Are we going back to the future with the new DeLorean DMC12s? Because they’ve been talking about a new version for a long time now for this storied 80s sports car.
There have been recently some manufacturing regulations dynamics that have made it harder to produce low-volume autos, like new DMC 12s would of course be, but, according to Hagerty, “the final regulations will allow low-volume automakers to sell up to 325 cars each year that resemble production vehicles manufactured at least 25 years ago.”
The DeLorean VP recently told media that they were actually gearing up to make new DMC 12s, although the new sports cars will have a lot of modern updates. The last DeLoreans were made in 1982. One question: Will it have the gullwing doors?
Gadgets that Will Change Your Life
A lot of people use salad spinners to dry the lettuce after they wash it, but besides that you don’t commonly see too many gadgets for making salads being used, but there’s now a new one that might change my thinking on the whole thing.
I’ve seen plastic molds that are made for chopping tomatoes or other vegetables, which some people might use and others not want to use, but this idea of chopping up my entire salad at once actually does seem kind of appealing. Not only is it a salad cutter mold, but it’s also a bowl, and a bowl with drainage, so you can wash your whole salad, cut it, and hold it all in one unit.
On the same tip, who doesn’t like watermelons and other melons, but cutting them up is a kind of obstacle to enjoying them and when you’re in the store and see a tasty melon, don’t you sometimes think, “Yeah, that would be good but who wants to cut that thing up and then clean up after cutting it?”
A main example of this is with watermelons, which have so much juice and seeds when you cut it up. So you might be able to see how just pushing a single gadget down over the melon and slicing it up all in one motion would be great, especially if you’re in the backyard or at the river or lake, and then even more especially if you have lots of watermelons!
You can find either of these on Amazon: Smart Cut Salad
– Watermelon Slicer
Rainbow Opal “The most beautiful opal in the world”
How the “most beautiful opal in the world” was found in an old mineshaft
This opal, worth over a million dollars, which catches all the light around it and sends it back to onlooking eyes in a blazing rainbow, is a Belemnite “pipe” that was once a kind of cuttlefish skeleton, and was found in 2007 by one John Dunstand, who had been searching and mining for opals for more than half a century in the deserts of Coober Pedy, Australia. He was searching in an old mineshaft in that area with an excavator, when he noticed the colors of the Rainbow Opal, half still burried in the sandstone around it.
“It showed this beautiful colour on the tip, but it was still in this hard lump of sandstone,” John recounted. “So we cleaned it off and we could see it was a nice piece, but we didn’t know if it was solid, because a lot of time they’ve got sand in them or intrusions. There was a thick skin on it, like a rusty band around it, so we cleaned that off, and every time we touched it some more colour would come out. It was a true gemstone. I knew it was one of the best ever. You’ll never see another piece like that one, it’s so special. That opal actually glows in the dark – the darker the light, the more colour comes out of it, it’s unbelievable. I’ve done a lot of cutting and polishing [of opals], I’ve been doing it for 50 years, but when you compare it to the other pieces that claim to be the best ever, this one just killed it.”
The “Virgin Rainbow opal” is currently on display in the South Australian Museum opal exhibition in Adelaide, and the photo is by South Australian Museum. The stone is currently up for auction.
This little RV camper has it all in a compact package. Who out there has thought about going on mini-camping trips, with minimal effort to get there and be there? But you don’t want to give up the ability to go RVing or to camp inside a solid, safe, bug-free camping unit that you don’t have to find a place to set up, put in pegs, tie to support, etc., like you have to with a tent.
These little all-included ATV campers are built with aluminum and composite construction, and have cabinet framing inside and an aluminum skin, and also are finished with vacuum-bond laminated roofs.
