Items Discussed on our December 12, 1997
"Science Gifts" Show
Correction: during the broadcast, Priscilla Wrubel of the
Nature Company stated that the Nature Company had done a "number of
tests" on one product, the Bio-Sphere, produced by Paragon, before
declining to carry the product.
Ms. Wrubel may in fact have been refering to another product, the
Eco-Sphere, that was extensively tested by the Nature Company. The
Bio-Sphere by Paragon was not as extensively tested, and is not being
carried by the Nature Company due to logistical reasons having
nothing to do with the quality of the product.
Gifts for computer lovers
Digital camera - very good ones available for under $700 -
names to consider include Kodak, Olympus
Color Printers - Hewlett-Packard 692, 790, Canon 4300
Speaker systems - High end ones from Altec Lansing,
Bose.
Good one for $99 from Cambridge Sound Systems
Yamaha MIDI keyboard
Pointing devices - Microsoft Intellimouse, IBM Scrollpoint
Mouse
Force Field joystick
glidepoint devices, graphic tablets
voice recognition software from Dragon Systems, IBM
Audible Portable Player
parental control software, like Cyber Patrol, NetNanny
Interactive toys - Talk-to-me Barbie, Microsoft Barbie
Odyssey Atlasphere electronic globe from Explore
Technologies - plays music, gives information about different
countries - $399 - 1-888-456-2343
Personal Digital Assistants: REX electronic organizer from
Franklin, Windows CE devices, Apple Newton, Messagepad 2000,
AlphaSmart 2000
DVD player (for television set - hold off on buying
computer-based ones)
Chocolate diskettes, mousepads, Eagle Creek combination
briefcase/backpack for laptops.
More information on some of these gifts is available on
Larry Magid's site.
Nature-related gifts
wooden flower press
birdfeeders (esp. squirrel-resistant ones!)
"Surf Frogs" kit - watch leopard frogs grow up!
Purchase sulfur dioxide emissions permits from the Clean
Air Conservancy
rain gauge
Biosphere from Paragon Inc - sealed glass ball with plants
and animals inside
amber with insect inclusions
get a star named after someone
pan flutes
more information about some of these products may be
available
from the Nature Company and
from Store of
Knowledge.
Educational Gifts
telescope - remember that lens quality, not power, is more
important! Celestron, Meade make good ones . around $100 can buy ones
with a 50mm or 70mm lens.
Zap Science! book from Klutz Press
Robodog robotics kit
Radio Shack electronic breadboard kits
Carolina Scientific science kits for kids 12 and up - ones
available for genetics with fruitflys, polymers, hydroponics and
others
Toobers and Zots - foam building toys for young kids
Zoob - kits of ball-and-socket construction pieces
Smithsonian Microchem kit, Alien Slime Lab chemistry kit
"Moon Mud" glow-in-the-dark goo
jigsaw puzzles
Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Snake
aerodynamics toys: rockets, disk shooters
SciTech "urban adventure gear" -
Dinosaur Dig kit - excavate reproduction dino bones
more information about some of these products may be
available
from the Nature Company and
from Store of
Knowledge.
Items suggested by Henry Galliano of
Maxilla and Mandible
for adults: meteorites, Mars rock
animal skeletons
dinosaur eggs
for smaller kids: visible man and visible woman kits,
reproduction skulls
Dinosaur teeth, shark teeth
trilobites, starfish
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