.

Local seafood, produce, and on-site herb and fruit gardens are part of the culinary experience. The new Dock to Dish program lets guests who fish with Sea Monkey Charters bring their catch back to the resort to enjoy a specially prepared meal. Beach dining with live music and fire pits is found at Dry Rocks, with a tequila and mezcal tasting menu, and the pool bar and tiki bar help soften your day with endless water views.

For those with boats up to 45 feet, launch at Sunset Point Park and dock at the resort’s slips with fresh water and power available. Slips are $60 per night and depending on tide, the draft is four to six feet. Fuel is available at nearby Mangrove Marina or Tavernier Creek Marina.

Coconut Palm Inn

One thing about the Florida Keys is access to water. It’s everywhere, and there’s plenty of ways to enjoy it, especially by boat. If you live in South Florida, it doesn’t take long to trailer one to Key Largo, and the Coconut Palm Inn offers marina packages for those that do.

The inn overlooks Florida Bay with a private beachfront, cozy rooms and suites, lots of amenities, and a fully equipped marina, which means you can arrive by boat if you’re hopping the islands. If you’re boating on the ocean side, cut up through Tavernier Creek or Snake Creek to reach the inn. You can also trailer the boat down and launch at its ramp and take advantage of the on-site trailer parking.

Coconut Palm Inn is situated within a natural inlet with drafts around four or five feet at low tide. Two piers accommodate boats up to 25 feet long and most slips have 110V electric and freshwater hookups. Dockage is only for the inn’s guests, and there is a $30 per day fee. Nearby Mangrove Marina offers a loading dock, repairs, and fuel.

But that’s not all Coconut Palm Inn has for its guests. Besides the Old Florida charm and swaying palm trees, an outdoor heated pool, kayaks, paddleboards, and bicycles, the smoke-free resort has free Wi-Fi, charcoal barbecue grills, on-site laundry, and most rooms are bayside with a screened porch or balcony. The location is also perfect for weddings and events.

Activities

John Pennekamp State Park
(305) 451-6300
pennekamppark.com

Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park
(305) 676-3777
floridastateparks.org

Dolphins Plus
(866) 860-7946
dolphinsplus.com

Lodging (call ahead for dock reservations)

Dolphin Point Villas
(305) 451-0315
dolphinpointvillas.com

Baker’s Cay Resort
(305) 852-5553
bakerscay.com

Coconut Palm Inn
(305) 852-3017
coconutpalminn.com

The post Destination Key Largo appeared first on Southern Boating.

Anglers often solely rely on experience to find fish. But today’s electronics can easily help scout locations and multiply your hookups. (Raymarine/)

When I fish from my Hobie kayak, I’ve noticed that everything slows down. Not only is my speed diminished due to lack of outboard propulsion, but my

expectations slow too.

I find more time to experiment with my electronics, and I’ve uncovered several key features in my multifunction display that have helped me better understand and learn about the marsh zones I fish.

Because of that revelation, I asked electronics-makers and pros, who use their MFDs daily, to describe some of the tricks that all inshore anglers can explore to improve situational awareness and fishing success.

Chart Art

“The cartography is exponentially better now than anything we’ve had even two years ago,” says David Dunn, Garmin director of sales and marketing. “We’re also starting to see a gain in momentum for QuickDraw Contours. Every manufacturer has some form of that. I think fishermen should use that more often.”

QuickDraw Contours software and similar sonar-charting products such as Navionics Sonar-Chart Live, C-Map Genesis and Humminbird AutoChart use your boat’s transducer to update chart contours—in 1-foot increments—on a real-time basis. So, if a storm shifts the sand near your inlet, you can turn on sonar charting and see the new patterns. Regions rarely updated on official charts can be updated any given day.

Capt. Tom Rowland uses Florida Marine Tracks (far left screen) and Lowrance StructureScan 3D as well as side-scanning sonar to dial in fishing locations in the Florida Keys. (SE Multimedia / Jason Stemple/)

On a Garmin unit, you start recording sonar with this feature through the chart page menu, choosing Layers and QuickDraw Contours. You can turn off the overlaid contours when you choose.

Dunn also recommends using depth-range shading. If you’re nearshore and looking for even a slight break in depth, you can set the chart to display one color for depths of 5 to 6 feet, for instance, and another color for depths of 6 to 7 feet.

Companies such as Standard Mapping have developed specialty charts that work with many of today’s displays. “Standard Mapping offers a map package that is 90 percent satellite photos that they have gone through to show off the shallow areas,” says Jim McGowan, marketing manager for Raymarine/FLIR.

Satellite photos really help in areas with less-than-optimal water clarity. They can identify drop-offs and points that hold fish. Be sure to set your display to show aerial photos over land and sea rather than just land. Leave at least a little transparency in the photo layer so that you can see the depths on the chart beneath, McGowan suggests.

He also advises anglers to turn on tracks each day, which will record your boat’s path on the charts. Assign a different color to each day’s track and drop waypoints when you hook up to give you a real plan for success. Know too that every waypoint is electronically stamped with depth, time and date. When turning on tracks, set up the feature to drop an electronic bread crumb every two -seconds for better continuity.

Tom Rowland, a Florida Keys captain and TV co-host of “Saltwater Experience,” uses Florida Marine Tracks as the primary inshore charting software on his Yellowfin bay boat’s Lowrance HDS Live unit. “It comes with tracks for high water or low water, and then the aerial photos on that chip are better than anything else,” he says. “You can see every little dip in the flat, see sand holes, everything.”

Sonar Tips

Rowland also relies on his StructureScan side-imaging sonar to scout for tarpon while he’s idling at bridges and deep channels.

“You can clearly see the fork of the tail and the shape of the fish,” he says. “The other thing we’ll do is anchor in a channel for tarpon. That has been the best for me in terms of when I’m not seeing any fish rolling and thinking of leaving. Then, I see them swimming next to us on the sonar, and that makes me stick around till the bite turns on.”

Garmin QuickDraw Contours software creates personalized high-definition fishing maps with 1-foot contours, showing you exactly what you’re fishing over at all times. (Garmin/)

In circumstances when you don’t need to see the water column on both sides of the boat, Raymarine’s McGowan suggests selecting an option on your display to show only the left side or the right side. “It makes the presentation bigger. You get more pixels in the display, so it’s better resolution,” he says. “When you’re trying to see greater distances, the targets will look bigger.”

Even in just a few feet of water, Raymarine SideVision can look out 50 to 70 feet, he adds.

When setting a range for SideVision, McGowan eyes the distance to the shoreline or structure, then sets the range so that he sees the edge of the structure. Raymarine’s new Element series of MFDs also offers HyperVision, a higher-frequency imaging sonar that offers even greater detail, though at shorter distances.

Capt. Eric Davis (vero​backcountryfishing.com), who runs a Pathfinder 2500 Hybrid out of Vero Beach, Florida, uses the LiveScope real-time sonar on his Garmin GPSMap 8612xsv to see bait schools ahead of his boat when scouting in channels, inlets, off the beach or offshore. “It’s an absolute game changer,” he says. “It mostly applies in the mid-range depths of 20 feet or more.

“I’ve literally moved up to a school of bait, looked at the screen, and said ‘Get ready, we’re going to get hit.’”

