I started using Amazon Subscribe & Save for ECGc (Green Tea) supplements initially out of frustration with my local health food store. They’d be out, only have small quantity options, pricing was all over the place.

Now a couple bottles ship to me every couple months at a good price, with free shipping even without Prime. I get an email in advance so I can skip a shipment, and I can also do an emergency “ship now” if I run out unexpectedly.

I’ve since gradually started putting other regular consumables into the Subscribe & Save queue to save money, time and effort.

[When you buy things using Subscribe and Save, Amazon gives you a 15% discount. I have been using Subscribe and Save for years. I'm surprised so many of my Amazon-using friends have never heard about it. I use it to buy vitamins and supplements, trash bags, cat food, toilet paper, batteries, paper towels, ziploc sandwich bags, Magic Erasers, and dishwasher detergent. - Mark Frauenfelder]

The best way to deal with emergencies is to be prepared for them. The Blackout Buddy emergency light is a flashlight that plugs into a wall socket to remained charged.  When the power is lost, due to a utility outage or other unexpected event, the emergency light comes on.  This illuminates the room immediately with enough light to get safely to the emergency light. After pulling it from the wall, it acts as a regular flashlight. Inexpensive and long-lived, I put one in each bedroom, hallway, and kitchen, where they sit quietly until needed.

I recently moved to a small farm on the outskirts of Baltimore. My favorite feature of our new humble abode is the outdoor fire place. However, I have been run ragged keeping up with splitting enough logs. The backbreaking labor was not helped by the older axe that came with the place. After that handle broke I decided to look for a better solution.

The Fiskar’s 36″ Splitting Axe is like night and day when compared to other splitting tools I’ve used in the past. While I’m envious of those who have a hydraulic wood splitter, I can’t emphasize enough how painless this splitting axe makes the process. Where as my previous axe would get stuck, and require swing after swing, the Fiskar’s cuts like butter. I don’t know why I was so surprised given Fiskar’s stellar reputation (or the fact that they’re designed in Finland, a country where forestry is a religion). The head, unlike a traditional axe blade, is closer in design to a splitting wedge which helps cleave through wood with ease.

Unlike my old axe, the Fiskar has a permanently fixed head. While this may worry some diehard woodsman, it’s a boon for the rest of us. After several long days splitting wood, the head remains as tight as the day I started using it, and shows no sign of letting up. If it does, it’s covered by the generous lifetime warranty. Another distinguishing feature is the plastic handle which is very comfortable and seems to reduce some of the post-strike vibration. My version is 36″ long which is just the right size for my 6’3″ frame; they do, however, produce a smaller model for those shorter in stature.

One nice design feature of the axe is the non-stick coating. I’ve only had the axe get stuck a few times, and even then the wood was wet and it only took a bit of wiggling to remove (which was nothing compared to when it would get lodged with my older axe). I also use Fiskars’ axe and knife sharpener to keep the edge sharp as that was recommended by several resources online.

Splitting wood can be unpleasant backbreaking work. This axe makes it a lot more pleasant.

[Note: This replaces the previously reviewed Chopping Axe that Fiskars no longer produces.--OH]

Home automation is finally plug-and-play. Setting up this wifi-connected box takes minutes:

1) Plug the WeMo into a three-prong outlet

2) Download an iPhone app (Android is rumored to be on the way)

3) Type your wireless password into the app to connect the switch to your home network

4) Plug a device into the WeMo (lamp, TV, fan, etc.)

That’s it.

You can toggle the switch on/off by pressing a button in the app. You can also quickly set an automated timer that automatically turns the switch on/off at different times on different days.

My WeMo Switch controls a huge floor lamp in the corner of our living room. It’s programmed to shut off every night at 9pm. No more playing footsie with the floor dimmer! Also, a nice reminder to stop watching TV and go read in bed. Typically, we turn on the lamp via an iPad in our kitchen. Dinner guests love it.

$50 isn’t cheap. The company sent me a complimentary switch to test, because I write about technology. That said, I’m buying another switch at the full price for my office. I don’t mind paying for the convenience.

If you’re handy with a soldering iron, go ahead and hack your own Arduino-powered switch. Or, assuming you don’t mind playing with wires, you might find a cheaper alternative in the Smarthome catalog. Up until now, most of the previously-available gear I’ve seen has been a combination of too complicated, cost-prohibitive, and/or aesthetically blah.

This thing works. It looks cool. And whenever my lamp automatically turns on, it feels magical.

Burning Man chill-out dome

Domes are the most efficient way to build a shelter, covering the most space with the least material. But all domes leak in the rain (ask anyone who has lived in one). Yet, because they can be erected quickly, cheaply, and make wonderful, uninterrupted, open, almost magical, spaces inside, domes are perfect where it does not rain. Or on a temporary basis. Or both. Like Burning Man.

Once popular in the 1970s as alternative housing, then abandoned as impractical a decade later, domes are now in a resurgence because they are nearly ideal structures for arid and temporary shelters at Burning Man. This instant city now sports more domes than anywhere else in the world, and many of these are quite large. Considering how vast they are, it is amazing they can be thrown up in a few days by a small dedicated crew. And then be re-erected the next year.

You can use any set of long uniform pieces for the structs of a dome, from 2x4s, to electrical conduit pipe. The key critical pieces are the hubs which connect the structs, and the strut lengths. These must have a mathematical precision, and their dimensions vary by the size and variation of the dome species.

Therefore if you want to build a geodesic dome structure, you need to be able to construct strong hubs accurately. Domerama is the guide you need. This website shows you how to calculate struct lengths and how to make (or where to buy) dependable hub connectors. Using this site many amateurs have successfully built domes that worked the first time; you’ll need help: remember this is a very math-intensive endeavor.

The site has tons of materials on the varieties of domes, erecting domes (not as easy as you think), designing them, what to use as coverings, and introduces global dome culture. It is the best place to keep up on dome innovations: one cool new idea is to shrink wrap domes. Find out how here. Domerama is better than any current book on domes by far.

This is the best household LED bulb at the moment. It runs on only 10-watts, gives off the light of a 60-watt tungsten, delivers a soft white light, with the even distribution of the old bulbs. It’s dimmable. And it is promised to last 22-years.  I can confirm all these claims except the last (too early to tell). It is exactly the same shape and size of a 60-watt tungsten bulb, which many other LEDs are not. This makes it easy to swap out. Also, this one is brighter than most other LED replacements that I’ve used, including the previously reviewed Lemnis 40-watt LED bulb. It is more energy efficient than other 60-watt LED equivalents. Believe it or not, at $40 it is among the cheaper hi-powered LED bulbs — although the price is still too high for me to swap all my household bulbs (most of which are compact fluorescents).

Beside the price, two minor caveats. The bulb is heavy. It seems to be made of solid ceramic. It may not work in a counter-balanced fixture like an extended arm lamp. And if the bulb is exposed it shows bright yellow-orange markings when off, which may (or may not) be distracting design-wise.

Compared to tungsten bulbs, this is crazily expensive at $40. But it’s a steal if it lasts 22 years. (By Philips’ calculation you’ll save $137 in the end.) Compared to other LED lightbulb replacements, this one is brighter, more efficient, better color light, smaller, easier to swap, and more affordable. It won the US Department of Energy L-Prize for bulbs, hence its name. In short, the Philips L-Prize bulb is the best bulb if you want to start replacing those 60-watts or higher that you use a lot.

[Make sure to check with your local utility company as they often feature rebates on LED bulbs. Home Depot is known for selling this bulb cheaper in-store than they do online for this reason.--OH]