Gadgets
 

I am sucker for them- especially those that appear illogical.
Some of my gadgets actually seem to work!

I have 2 sonic spider repellers. One which emits a sound that spiders dont like (allegedly), and another which, as well as emitting sound, sends something round the electric wiring which they also dont like (allegedly).
I was desperately frustrated at the amount of time I was spending clearing cobwebs when I bought them, and that problem has now gone -no cobwebs for months now, BUT -yesterday- a tiny blighter descended from the ceiling onto my keyboard. I wonder if spiders can evolve to become deaf and so- immune. :)

Another gadget which I am sure works is my Goodsphere(s) - but they are costly to keep supplied with plant essences. If I manage to give up smoking I wont need them. They definately are effective at taking fag smells out of the air.

My latest gadget is a QLink pendant - had it 2 days now - This one is the most 'doubtful' gadgets I have bought, but I got it for £16, so not an enormous loss if it turns out to be 'snake oil'. It could be a placebo effect but I did notice yeserday that I didn't need an afternoon nap, and no longer felt exhaused most of the time (which had been bothering me). I am even considering completing the decoration of my bedroom ceiling which has been half white and half cream for 6 months now. I will let you know whether this energy (or is it just optimism) is maintained.

Have you any gadgets that you can recommend - you know - the sort that you dont expect to work but do?

Re: Gadgets
 

same here Margaret , if its a kitchen thingy I have it , most recent purchase was an "olive" pitter , actually I think its designed for stoning cherries for babies and toddlers but works just fine with olives destined for martinis, makes emptying the ash tray a bit easier

:D :D :D

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It came from Thailand (dubious source) but it has 'made in USA' stamped on the back (which means nothing to forgers I suppose)
It seems to be still working - no nap this afternoon again & not feeling exhausted.
I got a silver chain with it as well as a black cord, so even if it is 'snake oil' I havent lost out completely.

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My mother was one for gadgets. She had things that sliced your potatoes into thin waves, things that cut your cucumber into curls and things that shaved your onions into spirals. She had nutmeg graters, garlic presses, mint leaf crushers and, yes, olive pitters and a weird orange/lemon peeler with a spike and a handle.

She also liked the things you get in those "Better Living" leaflets. I remember one Christmas she bought me a pair of, sort of, detachable crampons for walking on ice. They were a small plate of metal spikes that was held under the sole of your shoe by an elastic strap. They proved very useful, as it happens, as I'm a complete wimp on ice ever since a bad fall many years ago.

She bought a blow-up bath pillow that wouldn't stick on the bath and a shower step-stool which was useless as she didn't have a walk-in shower, a toothpaste squeezer - and she had false teeth! -and a device for compressing all your little bits of left-over soap into one, reconstructed bar, which promptly fell back into little bits of left-over soap when you tried to use it.

I can't look at a Kleen-e-ze catalogue without thinking of my mum, the gadget queen. :D

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you need to warm them in the miro wave and let them set.... :D

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Ah but Queen Wyn of the Gadget never got to grips with microwaves, or video recorders, or Channel 5, or the portable CD player - "Just put your CD in this slot, mum, close the lid and press this button and, voila, Placido Domingo."..... "I can't get it to work!" Oh well, she was over 90. :)

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LOL ladies :D
I dont have a soap squidger -I let soap pieces dissolve in water in a jug and then pour them into a pump dispenser plastic bottle - but then I'm a meanie :D

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I don't think microwaves had been invented when I had my soap squidger! :D

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I stopped microwaving several years ago after I read this

<In Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven, published by Raum & Zelt in 1992, at 3(2): 43, it states

"A basic hypothesis of natural medicine states that the introduction into the human body of molecules and energies, to which it is not accustomed, is much more likely to cause harm than good. Microwaved food contains both molecules and energies not present in food cooked in the way humans have been cooking food since the discovery of fire. Microwave energy from the sun and other stars is direct current based. Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens, are produced from alternating current and force a billion or more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule they hit. Production of unnatural molecules is inevitable. Naturally occurring amino acids have been observed to undergo isomeric changes (changes in shape morphing) as well as transformation into toxic forms, under the impact of microwaves produced in ovens.