He mounted his LiveScope transducer on the transom rather than on his trolling motor because he often uses the sonar when he’s moving at up to 8 mph. He also peers under docks and at different structure, setting LiveScope to look forward on the auto setting.

Read Next: Choose the Right Electronics for Inshore Fishing

“With LiveScope, you see what’s going on now, live,” Dunn says, adding that the most helpful feature of LiveScope that he has seen is echo trails. “Even if you don’t see the fish on the screen, with echo trails on, you can see that something did just swim through.”

Regardless of the brand of electronics you use, the best rule of thumb—inshore and offshore—is: experiment.

Don’t stick with the status quo. You want more fish? Use the incredible electronic tools and information right at your fingertips.

Traditional hooks work best for certain species, methods and baits. (Tom Migdalski/)

While circle hooks have increased in popularity for their conservation and hook-setting benefits, some captains say anglers might be missing an important point: J hooks perform more effectively in certain situations.

When targeting fish with small mouths, such as tautog and winter flounder, or when pursuing aggressive gamefish, such as tuna or mahi, captains often choose J hooks. Traditional inline Js also work best when replacing lure trebles with single hooks (a process that also offers conservation benefits), and for targeting certain soft‑mouthed predators such as swordfish.

But choosing the right hook always boils down to a case-by-case approach.

Stripers and Blackfish

“We’re trying to keep the mortality rate for striped bass low, so there’s a big push [soon a legal mandate] to use circle hooks,” says Capt. John Luchka (longrunfishingcharters.com) of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. “We typically use J and octopus hooks when we’re fishing for blackfish or tautog. They have small mouths, and we use green, white-legger and fiddler crabs. You need that wide gap between the point of the hook and the shank to hook the crabs.”

Luchka says the tautog’s big front teeth and crushers usually prevent deep-hooking. In most cases, they’re hooked in the lip or mouth area.

Capt. John Luchka hoists a tautog caught on an octopus hook. These fish have crushers that usually prevent deep hooking. (John Luchka/)

He cuts off the legs and claws of the crabs and runs a 3/0 or 4/0 hook through the bottom part of the crustacean where he removed one of its legs.

J hooks also work better than circle hooks for winter flounder, he says. “They have a very, very small mouth, so we use a long-shank J-style hook or a bait-holder hook,” Luchka explains. “You’re not catching the fish deep in the throat or the gullet. For bait, we use sand worms or blood worms and thread them on the hook, a Chestertown 2/0 or 3/0. It’s hard to do that with a circle hook. And the longer shank of the hook gives you the leverage to remove the hook from a fish’s mouth and release it.”

When Luchka runs to the canyons for tuna and mahi, he trolls rigged ballyhoo with a 6/0 to 8/0 J hook, depending on the bait size. “[Mahis’] feeding behavior is very vigorous, so most of the time you’re going to hook that fish in the mouth,” he says.

To catch tuna, he fishes either naked ballyhoo or pairs that bait with a Joe Shute skirted lure. J hooks lie flat in the bait, unlike circle hooks, which would have to be bridled to a ballyhoo because “it’s next to impossible to thread a bait on a circle hook.”

J-Hook Allure

Luchka uses inline J hooks for stripers when he’s fishing lures. He replaces treble hooks on swimming plugs with J hooks, which are easier to remove from a striper’s mouth. He also rigs soft plastics with J hooks because he can hide the shanks in the jerkbait bodies.

Capt. Tony DiGiulian (saltwaterproconsulting.com) of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, also replaces the plug trebles with J hooks. Otherwise, he only uses J hooks when he trolls lures and when he’s daytime swordfishing. (Although he has been experimenting with circle hooks for that fishery.)

“You would probably have a better hookup ratio,” says DiGiulian, who releases both undersize and keeper-size swordfish and other species fishing on Wish List, a 37-foot Mark Willis. “If we get into a big pod of mahi, one thing we do is try to release a lot of fish. If we’re catching 5-or 6-pound females, we let all of them go. Our personal standard for size is way higher than what the state or federal limits are. We use circle hooks because we want to make sure that we can harvest the fish that we target, and that the fish we are releasing are released in good condition.”

For trolling marlin lures, the single or double J-hook setup has always been the preferred rig. (Scott Kerrigan / www.aquapaparazzi.com/)

When trolling for kingfish with planers and lures or strip baits, or targeting big blue marlin and tuna, he uses J hooks. “If I were trolling, I’d use either a single J hook or a double J hook set,” he adds.

Under special circumstances, he also uses J hooks when live-baiting for kingfish. “If I’m targeting just kingfish, and I know I’m in a spot where there are no sailfish around, I might fish some J hooks with live baits,” he explains. “Fish such as kingfish or wahoo, with really sharp teeth, like to immobilize a bait by biting off the tail or biting it in half. Then they eat the remaining chunk as it sinks, and the hookup ratio with a J hook is traditionally greater. Kingfish of 5 to 10 pounds are harder to hook on a circle hook. The big ones eat the whole bait on a circle hook.”

Easier on the Bait

Capt. Jamie Thinnes (seasonssportfishing.com), who fishes out of Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego, says he primarily uses J hooks except when he’s fishing for bluefin tuna.

A drawn-out battle with a bluefin often ends when the tuna spits the J hook because the angler failed to stay tight to the fish as it neared the boat and begin moving erratically.

Read Next: Fishing Dead Bait: Old-School Theories and Updated Techniques

“Bluefin tuna, they’re just smart; they just roll over and do a complete 180 on you,” he says. “Our catch rate is usually a lot higher with circle hooks.”

Yellowfin tuna are a different story. “If we’re fishing for yellowfins or yellowtail, we’re using mostly J hooks. A 3- to 4-inch live sardine is a perfect yellowtail-size bait.”

Replacing the twin treble hooks with J hooks on most plugs and lures makes it much easier on the angler and fish when it’s time to remove the lure after capture. (Damon Olsen/)

Thinnes uses light line, 20-pound fluorocarbon leaders and No. 2 and No. 4 Mustad bronze hooks up to 1/0 or 2/0. “For a small bait to swim really well, we have to collar-hook it. Being able to get a bait on the hook without damaging the bait is important. A J hook hurts the bait less. We’re able to grab a bait out of the livewell, snap it on the hook and let it out immediately. The less handling the better. Hooking a bait on a circle hook is more challenging.”

So don’t let those old J hooks rust just yet. At times, they’ll run circles around the competition.

A star in the era of TV pitchmen, Mr. Sperling rose to fame with ubiquitous late-night ads in the 1980s and ’90s.

The best way to wake up in the morning is with a cup of coffee. That means that we have to muster our strength to part ways with the comfort of our beds, and make coffee. Josh Renouf created an alarm clock that won’t force you to stand up and make coffee, it will force you to wake up and drink the morning coffee made by your alarm. The Barisieur is a retro-looking alarm clock that simultaneously brews a fresh cup of steaming coffee while waking you up! 

image via Awesome Inventions

Finding a search engine that’s both effective and not hell-bent on selling on your information is hard. Fortunately, they do exist, and there are plenty of them for you to choose from.

Here are some of the best private search engines available that won’t use you as a product.

1. DuckDuckGo

What better way to start this list than the default search engine for the Tor browser? The US-based DuckDuckGo is a fantastic choice for anyone who wants to keep their privacy intact while searching the internet.

