Oliver

Over the years, I’ve become a big fan of coffee although far from an expert. After visiting Melbourne and enjoying many cups of coffee, I’ve realized that coffee here in North America is pretty damn terrible. Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia and according to legend it was discovered by a goat herder, Kaldi. It’s said that Kaldi discovered coffee after he noticed that his goats, upon eating berries from a certain tree, became so energetic that they refused to sleep at night. He reported these findings to the abbot of the local monastery who made a drink with these berries and discovered first hand that it kept him very alert during the long hours of evening prayers. Slowly, word spread and coffee eventually reached the Arabian peninsula, where it began a journey which would spread  across the globe. The Goat Story Mug is a horn shaped coffee mug and is in honor of the goat that discovered the coffee bean.

Most people don’t have the luxury of having a sauna in the comfort of their home so we usually have to go to the local gym or pool to enjoy the benefits of a sauna. And if you do have a sauna at home, you are definitely in the minority. There are dozens of options for saunas and the most popular are still the conventional saunas that heat atmospheric air around the body. But infrared saunas are starting to gain popularity and available in a number of styles and are an affordable option like the Sauna Dome Elite MetaChamber.

Our favorite season, summer, is right around the corner and hopefully that means you get some time off work to relax and get out to enjoy the warm weather. Some people know how to relax better than others and the creators of the Hammocraft have the right idea. This Hammock Boat can accommodate up to four hammocks so you can either relax on calm waters on your own or have up to three other people join you.

Hopefully none of the people reading this have had to deal with a situation where you’re out in the wilderness and were uncertain when the next time you’ll have access to safe drinking water. For those who enjoy the outdoors and traveling deep into uninhabited areas, something like the DayOne Waterbag should be one of your essential tools. The DayOne Waterbag can also be used for natural disasters and in other emergencies. 

How many times have you taken a picture of a picture or a document to refer to it at a later time? I’m certain everyone with a smartphone has done so on many occasions. If not, then it’s probably becasue you already have the product I’m about to refer to. The Dacuda PocketScan is an extremely compact handheld scanner which can be useful for many situations. This is definitely something I would use frequently enough to warrant a purchase of this device.

We’ve all heard of the legendary Sea-Doo watercraft but have any of you heard of the Seabob? Chances are you most likely have not but the company is hoping it’s the next big thing in personal watercraft. And when they say personal, they mean it. The Seabob F5 S is a personal high-performance watercraft weighing in at just 35 kilograms. So it’s not something you can carry around all day but definitely light enough to carry for short distances.

I don’t wish upon anyone to be using a trashcan to cook their food outdoors. The image you are probably getting in your head is most likely straight out of a movie with homeless people gathered around a fire in a trash bin but it happens in real life all the time unfortunately. But if you’re cooking out of a trashcan by choice, then by all means go for it! The Po’ Man Grill is designed to cook up some delicious food but looks like any other trashcan. Yeah, a little strange but as long as it’s good at what it was designed to do.

I’m a pretty terrible swimmer although I do enjoy being in the water occasionally (usually in the shallow areas when possible).  As an adult, having a couple of inflatable arm bands like little kids might work but will look super ridiculous. The best way going about it is to have something that works like an inflatable arm band but is totally discreet. The Kingii Wearable is just the device for those that are adventurous in the water or for those who are weak swimmers.

I’ve spent months in developing countries and let me tell you when it comes to electricity, people here in the US and Canada should consider themselves pretty lucky. In some parts of the developing world where they do have electricity, it’s never consistent and they have something called load shedding which is kind of like controlled power outages to keep the entire grid stable. Where I was, there would be electricity for a few hours and then no power for a few. And this would be constant, every single day of the year but at least the people were prepared and lived their lives according to this pattern. Now, if the people have something like the Anker PowerHouse, I’m guessing their quality of life would improve quite a bit.