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Cool tools really work.
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.
Rob is a founding DJ at KDZU, a tactical mythmaking radio station broadcasting from Los Angeles, Goldfield, and other undisclosed sites. Rob is also KDZU’s primary investigator, researching the histories of OMSA [Our Magic Seeks Answers], a Memphis, Tennessee-based anarchist collective that disbanded in 1994. — Rob Ray
PHYSICAL
“Seed Needs” 5-pack of Morning Glory Seeds. Morning Glories have been very satisfying to grow. They grow quickly, are amazingly colorful, and have done an excellent job surviving in the Southern California heat. I have a terrible time growing things, but these have been great. They are the best $9 I’ve spent all year.
Lufkin 3m / 10’ Power Tape. This small tape measure has been a great way for me to practice using the metric system more often. It features both inch and cm measurements, is very pocket-friendly, and costs just four dollars!
I teach a computer-aided design (CAD) course and use several Bambu Labs A1 Mini 3D printers in my teaching. They have performed exceptionally well, and students are very enthusiastic about them. Over the past decade, I’ve tried various 3D printers, and this one consistently surprises me with its reliability. It is priced inexpensively, at $250 on their website, making 3D printing more accessible for students after graduation.
DIGITAL
Plasticity is a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tool I use for 3D modeling. It has a bridge tool to import from Blender and does not have the complexity of “industry standard” CAD tools. It is also priced as a “pay once” software tool. No monthly fees. Students are eligible for a free academic license.
Godot is an open-source 2D and 3D gaming engine that is growing rapidly. I use the tool for creating augmented-reality applications.
INVISIBLE
Drexciya is a mythic, Afrofuturist world imagined by Detroit’s electronic musicians, James Stinson and Gerald Donald, in the early 1990s. They envisioned an underwater kingdom born from the Middle Passage, where the unborn children of enslaved women thrown or lost to the sea adapted to breathe underwater and created their own autonomous world.
For me, this mythology is incredibly powerful because it transforms a history of violence and loss into one of survival, resilience, and imagination. In a time of unrelenting crisis and uncertainty, Drexciya reminds me that we can dream and build new worlds while also living in an unrelenting nightmare.
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