DuckDuckGo doesn’t sell any personal information, because it never stores it in the first place. If DuckDuckGo is asked to hand over data by the government, they will comply; however, given they store no information whatsoever, it’d be a very sparse database.

Because DuckDuckGo doesn’t sell your data, it does need alternate means of making revenue. It shows you advertisements, but the ads are related to what you just searched for. They don’t track your searches to make an ad-based profile for you.

Unfortunately, DuckDuckGo uses Yahoo’s search results. This means that those used to Google’s efficient search results may find DuckDuckGo a little lackluster.

2. Startpage

If you’d prefer a search engine that’s more like Google, try the Netherlands-based Startpage. It uses Google search results, which is great if you find DuckDuckGo’s results lacking. Startpage achieves this by paying Google for its search results, then uses them for its own service that doesn’t harvest your information.

Startpage also takes a lot of care with search recommendations. Typically, a search engine will recommend search terms as you type based on what other people are searching for. However, this does require the search engine to harvest personal information, which Startpage doesn’t support.

Instead, Startpage matches your search to terms in the dictionary, on Wikipedia, or general phrases that contain your search results. This allows Startpage to help you find what you’re looking for without resorting to harvesting prior searches.

Startpage uses a cookie on your browser to save your preferences. If you’d prefer that it didn’t create a cookie, Startpage offers an alternative: a custom URL that loads up your settings once clicked. This means even the most paranoid web surfer can simply bookmark the URL without it leaving a trace on your PC.

Searching anonymously is one thing, but what if you could also visit the pages without revealing your information? This is what Startpage does to help secure your privacy. If you click “Anonymous View” next to any search result, Startpage will route your traffic through a proxy server, so you never reveal your identity to the website. This makes Startpage one of the best anonymizing search engines available.

3. MetaGer

MetaGer is a German-based, privacy-focused, search engine. Like Startpage, MetaGer also uses proxy-server technology to hide your location when you visit a website.

When you search for a term on MetaGer, you’ll notice an additional option underneath each result called “Open Anonymously.” When clicked, MetaGer will set up a proxy server and direct the website you want through it. Because MetaGer is the source of your query, your visit remains anonymous.

Unfortunately, MetaGer is quite bare-bones for settings and options, and it uses Scopia and Bing for its search results. However, unlike some search engines, MetaGer operates as a not-for-profit organization supported by donations. This is good news for anyone who won’t trust a business that has a profit-seeking motive.

4. Qwant

Qwant is a French-based search engine that’s packed full of features. However, some of these features require your location or your personal details. That means it’s not an ideal pick for people who want the utmost privacy.

Despite this, if you want a search engine that has it all but doesn’t store your search history, Qwant is the best free private search engine for you.

You can spot a wide range of features the moment you load its home page. Qwant has a music search engine, a “Junior” version for kids, a Maps feature, and news along the bottom of the page. From my experience, the news seemed to be somewhat local to my city, which may signal location tracking. However, it could have also been a coincidence.

You can also enable “Qoz,” a form of currency that accumulates as you search. Accumulated Qoz converts into a donation to a charitable cause at the end of every month—a nice side effect of using Qwant.

All of these features do raise a question: how does Qwant run these features while also respecting your privacy? For the Qoz feature, Qwant says they don’t track what you search, just how many times you searched. For some, this amount of tracking is enough to put them off using the feature. Thankfully, you can disable Qoz if you don’t like the idea of your searches being tallied.

However, if you don’t mind a little additional tracking in exchange for some more features, Qwant does fill a niche without selling your details on. This makes Qwant a nice “midway point” between the humble privacy-respecting search engines and the extravagant, powerful, yet financially-driven ones.

5. Mojeek

You may have noticed a pattern with the previous search engines, where they rely on other, more powerful search engines to get results. If this is a major problem for you, you might prefer a search engine that generates its own results.

This is what Mojeek, a UK-based search engine, does best. Instead of utilizing somebody else’s search engine, Mojeek uses their own to ensure that your privacy is respected. As a result, the search results you get won’t be perfect; after all, Mojeek has to contend with the competition that has been around for years!

Despite this, Mojeek is the best private web search engine for results that aren’t influenced by a larger company. Mojeek themselves call their search results “independent and unbiased,” which should resonate with people who don’t want larger companies sculpting their browsing experience.

Startpage vs. DuckDuckGo

The two big giants in the private search world are Startpage and DuckDuckGo. We have already covered what they can do by themselves, but how do they hold up against one another?

If you like the idea of a built-in proxy for anonymous browsing, the winner is Startpage. Its ability to load a proxy server in moments and view the webpage in secret is extremely valuable for people with privacy concerns.

Also, Startpage did seem to get better results as a whole. This is likely due to Startpage using Google’s search algorithms, while DuckDuckGo has to rely on Yahoo.

However, DuckDuckGo wins in one category: it’s open source. Unlike Startpage which locks their search behind proprietary code, you can check for yourself if DuckDuckGo is as private as they claim to be. DuckDuckGo’s GitHub page contains all its code, available to anyone who want to compile it.

As a result, Startpage’s search results and built-in proxy server make it a formidable private search engine. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo lays everything bare so you can see what’s going on under the hood. In the end, it’s up to you to decide what search engine is best.

The Best Private Search Engines for Your Needs

If you’re big on privacy, you’ll be pleased to know that there are plenty of search engines that respect your private data. Not only that, but they each bring something new to the table, which means there’s a search engine out there for everyone’s needs.

If you’d like to see how these search engines go up against a technological giant, be sure to read our comparison of DuckDuckGo vs. Google.

Read the full article: The 5 Best Private Search Engines That Respect Your Data

If you’re debating which music streaming app to subscribe to, hold on. You need to first check these little-known apps to stream music for free without any major hassles.

Right now, the top two free music streaming apps are Spotify and YouTube Music. Each offers a few features for free, with ads, and you can upgrade to a premium plan for more features like offline playback.

But you might be surprised to know that you don’t need to pay for anything to get a good music streaming experience.

From hip-hop mixtapes to better interfaces for YouTube, and even a way to listen to your own music from your computer, here are some of the little-known ways to stream music for free.

1. Aux.app: YouTube, SoundCloud, Deezer, and MixCloud in One App

If you want to listen to a song online without paying anything, you will likely find it in one of the four major free music streaming apps: YouTube, SoundCloud, MixCloud or Deezer. But of course, each has some songs that the other doesn’t have. What you actually need is an aggregator like Aux.

Aux combines all the four free music streaming apps into one neat interface. Search for a song across all services, or check out their individual search results. Add any song to your play queue or a custom playlist, or tap Like to make it one of your favorites. If your queue is empty, Aux will recommend a track to listen to for continuous playback.

You can use everything without ever registering, but you’ll need a Deezer account to search that service. You’ll also need to sign up to save your playlists and likes for the future. If you connect your YouTube or SoundCloud accounts to Aux, it will fetch your favorites.

2. Spinrilla: Free Hip-Hop Mixtapes

In the early days of hip-hop, when it was more an underground movement, artists spread their music through tapes of live shows and parties. Over time, hip-hop has legitimized itself through production houses and music labels, but the underground movement remains strong. And that’s what you’ll find at Spinrilla.

Hip-hop artists still release mixtapes on which they lay their own original track, or create a whole new remix. Any fan of this genre of music would love to hear where upcoming musicians and artists are taking hip-hop, and you’ll find it all on Spinrilla.