Camplite 6.8 glamper UTV RV specs:
All aluminum structure
.040 aluminum laminated sidewalls
Laminated block foam roof with 1/8″ azdel covered with one piece tpo based membrane
Kinr0 radius windows with blinds & valance
Black exterior trim
Parchment earth azdel wall board
Camplite graphics
Full aluminum subfloor w/ décor matched vinyl flooring
(3) 12v vortex ceiling vents
Solar prep
Cream azdel ceiling panel
Aluminum framed cabinetry with stile fronts and wood doors
Solid surface countertop
Stainless steel sink with upgraded faucet
Interior and exterior led lighting
Convection microwave
Flip up sofa bed
Removable dinette table
Am/fm/dvd/bluetooth stereo sys w/speakers & 24″ led flat screen tv, digital tv ant, int/ext cable hookups
Enclosed/heated underbelly
13 gal fresh / 32 gal blk/gray tanks w/back flush kit 2 – tank level panel, sewer hose and caddy
Lp – furn, combo lp/elect wh, 3way 4cf refer, 2 burner cooktop, lp and c02 detectors, (2) 20lb. Lp tanks
Fire ext & smoke detector
Manually operated glamper jacks prewired for electric
MSRP – $4,120.16
A tiny house doesn’t mean cutting down on everything, apparently. And if you’re going to go big, go hot tub big. This tiny house has a little deck just big enough to fit its hot tub.
This one’s a Tiny Wood Homes build, and not only is it decked out with a hot tub, this little dwelling that can be hitched to the back of a truck or trailer and towed to any location. This one in the photos (see photos) is set in the Warwickshire countryside. Guess how many people this thing sleeps? A tiny house with capacity for six people, after you fold down the sofa bed.
The interior of this tiny house has a wood stove, hardwood floors, a kitchen, and little dormer-style windows, and inside those windows are beds with a view!
For more tiny homes, click here, and to find more from Tiny Wood Homes you can locate them in the building homes and living directory of tiny homes and builders.
Metal Building Kit Homes by Meuller
These Amish style barn houses start at $5,400 and are built on site from $25,000
These Self-Assemble Tiny Houses From $3,600
Take a Look Inside – What Kind of Prefab Home is This?
How About this RV Chariot?
The Childhood Toys that Are Most Valuable Today
Do you remember your favorite childhood toys? Do you still own them? Sometimes, the sentimental value is higher than the dollar amount collectors are willing to pay, and sometimes, what was thought was a smart investment turns out to be a dud, though of course that doesn’t usually matter to the child playing with these toys. Some toys, like Beanie Babies and Barbie dolls, remain popular, thereby lowering their value. Others, like metal dollhouses, have gone the way of the dodo and therefore are in higher demand.
If you’ve got a collection of old toys or enjoy visiting yard sales and thrift shops around town, you might be lucky enough to net enough money for a tank of gas, a plane ticket, or that new TV you’ve been eyeing. Below are some of the most valuable toys from a couple decades ago. Do you have any of these?
- Cabbage Patch dolls and cards – these are being sold for up to $4,000 (USD) online.
- Star Wars action figures – these late 1970’s items, still in the package, can be auctioned off for around $25,000.
- PEZ dispensers – a wide variety of these are incredibly popular with collectors, who are willing to pay over $30,000 for specific dispensers.
- American Girl dolls and accessories – the dolls that have been “retired” have been know to fetch around $5,000.
- Furby – the original one, obviously. One that has never been opened sold for almost $1,000.
- The first edition Harry Potter books – these can net you around $6,000 apiece.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures – these dudes, in excellent condition, can be sold for $500, though of course the rarer the action figure, the more people are willing to pay.
- Playmobil sets – these hardy, beautifully designed sets are somewhat difficult to find, making them an incredible prize – for a price. Some sets go for $800.
- Happy Meal Toys – depending, again, upon the popularity and rarity of each one, individual pricing varies. However, Disney toys are going for around $300 right now.
- Super Soakers – these water guns are drowning in potential profit. The good quality ones are selling for $150, while the pristine guns can run up to $500.
Interested in seeing if you have any childhood toys of monetary value?
Research Says Fresh Flowers in your Home can Actually Reduce Pain and Stress
Have you ever come home to a fresh bouquet or new plant and felt something shift inside you? Science says there’s a reason for that. A study done by four individuals concluded that not only did seeing fresh flowers (in this case, red roses) decrease the amount of oxy-hemoglobin levels in the right prefrontal cortex, it also decreased sympathetic nervous activity, thereby reducing stress, and induced relaxation. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a fantastic way to unwind without having to pay for a luxurious retreat.
In the study, one set of university students were given a few minutes to view red roses while their responses were recorded with a variety of machines. Another set was not given flowers, but were recorded so that the responses could be compared. Between the two groups there was a marked difference – the group that were given flowers experienced a significant increase in relaxation.