One short-term study found significant and disturbing changes in the blood of individuals consuming microwaved milk and vegetables. Eight volunteers ate various combinations of the same foods cooked different ways. All foods that were processed through the microwave ovens caused changes in the blood of the volunteers. Hemoglobin levels decreased and over all white cell levels and cholesterol levels increased. Lymphocytes decreased.

Luminescent (light-emitting) bacteria were employed to detect energetic changes in the blood. Significant increases were found in the luminescence of these bacteria when exposed to blood serum obtained after the consumption of microwaved food."

The Swiss clinical study

Dr. Hans Ulrich Hertel, who is now retired, worked as a food scientist for many years with one of the major Swiss food companies that do business on a global scale. A few years ago, he was fired from his job for questioning certain processing procedures that denatured the food.

In 1991, he and a Lausanne University professor published a research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional means. An article also appeared in issue 19 of the Journal Franz Weber in which it was stated that the consumption of food cooked in microwave ovens had cancerous effects on the blood. The research paper itself followed the article. On the cover of the magazine there was a picture of the Grim Reaper holding a microwave oven in one of his hands.

Dr. Hertel was the first scientist to conceive and carry out a quality clinical study on the effects microwaved nutrients have on the blood and physiology of the human body. His small but well controlled study showed the degenerative force produced in microwave ovens and the food processed in them. The scientific conclusion showed that microwave cooking changed the nutrients in the food; and, changes took place in the participants' blood that could cause deterioration in the human system. Hertel's scientific study was done along with Dr. Bernard H. Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry.

In intervals of two to five days, the volunteers in the study received one of the following food variants on an empty stomach: (1) raw milk; (2) the same milk conventionally cooked; (3) pasteurized milk; (4) the same raw milks cooked in a microwave oven; (5) raw vegetables from an organic farm; (6) the same vegetables cooked conventionally; (7) the same vegetables frozen and defrosted in a microwave oven; and (8) the same vegetables cooked in the microwave oven. Once the volunteers were isolated, blood samples were taken from every volunteer immediately before eating. Then, blood samples were taken at defined intervals after eating from the above milk or vegetable preparations.

Significant changes were discovered in the blood samples from the intervals following the foods cooked in the microwave oven. These changes included a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values. Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants. Each of these indicators pointed to degeneration. Additionally, there was a highly significant association between the amount of microwave energy in the test foods and the luminous power of luminescent bacteria exposed to serum from test persons who ate that food. This led Dr. Hertel to the conclusion that such technically derived energies may, indeed, be passed along to man inductively via eating microwaved food. >

the whole article is here
Microwave oven health risk - cancer risk

Re: Gadgets
 

Oh Gawd, don't cook an egg in the microwave then. ;)

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I suggest you sell yours whilst some people still want to use them -as I did. I suppose eventually they will all end up in landfill, as more people become aware of what is going down their throats.

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Two very environmentally friendly "gadgets" that work on pesky mosquitos: A bat house and a Purple Martin feeder. The bats do tend to buzz you like miniature stukas, but they are harmless and do eat lots of moskies. And the Martins eat about 2.5 times their own weight in moskies every day. Two gadgets that I have had for ever are the K-Tell patti stacker, which forms hamburger patties and can be used to store them in the freezer, and the Pocket Fisherman which is a really neat fold-up fishing rod, with little compartments for lures and stuff. Otherwise I don't go for gadgets.

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I like that - night shift for bats and day shift for martins -very ecologically sound practice. We dont get mozzies in Accy area yet, but with climate change they will reach us eventually. One of my spider repellers has a mozzie setting, so Im ready for it.