Spinrilla is a free streaming app only for hip-hop mixtapes. You can explore trending, popular and upcoming mixtapes, discover new singles, and even check out videos from some artists. Sign up to save songs and mixtapes, and even create playlists of your favorites.

Whether you use the web player or the mobile apps, Spinrilla plays without a hitch like any major music streaming service. It’s impressive how good the streaming quality is, given it is completely free and without any paid upgrades for a premium package.

Download: Spinrilla for Android | iOS (Free)

3. YouTube Music for Desktop: Play with MusixMatch Lyrics

The official YouTube Music is a fantastic streaming service, with one flaw. There is no desktop player. On the other hand, mobile users get a YouTube Music app filled with great tricks that makes the listening experience better.

But where YouTube doesn’t provide, some enterprising developer will. YouTube Music for Desktop is a nifty program for all major operating systems that gives you the full YouTube Music experience, with a little more. You can search, make playlists, listen to radio stations, and everything else from the free account.

The player also integrates MusixMatch into the program for an added bonus. YouTube Music doesn’t have lyrics, but this is a nice way to flip to a different tab in the player to read the lyrics, which scroll based on the line you’re currently listening to.

Download: YouTube Music for Desktop for Windows | macOS | Linux (Free)

4. Mozaart: Huge Catalog of Music With YouTube Links

More people listen to music on YouTube than any other streaming app, but YouTube isn’t optimized for music. Mozaart is primarily a music discovery and catalog app, but by adding YouTube links to all songs, it becomes so much more.

Head to the Charts to see the top 50 trending songs from any country, or go to Playlists for readymade collections based on categories, mood, or nation. Click the play button next to any song to start streaming music.

The deep interlinked catalog is the big sell of Mozaart. While it’s not meant to be a YouTube music browser, that’s what it ends up becoming. It’s the most systematic way you will be able to look at artists, albums, and so on, and be able to play any song immediately. It’s a whole new way of browsing YouTube.

5. mStream: Setup a Home Music Server

You have stored folders upon folders of music on one computer, how do you listen to it on another device in your home? mStream is the easiest way to set up a private music streaming server with which you can access your music on other devices.

The makers claim you can set up the server in 30 seconds, and they’re not far off. Run the program, add a username and password as well as an open Port on your network. Usually, Port 3000 will work. Point the software to your music folder and click on Boot Server to get an IP address. Depending on the size of the folder, it’ll take some time to make the list and then start.

Now, as long as you’re connected to the same Wi-Fi network, go to the IP address, key in the username and password, and you’ll see all the music right there. Click any file to start playing it. It really is the simplest and quickest way to get music all across your home.

You can install the open-source software on any major desktop operating system. It doesn’t currently support Raspbian, but you’ll find documentation online about how to build it with any Terminal.

Download: mStream for Windows | macOS | Linux (Free)

The Best Music Streaming Service for You

Just because these are fantastic free music streaming apps doesn’t mean you don’t need a paid service. Apps like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music do a lot more than just let you listen to music, and are worth the price they ask for.

But you don’t need them all, of course. What you need to do is figure out which is the best music streaming service for you.

Read the full article: Stream Music for Free With These 5 Little-Known Apps

Image by Evan-Amos, via Wikimedia Commons

My neighborhood thrift store has a very large VHS wall, filled with Hollywood movies, endless children's videos, instructional tapes, and best of all a box of unknown vids. Maybe they’re blank. Maybe they contain 6 episodes of Matlock. And maybe, just maybe, they have something completely nuts.

But who has time or the old technology for that, especially when the Internet Archive has recently expanded its VHS Vault section to 20,000 digitized tapes under the (non) curation of archivist Jason Scott. We make no claims for the quality of the videos contained therein, because that’s really up to you. A cursory glance shows episodes of Blues Clues next to Traci Lords’ workout tape next to Mystery Science Theater alongside Gerry Anderson’s Lavender Castle, a mix of claymation, puppetry, and rudimentary CGI.

So look: you have to go digging. There’s gems among the junk. There’s That’s My Bush! the ill-conceived and ill-fated sitcom from South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone that disappeared down the memory hole after 9-11.

Or check out this Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults, 75 minutes of paranoid lunacy with a halfway decent ambient soundtrack and some groovy visuals. Once you hear “abnormal sexology” you’ll be hooked!

This 1994 footage/interviews from the playa at Burning Man is a fascinating time capsule. “We have enough guns out here to start World War III,” one man says. Yep, it was certainly a different time.

You’ll also find plenty of just straight-up “no idea what’s on this, just hit play and record” VHS tapes, like this 4 hour block of MTV from 1995.

The Archive also serves another purpose: right now it acts as a kind of “safe space” from the increasingly unforgiving algorithms of YouTube, designed to take down anything its AI hears as unlicensed footage or music. It’s one reason for the amount of Mystery Science Theater episodes up here, as some can no longer be shown due to expired film rights.

And unlike YouTube, all the videos are available for you to download, keep, remix, edit, and/or purge. You won’t have to wash your hands like after a trip to the thrift store, but your soul will feel equally gross. Enjoy! Enter the archive here.

via BoingBoing

Related Content:

The Internet Archive Is Digitizing & Preserving Over 100,000 Vinyl Records: Hear 750 Full Albums Now

The Internet Archive Makes 2,500 More Classic MS-DOS Video Games Free to Play Online: Alone in the Dark, Doom, Microsoft Adventure, and Others

Watch 700 Videos Nostalgia-Inducing Videos from the Early Days of MTV

Ted Mills is a freelance writer on the arts who currently hosts the artist interview-based FunkZone Podcast and is the producer of KCRW's Curious Coast. You can also follow him on Twitter at @tedmills, read his other arts writing at tedmills.com and/or watch his films here.

The Internet Archive Hosts 20,000 VHS Recordings of Pop Culture from the 1980s & 1990s: Enter the VHS Vault is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.

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Suggestions for web reads
BriefingDay is a free daily half-page email that lists 5 very interesting articles around the web.  I usually click and read at least one of them, with pleasure. It’s curated by Thomas Marban who created Hvper, the internet on one page. — KK

Write your own eulogy
Anne-Laure of Ness Labs has a great post on the exercise of writing your own eulogy as a blueprint for your future. The process of writing down the exact values and accomplishments you want to be remembered for can provide clarity as to the small steps you can take today to create that narrative. Her post provides example questions to help you draft a eulogy and it’s up to you to work backwards to take action. I also spent about 25 minutes using this free step-by-step guide to writing my own obituary (angstrom.life/goals) and when I was done I was given a mission statement to create the imaginary legacy I want to leave behind. My life goals are very simple: write more poetry, which is something I yell at myself everyday, and to perfect my poor drawing skills so that I can create the stories that won’t stop gnawing at me. — CD

Maximum baggage for basic economy
“Basic economy” is the cheapest way to fly on United. You don’t get to select your seat and you can’t check any bags or even bring a standard carry-on bag without paying extra. You are allowed one personal item, measuring 17x10x9” or less. That’s smaller than most backpacks and is an unusual size. Fortunately, Aerolite makes a bag measuring 16x10x8” (called the 16 Inch Aerolite Carry On Hand Luggage Flight Duffle Bag) and it’s big enough for a couple of changes of clothes, toiletries, electronics, and a laptop. — MF

