Day: September 4, 2024
09/4/24
Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #183
Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY
09/4/24
Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
Tell us what you love.After years of me bugging my wife to get a book light for places where the bedside lamp is too bright, she finally found one she liked enough to plunk down 14 bucks for: this Compact LED rechargeable light. It folds up small for travel but has an impressive array of functions, like 4 brightness levels, different intensity levels to go more amber when trying to fall asleep, and a flexible head that can bathe 2 pages of a book with light. Battery life is 9 to 80 hours depending on brightness.
Like most people who grew up in the USA, I get bored with most futbol/soccer matches since all that running around usually doesn’t accomplish much. Apparently that’s a surprise to FIFA since 175,000 too-expensive World Cup tickets remained unsold this week. If you want to dive in deep though, The Guardian has you covered: this website provides details on every single player from every country that’s participating in the event this year. Study up before arriving at the sports bar wherever you’ll be in the world.
This has been a busy month already for airline news. Philippine Airlines is set to join the OneWorld Alliance, which will add 31 new markets nobody else in that group is serving. Southwest added another “interline partner” with Singapore Air, which means you can complete your last leg on Southwest when the first one is booked on Singapore, via one ticket. (They’ve also done this with Icelandair, Turkish, ANA, and Philippine Airlines.) Last, if you have a Delta Amex, that just got a lot more valuable. Delta added a second free checked bag on domestic flights, in addition to the one for you and your companions. Get it here and earn 70-90K SkyMiles points depending on your spend and there’s no annual fee the first year!
If you’re going to have a long layover somewhere, which are the best airports to be stuck in? This report crunches a lot of data—including which are best for sleeping—and my only quibble is that the quantity of lounges is rated too highly. (The only lounge stat that matters to a traveler is which one they can actually get into.) Asia dominates the top-20, with Singapore’s Changi Airport predictably taking the gold medal. Did you know they have 247 places to eat there?! Atlanta made a surprisingly good showing at #3, with others in the top-10 including Seoul, Dubai, Tokyo Haneda, and Shanghai. Bogota scored #2 in the Americas, while Heathrow and Schiphol were tops in Europe.
A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.
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