So why is this important? Think about all the places that cause us stress – the office, hospital, financial institutions, school, transportation (particularly airports). This is why people put plants on their desks at work, why schools and prisons are incorporating more green space, and why hospital visitors often bring flowers to their loved ones. The more plants we have in our lives, the better off we’ll be, physically (due to their production of oxygen), and mentally.
If you’ve rarely or never had plants nearby, it might be time to consider purchasing some at your local garden center. You can start off small with a potted succulent or some African violets. If you’re used to gardening outside and want to experiment with plants living indoors, you can start a windowsill herb garden or put some ferns in the sun porch. However you’re able to add plants to your life, it’s a good idea to start incorporating them. Keep them watered, watch them grow, and know that you’re helping the environment as well as yourself.
Humans have long been fascinated by semi-precious and precious stones, finding uses for them from the superficial (adornment) to the scientific (surgery). Some stones are more precious than others due to the limited quanitities as well as how high quality each specimen is, and contrary to popular use, diamonds are not the most precious or sought after stone. One of the newest discoveries in the gem world is named after its discoverer, Adrian Pain. Painite was found in Myanmar in the late 1950’s, but there were only two specimens. It took nearly a half century of work to discover the source. Even with the several thousand painite crystals that have been uncovered, the ones that have been cut are few, and thereby hefty in price.
Part of the reason painite is so costly is that it can only be found in the Mogok region in Myanmar. With just one location in a place not widely accessible, there are only a certain number of stones available at a time. The gem itself is precious because it consists of two elements that are rarely seen together, boron and zirconium. There are no other stones in the world that carry this combination, even if some have a similar coloring due to impurities found in the stone’s makeup.
With the ease of selling online, you can pick up some smaller, lesser quality stones for under $100, or a low quality cut stone for around $100. However, if you’d rather do some excavating yourself with the hope of uncovering larger crystals (weighed using the traditional system of the ‘carat’ which is roughly equal to .2 grams), you’ll have to either book passage or find a company to join or fund. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll find some high quality stones, which can net around $60,000 per carat.
Of course, there are easier places to access and many people have fun mining for smaller, semi-precious stones and can even make some money on the side.
Interested in reading more about painite, crystals, mining, or new gem discoveries? You can start by going to the Geology In site.
Do you remember your favorite childhood toys? Do you still own them? Sometimes, the sentimental value is higher than the dollar amount collectors are willing to pay, and sometimes, what was thought was a smart investment turns out to be a dud, though of course that doesn’t usually matter to the child playing with these toys. Some toys, like Beanie Babies and Barbie dolls, remain popular, thereby lowering their value. Others, like metal dollhouses, have gone the way of the dodo and therefore are in higher demand.
If you’ve got a collection of old toys or enjoy visiting yard sales and thrift shops around town, you might be lucky enough to net enough money for a tank of gas, a plane ticket, or that new TV you’ve been eyeing. Below are some of the most valuable toys from a couple decades ago. Do you have any of these?
- Cabbage Patch dolls and cards – these are being sold for up to $4,000 (USD) online.
- Star Wars action figures – these late 1970’s items, still in the package, can be auctioned off for around $25,000.
- PEZ dispensers – a wide variety of these are incredibly popular with collectors, who are willing to pay over $30,000 for specific dispensers.
- American Girl dolls and accessories – the dolls that have been “retired” have been know to fetch around $5,000.
- Furby – the original one, obviously. One that has never been opened sold for almost $1,000.
- The first edition Harry Potter books – these can net you around $6,000 apiece.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures – these dudes, in excellent condition, can be sold for $500, though of course the rarer the action figure, the more people are willing to pay.
- Playmobil sets – these hardy, beautifully designed sets are somewhat difficult to find, making them an incredible prize – for a price. Some sets go for $800.
- Happy Meal Toys – depending, again, upon the popularity and rarity of each one, individual pricing varies. However, Disney toys are going for around $300 right now.
- Super Soakers – these water guns are drowning in potential profit. The good quality ones are selling for $150, while the pristine guns can run up to $500.
Interested in seeing if you have any childhood toys of monetary value?
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