Super plywood
Plywood is an underrated material. But the really good stuff can be hard to find. Baltic Birch plywood is a super-duper version of plywood with many thin layers without voids that is as sturdy as metal, but lighter and much easier to use. You can fabricate things from it that you otherwise might use metal or plastic. But real Baltic plywood is hard to find. Big box stores like HomeDepot and Lowes often carry Birch plywood that is hard wood only on the outside layers; inside is softwood, which is okay but not great. I found I could get real, dense, all hardwood Baltic Birch plywood online in smaller sheets. For the kind of projects you’d want to use super plywood for (jigs, boxes, toys, prototypes), you don’t need, or want, large sheets. These 20×30 inch ¾ inch thick sheets ($16) from Woodworker Source are perfect for me. — KK

Fastest way to remove pet hair
We have a chocolate lab and a long-haired cat and their dark hairs can be found on every surface of our house. This $25 reusable roller (ChomChom Roller) is the fastest and easiest way to clean our couch and comforter. You just roll back and forth over flat surfaces and the roller catches all the hair in a dust receptacle that you empty out. Much more efficient than sticky lint rollers. — CD

How our relationships change over time
Artist Olivia De Recat made a cartoon with lines to illustrate different kinds of relationships and how they change over time . The last one might make you a bit misty-eyed. — MF

The very best of America's pavement.

Our guest this week is Amber Mac. Amber is the co-host of the award-winning podcast series, The AI Effect, the author of two bestselling business books. She’s also the President of AmberMac Media, and a former host on G4TechTV and TWiT. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @AmberMac.

Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page

Show notes:

BIGVU Teleprompter App for Phone or Tablet
This is a great mobile phone app or tablet app that will help you turn a device into a teleprompter. One of the reasons that I really love this, is that I know a lot of people struggle to go on camera because maybe they’re not comfortable just ad-libbing and they want to have a script. However, they can’t afford to buy a teleprompter and a separate camera. So, this essentially helps people who feel more comfortable being scripted, actually record video on their phones. You can even add captions. There’s a lot of editing tools baked into this as well, and it’s just a few dollars a month. I think this is incredible to see how the production value and the technology that you would find in a big TV station is now available on a mobile device.

Movo DualLav Mic for Smartphone ($30)
This is a dual lav mic for your smartphone. So, essentially what that means is that it looks like what the professionals are using with those little lavalier mics that clip onto your shirts. But there’s two of them, and you plug it into your phone, and what’s amazing about this is that it will work with an iPhone or an Android device and you’re able to do interviews. This allows you to get really good crisp audio quality if you were speaking to someone else. So, you could really shoot a full interview on your phone, and it’s only $30. This is the only one that I’ve ever found, to be honest with you, that’s at such a reasonable price. I use this all the time. I go to Dreamforce out in San Francisco, I do interviews, I shoot them on my phone and it looks professional, but more importantly, the audio sounds professional.

Space App for Instagram Formatting (Android, iOS)
This is to alleviate a tiny little very specific pain point on Instagram posts. And I’m giving you an Android app, but I believe there’s probably an equivalent for iOS or iPhone devices. If you post on Instagram and you write in the app when you’re posting something, whether it’s a video or an image, and you put line breaks in when you’re writing in on Instagram, Instagram does not recognize that and it will put your posts all in one giant paragraph. It drives me crazy. It’s a pet peeve of mine, and it’s a tiny, tiny little pain. But I found this app that is called the Space app, and it’s for Instagram formatting. So, you write everything within this app and you simply paste whatever you’ve written into the app on Instagram and it maintains the integrity of wherever you’ve put spaces. You would think that Instagram would do this too, but it does not. But this allows you to simply write in that other app and make sure that exactly how you write something is exactly how you paste it into the Instagram app.

CalorieMama Instant Food Recognition
One of the things that I’ve been researching and speaking about for the past couple of years is artificial intelligence. And a subset of AI is called deep learning. This app actually builds upon deep learning. It sounds overly complex, but in simplistic form, what it is, is an app that allows you to use the camera on your phone, either an iPhone or an Android device, take a picture of the food that you’re eating and instantly using deep learning, the camera recognizes what food is in front of you and will instantly tell you the nutritional breakdown of that food. So, all of the calories, the proteins, any type of vitamins. And it does this because it has a massive data set as far as understanding different types of foods. And I just love this because food diaries are a pain if you’re trying to watch what you eat and writing everything in, and looking it up within an app, but this is just instant. So, it’s a really great example of artificial intelligence and the combination of that fixing a problem that we have today, which is not understanding necessarily the nutritional breakdown of the food that’s in front of us. And like all tools that are driven by new technologies like AI, the reality is it just gets better over time. So, maybe it’s not perfect today and it’s not 100%, but I bet in six months or a year, if they tend to collect more and more photos, they’re going to get closer to that 100% mark.

About The AI Effect:
The AI Effect is a seven-episode series that I produced alongside the head of AI at Accenture. Her name’s Jodie Wallis. And it’s a podcast that focuses on different industries and the effects that artificial intelligence is going to have on those industries, particularly from an adoption standpoint. We looked at agriculture, we looked at customer service, we looked at transportation, and we had a chance to dive into all of these into industries and how they’re affected by AI automation. And there’s lots of bad news that you see out there, but within the podcast series we were able to focus on some of the opportunities that exist because of this new technology.

 

We have hired professional editors to help create our weekly podcasts and video reviews. So far, Cool Tools listeners have pledged $390 a month. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. We have great rewards for people who contribute! If you would like to make a one-time donation, you can do so using this link: https://paypal.me/cooltools.– MF

It’s no secret that most of today’s commercial flowers, grocery store roses included, lack the scent they held in yesteryear. Instead, they’re like what I call “winter tomatoes”—beautiful on the outside, but disappointing otherwise. It’s not that the blossoms smell bad; it’s that they smell like nothing, as though they might be the products of a 3D printer or some other futuristic contraption that eliminates craftsmanship and soul. Fortunately for Southern garden lovers, the flower border at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia, preserves blooms prized for both their fragrance and beauty for future generations of the public (and home gardeners) to enjoy. 

Monticello’s curator of plants, Peggy Cornett, oversees all things growing in and around the grounds and gardens of Jefferson’s home, among them flowers with a remarkable aroma. “Thomas Jefferson considered fragrance to be of equal import to beauty,” Cornett says. “In 1811 he wrote to the Philadelphia horticulturist Bernard McMahon: ‘I have an extensive flower border, in which I am fond of placing handsome plants or fragrant. Those of mere curiosity I do not aim at.’” According to Cornett, some of the plants he grew included sweet acacia (Acacia farnesiana), which the third president described as: “The most delicious flowering shrub in the world”; the fragrant caracalla bean (Vigna caracalla), in his words, “the most beautiful bean in the world”; and sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) and mignonette (Reseda odorata grandiflora). 

In response to the letter from Jefferson, McMahon sent the president double tuberoses, the most aromatic of all the tuberoses (and that’s saying something, since nearly every modern perfume includes a note or two from varieties of this bloom). Jefferson also shared his love of flowers with a heavenly scent with France in 1786, sending seeds of the heliotrope with a missive that read: “a delicious flower…the smell rewards the care.” Another Philadelphia horticulturalist, William Hamilton, contributed to Jefferson’s passion, too, sending him mimosa (Albizia julibrissin), with the suggestion he cultivate it in pots to trigger the growth of flowers with intense fragrance.

For those looking to bring a bit of Jefferson’s sweet-smelling garden to their growing zone, many of the flowers mentioned above are available through the historic foundation’s seed and plant program, in Monticello’s online shop.

The post A Presidential Source for a Sweet-Smelling Southern Garden appeared first on Garden & Gun.

Ethiopian, Kenyan, or Columbian. Pour over, French press, cold brew, or drip. Almond milk, heavy cream, or half-and-half. Served with sugar or just plain black. People are particular when it comes to coffee. And yes, the mug matters, which is why the team at East Fork, the Asheville, North Carolina–based ceramics company founded by Connie and Alex Mattisse, has spent the last seven years carefully tweaking and re-tweaking the look and feel of “The Mug.” “We wanted to make a mug that appealed to people with all different styles,” Connie says. “Humble but confident.” No crazy colors or funky handle shapes here.  

The resulting coffee mug is one you and your grandmother would want to use every single day—the kind of cup you’ll pluck out of the dishwasher and hand scrub even though there are a dozen different clean ones lined up in the kitchen cupboard. Dishwasher and microwave safe, the sturdy mugs hold ten ounces of coffee with plenty of room for cream or twelve ounces of liquid when full. They’re also denser and slightly thicker than your average mug, and the stoneware not only feels great in your hand, but it holds heat longer—think of it as the all-natural answer to the Yeti cup. 

The trick is getting your hands on one. Even with two storefronts in Asheville and Atlanta as well as a robust online shop, these mugs go fast. Just ask one of East Fork’s 114,000 Instagram followers, who check-in regularly for production updates. Made of iron-rich regional red clay, the popular mugs were originally thrown one at a time on the wheel. Individual handles were pulled and then attached by hand. As the mug developed a cult-like following, “We just couldn’t keep up with demand,” Connie admits.

To satisfy their insatiable customer base, Connie, Alex, and company (a past finalist for Garden & Gun’s Made in the South Awards) devoted two years to research, working diligently and deliberately to develop a process that would allow their team to use a jigger and RAM press to facilitate faster turnaround, meaning more mugs in more hands—all without sacrificing quality or character. Despite introducing a few simple machines to the production process, a total of nine craftsman still touch each mug on its way to your breakfast table, trimming, smoothing, and polishing the clay body before attaching handles and glazing, wiping each lip with a sponge to create that signature raw clay rim. 

In March 2019, when Alex and Connie finally re-released the company’s iconic mug, the entire inventory sold out in a matter of hours. The mugs come in three year-round glazes: soapstone, morel, and eggshell. East Fork releases seasonal glazes twice a year. “But if the glaze room creates something we really like, we might do another small run,” Connie says, such as the recent plum collection, which, you guessed it, is already gone. East Fork releases around five hundred new mugs a week, and they are still sold out more days than not. “In January and February, we were sold out seventy-five percent of the time,” Connie says. If you’re not on Instagram to receive real time updates, you can email care@eastfork.com with the color and quantity you’d like, and they’ll add you to the waitlist. 

The post The North Carolina–Made Coffee Mug Breaking the Internet appeared first on Garden & Gun.

It is a massive life decision to join the military. Even though a marriage can kill you, signing up for the Army means you may be in a conflict-zone months after signing your life, your rights, and your freedoms away. In the United States Army, which is the specific branch discussed today, once your signature […]

The post Top 10 Fascinating Facts About Army Basic Training appeared first on Listverse.

When we think of squatters, we usually think of people living in boarded-up sheds or hiding in the ruins of old buildings. But, once in a while, squatters get a ticket to the high life even if it’s only for a little while. Here are ten times squatters lived the high life. 10 Inspirational Stories […]

The post Top 10 Times Squatters Lived The High Life appeared first on Listverse.

The latest issue of HackSpace magazine is out, issue 28 [Free PDF]. I have a piece in there (pgs 90-91) on tips and recommendations for improving shop organization and storage.
***

For those here who might be interested, I have launched a new blog series on Adafruit on the history and ongoing import of 90s cyberpunk science fiction on society, technology, and DIY. Posts will go up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Refilling Your Own SodaStream Cartridges

I just got a SodaStream and I love it. But the CO2 cartridges it uses are expensive, around US$30 each. This video shows an easy way of refilling your own bottles. Basically, all you need to do is safely remove the valve and funnel dry ice pellets into the bottle to a target weight. Done!

Photographing End Grain of Lumber for Signs of Warping
Emory Kimbrough writes: “Tired of buying a reasonably straight piece of lumber only to have it bow and twist most wondrously when you get it home?  Photograph one end of the board with your phone camera, then walk down to the other end of the board.  Compare your photo with the appearance of the grain on the opposite end.  If the two end-grain patterns are very similar (actually, mirror-image similar if you think about it, because you flipped your viewing direction), then the board is less likely to warp.  Conversely, if the grain patterns appear quite different on the opposite ends, then the grain is twisting its orientation through the board, and it is thus more likely to warp. Also, if the end-grain pattern suggests that the board was cut from near the center of the log (look for tight-radius curves) then the board is more likely to warp.  Instead, look for more nearly straight end-grain lines. Neither of these tips guarantees that the board won’t warp, but they do, uh… bend the odds in your favor.”

Cheap LED Workshop Lighting

In my shop organizing article in this month’s HackSpace, I talk about how inexpensive it can be to properly light a workshop these days using linkable LED light fixtures. I’ve pointed to this video in the past where maker Andrew Setters re-lights his shop using LED lights such as these from Amazon. Six of these 4’ bulbs, each delivering 20W, 2200lm, and 6500K (super bright White) of light, can be bought for under 40 bucks!

Label Your Warts!

Everyone seems to be on about label makers these days. In this latest tools recommendation video from Adam Savage, he professes his love for his label maker. But the bigger point he wants to make is that you should immediately and always label the “wall warts” that power most consumer electronic devices. They are rarely labeled and we all lose them and then can’t figure out which wart goes to which device. In my book, Tips and Tales from the Workshop, I recommend using those little plastic tags that come on bread for the same identifying purpose. Either way, he’s right: Label your warts!

Reviving Wood Putty with Cooking Oil

Sean Ragan writes: “If you haven’t already run it, I just tried this trick (from Family Handyman magazine) for restoring dried wood putty using canola oil. I used a stainless mortar and pestle instead of kneading it with gloved hands and it worked quite well. Didn’t take very long, either. I just grabbed the generic PAM spray out of the kitchen cupboard and spritzed, kneaded, spritzed, kneaded until I got the consistency I wanted.”

My Undying Love for Print Catalogs

When I was a kid, I lived for the fantasy worlds of making inside the pages of catalogs. They taunted me with possibilities. Model rocketry and railroad catalogs, science surplus catalogs, aftermarket car parts catalogs, electronics, art supplies. I loved pouring through them all and imagining the things that I could build. And a few of them, I did build. Print mail order catalogs still hold that charm for me, especially since they are growing so rare. One of the catalogs that I’ve gotten for decades and always enjoy is Micro-Mark, a specialty small tools catalog for model makers and model railroad enthusiasts. And it hasn’t all just been browsing on the john. When I look around my shop, a significant number of the small tools on my benches came from this catalog.

The Maker’s Muse

Newsletter reader and friend, Eric Kaplan, was inspired by the piece I wrote a number of issues back about my obsession with restoration videos, including toy restoration. He decided to try his hand at a little toy restoration himself, so he restored this Tonka dump truck. Great job, mate!

[Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.]

"Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself."

In Microsoft Outlook, you can send read receipts to find out if someone has received and opened your email. You can also get read receipts from other people. It’s similar to messaging apps like WhatsApp, which uses different style checkmarks to denote the read state of your message.

You can not only disable read receipts that you send in Outlook, but also those that you receive. It’s two separate options. We’re going to show you how to turn off all read receipts in Outlook.

How to Turn Off Requesting Read Receipts in Outlook

If you don’t want to request or receive read receipts when you send out emails, do the following.

Go to File > Options > Mail and scroll down to the Tracking section.

Beneath For all messages sent, request, you will find two statements:

1. Delivery receipt confirming the message was delivered to the recipient’s email server
2. Read receipt confirming the recipient viewed the message

The first option describes when the recipient’s email service (such as Gmail or Yahoo) has received the email, not necessarily that your recipient has seen it in their inbox.

The second option describes when the recipient has opened the message. Your recipient could have seen the email arrive in their inbox, but it doesn’t trigger a read receipt request until they open the email—and even then it will depend on their settings whether a response is sent.

Uncheck both of these and it will disable delivery and read receipts for messages that you send.

If you enable receipts, bear in mind that not all email servers and applications support them, so your request may be unanswered regardless.

When done, click OK.

How to Turn Off Receiving Read Receipts in Outlook

To prevent people from ever knowing you’ve opened their emails, you can automatically dismiss read receipts.

Go to File > Options > Mail and scroll down to the Tracking section.

Beneath For any message received that includes a read receipt request, select Never send a read receipt.

Alternatively, if you want to decide on an individual email basis, select Ask each time whether to send a read request.

To save your changes, click OK.

Get More From Outlook

Read receipts are just one of the many Outlook features you might not have been aware of. Outlook is a powerful program that can make it a breeze to bash through your inbox.

To help you out, we’ve rounded up lots of hidden Outlook features to improve your workflow.

Read the full article: How to Turn Off Read Receipts in Outlook

If you’re a t-shirt connoisseur, you’ll scour the web looking for the perfect tee. Graphic t-shirts are a great way to express your interest in a geeky video game, show your love for your favorite TV series, or attract attention with other beautiful, cute, or hilarious designs.

Ready to do some t-shirt shopping? These t-shirt sites have just about every awesome design that you can think of.

1. Redbubble

Redbubble is home to some of the most unique t-shirts for men and women on the web. The site has shirts related to specific bands, movies, shows, and video games, making it a one-stop-shop for geeky tees. Independent artists design every t-shirt, which guarantees that you’ll find something you’ve never seen before.

If you’re not looking for a shirt related to your favorite fandom, Redbubble has plenty of cute, funny, and quirky shirts to choose from. Not to mention its wide selection of original hoodies, wall art, stickers, phone cases, and even leggings.

2. Threadless

Threadless has tons of cool t-shirts to choose from, making it one of the best places to buy t-shirts. While some shirts feature pop culture references, adorable graphics, and funny sayings, others are literal works of art. Like most other sites on this list, independent artists also craft these awesome designs.

When buying a t-shirt on Threadless, the site gives you plenty of options in terms of fit and fabric type. You can choose from options like fitted, extra soft, premium, regular unisex, heavyweight unisex, and tri-blend.

3. DesignByHumans

DesignByHumans makes it easy to find shirts from your favorite show, movie, or video game. Clicking on the Brands tab will display a variety of nerdy t-shirt categories designed by the official brand—Star Wars, Disney, Nintendo, Marvel, Cuphead, and Back to the Future are just some of your options.

If you’re looking for something a little more unique, you can browse the designs made by artists. These shirts are equally (if not more) awesome than the official tees.

4. SnorgTees

SnorgTees has a collection of hilarious shirts designed by SnorgTee’s own employees, as well as independent artists. The site puts a few new designs on sale each week, and also sells limited-edition shirts that you have to act fast on.

While SnorgTees doesn’t have much of a variety in shirt color, fabric types, or fits, the shirts are still worth it just for the designs. In addition to t-shirts, SnorgTees has hoodies, women’s tanks, hats, and kids’ shirts as well.

5. 6 Dollar Shirts

Looking for cheap t-shirts online? 6 Dollar Shirts offer tees that are both affordable and clever. Like the name of the site implies, you can buy shirts for just a mere $6. However, not all shirts are $6—limited-edition designs are $9, while premium shirts are $12. 6 Dollar Shirts also offers a great deal that lets you buy 10 $6 shirts for only $50.

Whether you’re shopping for gaming tees, science shirts, or shirts with a political twist, 6 Dollar Tees will likely have what you’re looking for. This makes it a great place to find geeky gifts for programmers, video game nerds, or anyone who has a sense of humor.

6. TeeFury

TeeFury makes buying t-shirts fun. Every day, TeeFury posts shirts that are on sale for only 24 hours. If you miss out on the sale, you’ll have to buy the shirt at full price. The site sometimes does t-shirt battles as well—two designs get pitted against each other in a competition to get the most sales.

For even more cool designs, you can shop in categories relating to anime, sci-fi, fantasy, books, comics, horror, gaming, and much more. You can buy each design in the form of a tee, sweatshirt, and tank, allowing you to rock cool designs all-year-round.

7. TeePublic

TeePublic comes from the same owners as Redbubble, and has an equally huge selection of awesome t-shirt designs from independent artists. The site maxes out your t-shirt customization options—choose from a classic, relaxed, v-neck, slouchy fit, and more. Not to mention that TeePublic also offers a ton of different colors to choose from.

As for shirt designs, you can expect to find just about anything and everything. In case you want to shop for more unique goods, TeePublic sells home goods, phone cases, and stickers too.

8. Busted Tees

The t-shirts at Busted Tees are funny, yet simple. You can sort the t-shirts by various categories, including funny, retro, pop culture, animals, geek and gaming, and more. If you’d like, you can also get each design in the form of a hoodie.

While Busted Tees offers most shirts from independent artists, the company sells its own designs as well.

9. Shirt.Woot

Not only is Woot a great bargain website, but it’s also home to Shirt.Woot. This is your go-to place to get cool t-shirts for a good price. Shirt.Woot frequently shines the spotlight on a specific group of shirts and puts them on sale. For one week, Shirt.Woot might have retro gaming shirts on sale, and the next week they might discount a group of cat-themed tees.

Shirt.woot also has a unique contest called the derby. Each Thursday a new theme is released, and Woot members can submit their own designs to the site. Other members vote on the designs, and the top designs get turned into shirts and sold. You can even check out the best-selling shirts under the site’s Top 20 tab!

10. Society6

Society6 is known for its amazing designs and quality, fitted t-shirts. On the site, artists get to post their original designs that can come in an array of sizes and colors. When compared to other cheap t-shirt sites, Society6’s shirts are a bit more on the expensive side. Fortunately, Society6 often has sales that you can take advantage of.

In terms of designs, Society6 seems to focus on artistic shirts more than anything else. So if you’re looking for a unique and detailed design, Society6 is the t-shirt store for you. The site also has a vast selection of custom furniture, home decor, office supplies, and wall art.

Where Will You Find Your Next Cool T-Shirt?

You don’t come across cool t-shirts every day—physical clothing stores just can’t compete with these t-shirt sites. No matter which site you choose to shop on, you’re bound to find a t-shirt you love.

If you’re really into t-shirts, you might’ve considered creating your own. In this case, you should learn how to screen print your own geeky t-shirts.

Read the full article: Where to Buy Cool T-Shirts Online: The 10 Best Sites

The post Canon Explorers of Light – Q&A with Photographer Bruce Dorn appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

In this Canon Explorers of Light Q&A series, we interview several professional photographers who are a part of Canon’s Explorers of Light program.

The Explorers of Light Program, running since 1995, boasts some incredibly talented photographers. These photographers have spent years honing their craft, and influence and educate other photographers of all levels – something, we at dPS, can respect and relate to.

In this piece, we interview fashion, editorial and all-round photographer, Bruce Dorn.

Photographer Bruce Dorn

Bruce Dorn has been a professional photographer/cinematographer for 45 years and a member of the Directors Guild of America for 35 years.

Bruce is a Canon Explorer Light, an ARRI Ambassador, a SanDisk Extreme Pro, Western Digital Creative Master, Westcott Top Pro, Light & Motion Ambassador, Tiffen Steadicam Pro, Corel Painter Master, and a Member of the Adobe Dream Team. Bruce seems nice but Chuck Norris trembles at the mere sound of his name.

How did you get into photography?

In July of 1969, just after I turned 18, my brother-in-law loaned me a 35mm Pentax Spotmatic with a 50mm Takumar lens. I had just seen “Easy Rider” and was inspired to take my own road trip through the American Southwest.

I shot a ton of Kodachrome, had a crazy good time, and returned home to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communications with a minor in photography.

While in my last year in college, I entered and won a creativity competition staged by Conde Nast, the publishers of Vogue Magazine and several other fashion titles.

After graduation, I joined Mademoiselle Magazine as a guest editor, and I began art directing and shooting fashion spreads in NYC, Reykjavik, Paris, and Rome.

Within weeks of receiving my diploma, I signed the lease on a 4,000 sq ft penthouse loft on 5th Avenue in Manhattan and got to work. I’ve stayed busy ever since. A bit of a dream career, really.

What was your first camera setup?

The first camera setup I bought was an inexpensive 35mm Mamiya-Sekor DTL 500 with a 50mm lens. The second piece of kit I acquired was a 500W, 3200K incandescent floodlight. The camera is long lost in the mists of time, but I still have that light. It’s a novelty keepsake at this point, but it serves as a reminder that creative lighting has always defined my shooting style – and kept me gainfully employed.

What camera gear do you use now and why?

I’ve shot everything from 35mm to 8”x10” film cameras for stills and 16mm to 70mm VistaVision cinema cameras, but now I’m 100% digital.

Canon is my platform of choice for both stills and cine, and I always use the latest versions. Currently, I’m really high on the Canon EOS 1Dx MKIII and excited about the upcoming mirrorless EOS R5.

Canon cameras always deliver amazing color, and Canon Professional Services are unequaled. And the lenses? I have a very large collection, from extreme wide-angle to super-telephoto.

People frequently ask me how much such a huge assortment of gear costs, and I always point out that it isn’t about how much gear costs me – it’s about how much it earns for me.

Just like a championship-winning race car mechanic, full-service professional photographers must eventually possess a very large toolbox. It pays for itself.

What area of photography do you specialize in, and why did you move into that field?

I get bored very easily, so over the years, I’ve worked to become a specialist in a lot of different categories.

I shoot editorial, fashion, beauty, automotive, nature, adventure, travel, extreme sports, underwater, environmental portraiture, aerial, and advertising – in both stills and cinema.

Are you working on any exciting projects you’d like to share?

Always! Unfortunately, the bulk of my commercial work is under a non-disclosure agreement, so I can’t be specific. Follow my Instagram feed, and you’ll see lots of cool stuff posted there – once I’m out from under the NDAs and able to freely share. My Instagram handle is: @dorn.bruce

Between professional gigs, I try to do as much mentoring as I can. I’m currently working with a fourteen-year-old Hopi Indian girl who simply loves landscape photography. We get together for shooting adventures around Arizona whenever our schedules allow!

If you could share any photography tips with our readers, what would they be?

Great photography is all about where you stand, both literally and philosophically. Work on discovering and polishing your own unique point-of-view.

With so much information instantly available online, it’s super-easy to mimic the work of others but don’t – that’s ultimately a dead-end journey. Focus, instead, on shooting a lot, and eventually, your own unique path will be revealed. Own it.

Oh, and light that faint little path…learning to illuminate your world with great lighting is the smartest thing you will ever do. Invest in quality lighting instruments and learn how to use them. I suggest looking at color-correct and dimmable LED units for the greatest versatility. Shine bright!

Bruce Dorn Biography

Bruce Dorn has been a professional photographer/cinematographer for 45 years and a member of the Directors Guild of America for 35 years.

Bruce is a Canon Explorer Light, an ARRI Ambassador, a SanDisk Extreme Pro, Western Digital Creative Master, Westcott Top Pro, Light & Motion Ambassador, Tiffen Steadicam Pro, Corel Painter Master, and a Member of the Adobe Dream Team. Bruce seems nice but Chuck Norris trembles at the mere sound of his name.

See more of photographer, Bruce Dorn’s work here:

Instagram: @dorn.bruce
Facebook: bruce.dorn
Website: www.brucedorn.com

The post Canon Explorers of Light – Q&A with Photographer Bruce Dorn appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

825 points, 25 comments.

Book Freak is a weekly newsletter with short pieces of advice from books. Subscribe here.

Gavin de Becker is a three-time presidential appointee whose pioneering work has changed the way our government evaluates threats to our nation’s highest officials. His firm advises many of the world’s most prominent media figures, corporations, and law enforcement agencies on predicting violence, and it also serves regular citizens who are victims of domestic abuse and stalking

Here are four pieces of advice from his book, The Gift of Fear.

How to notice when someone is trying to control you
“’No’ is a word that must never be negotiated, because the person who chooses not to hear it is trying to control you.”

Don’t talk to people you don’t want to talk to
“If you tell someone ten times that you don’t want to talk to him, you are talking to them—nine more times than you wanted to.”

Don’t wait for a stranger to help you, choose someone
“A woman alone who needs assistance is actually far better off choosing someone and asking for help, as opposed to waiting for an unsolicited approach. The person you choose is nowhere near as likely to bring you hazard as is the person who chooses you.”

Know when to use your dangerous defenses
“You are an animal of nature, fully endowed with hearing, sight, intellect, and dangerous defenses. You are not easy prey, so don’t act like you are.”

Book Freak is one our five newsletters from Cool Tools Lab (our other four are the Cool Tools Newsletter, Recomendo, Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales, and What’s in my bag?).

-- Mark FrauenfeldMark Frauenfelderer

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Leaving your beloved pet home alone can be distressing. A good pet camera makes your time away painless, showing you firsthand that your pet is happy and safe, even when you’re not there. However, after extensive testing and research, we found that most pet owners don’t actually need a fancy pet camera. You can get the same peace-of-mind benefits from our favorite cheap security camera, the Wyze Cam v2. It’s compact, has great video, and offers free cloud storage.

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