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This toaster:
Might as well link the Technology Connections video already.
Yes, it's an 18 minutes video on a 1950s toaster, you can thank me later.
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Same person made me appreciate my can opener
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We had one of these. It was terrible. Spring force was super weak and slow and there was no lever to manually lift the toast if it got stuck.
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I bought one of these toasters because of this video
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I love mine, it's so gentle and civilized.
I wish they made a modern version with the adjustable slice width thing, it'd be perfect.
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The popping sound is a feature, not a bug. How else can you tell if your toast is ready when you're doing something else when getting ready in the morning?
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Scissors. Their value is noticed most when you cannot find them.
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You can always use a knife instead.
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Yeah, but in most cases it's far, far harder.
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But not as precise.
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Vaccines.
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They just taste so damn good
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"Low technology."
I think of "low tech" as something that you could with some materials and knowledge do yourself out of a garage.
I would not take an improvised vaccine made in someone's garage. Not until we were in real fucked up post-apocalyptic scenarios.
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That's hardly low tech, especially not the newer ones.
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Ugh, just got vaxxed and I’m on day two of recovery.
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Knives.
About as low tech as it gets, even for modern knives that are pretty high tech in how they're made.
But it's entirely possible for a person to make a knife with nothing but tools they can make by hand, with no need for anything other than rocks as tools. I've done it, and it isn't like I'm some kind of super genius.
You can make slightly more high tech tools if you want, and make metal knives. The caveat to that is that you have to know how to identify sources for the metal in the first place, unlike stone tools where you can figure it out by banging rocks together until you find some that make sharp edges. But making an oven that can turn out low-grade materials is realistic for a single person to do.
But a knife, in its essence is just an inclined plane done to a very fine degree. Doesn't get any more low tech than that. Mind you, there's plenty of complexity involved in all of the basic machines like inclined planes, but that's more about understanding them than using them or making them.
Knives are mankind's most important tool. They were among our first tools, and it can be argued that they were our first manufactured tools. And we still use them regularly. Some of us use them every day, multiple times a day.
That's a lasting technology in every degree of refinement.
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Honestly, kind of mind blowing even thinking of them as a technology, they're so ubiquitous. I use a knife a minimum of 10 times a day, and that's just in the kitchen, not including opening mail, packages, small medical stuff, and a ton more uses. Holy shit, where would we be without those inclined edges?
Awesome comment to read at 430 in the morning. Thank you
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Also knives and woodworking. Blades are what made the great Japanese temples. Lots of sharp steel and a dream. It is amazing what Japanese blacksmiths can do with steel, and the excellent performance they can achieve with them.
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You know what always weirds me out:
The knife is a technology. It was invented by a person. And that person was not the same species as us. The knife has been around longer than Homo Sapiens.
I've commented on this before, but it reminds me of the mortise and tenon joint. The oldest intact wooden structure on Earth is held together with mortise and tenon joints. The man who built it never wrote his name down, because writing hadn't been invented yet. He never rode a horse, because animal husbandry hadn't been invented yet. He used stone tools, because copper smelting hadn't been invented yet. In the present day, Festool sells a tool to make mortises called the Domino which they still hold a patent on. We're still actively developing this technology which has been with us slightly longer than civilization has.
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Smelting metal (as opposed to just heating already refined metal) is a non-average skillset, though, and knapping is quite hard to master.
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Bicycle
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Books
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Rope or really any cordage. Can't begin to tell you how handy learning 7-10ish knots has come, plus lashings
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I was always terrible with knots growing up. My father spent far too much time trying to teach me a basic trucker's hitch and sadly never got to see me really "get it". Then, when my own son was in Cub Scouts and supposed to learn some basic knots, something just clicked in my mind and I took an interest. The bowline was the gateway knot for me and learning that led me to finally apply myself to the trucker's hitch. Just such a useful pair for tying up a load. I can understand why my father really wanted me to learn it.
Now, I keep a length of paracord on my desk and will fiddle with it, practicing knots whenever I'm doing something that leaves my hands free. And ya, having a basic set of knots down is just damned handy.
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Thats a great story it’s amazing how sometimes things just resurface and click after years. I'm genuinely happy that I'm not the only one that fiddles around with paracord. I get a lot of looks from family because of it, haha. Think it was either the sheet bend or square knot that got me into this.
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Best site to learn them: https://www.animatedknots.com
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I'm curious just because I never use ropes or knots - what kind of work or activity do you do where you use that regularly?
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I'm not them but tying loads/things down during fierce winds, temp gardening structures, carrying stuff (weaving nets is useful knowledge), lifting stuff/holding suspended.
Idk even stuff like if crossing a stream it's handy to have one person go first and make a temp hand rail by hanging a rope across so people slip less.
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INDOOR PLUMBING
I live in an apartment complex. The thought of having to share an outhouse (more than 1 if lucky) with hundreds of strangers TERRIFIES ME. And/or use chamberpots. FUCK NO
A BLESSED ETERNAL AFTERLIFE OF BLISS FOR ALL HUMANS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO INDOOR PLUMBING SCIENCE 😩
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See, in the past we solved that by just not having cities the same way, and no buildings taller than maybe 6 floors. And the smallish cities there were were so disease ridden the population self-limited.
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Do vinyl records count? I really like that they make beautiful noise from a simple electromechanical process.
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There are some records which are "threaded" backwards, in that you start at the center and work out rather than start at the edge and work in. This is not standard, automatic turntables might not be able to handle this, but the reason they do this is because of the effect above. You can get greater dynamic range near the outside of the disc, and you probably want greater dynamic range near the end of the recording as the music reaches a climax. Consider Ravel's Bolero, which is one long crescendo.
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Manual can openers are better than electric can openers
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Especially the kind that uncrimps the can instead of cuts it.
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Sharpening stones.
you need an edge so many times in your life. When you're using scissors, slicing veggies, pruning trees, harvesting mushrooms, posting online, mowing grass, carving wood, cutting roots, trimming nails, scraping stoves/ovens, shaving, digging, trimming, pealing whatever.
There are so many dumb fancy arse awful tools that butcher edges and work in one specific case. No! For millenia people have been grinding edges, it is not difficult to learn it just takes practice.
Modern manufacturing means we can enjoy extremely consistent stones in well characterised grades. Go use some, and enjoy how much less effort life requires when everything that cuts, cuts easily.
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On that topic, if you are in a squeeze and don't have a sharpening stone in the kitchen, you can use the bottom rim of a ceramic mug to sharpen a kitchen knife
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So what should I look for when buying a sharpening stone? I was planning to buy one to sharpen the knives we have at home, but not sure what I should get and where to get one for a decent price.
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you usually work up grits. In general for edges that should end shaving sharp (e.g. kitchen, whirling) below 1k is rough work, profiling work, 1k or so is basic small chip repair etc, 3k is standard sharpen, and higher is polishing wank. You get what you pay for in general: cheap stones need soaking, the wear out fast (needing truing). Shapton makes some great splash and go stones.
However, there is one cheap 2 sided diamond stone that is actually quality. The sharpal one. Be aware diamond cuts extremely fast (good and bad), it doesn't need truing or soaking. I recommend if you're getting one stone get that. Learn proper bur minimisation technique and that'll cover chip repair and get your knives sharp enough to cut seethrough sheets of tomato.
If you feel fancy add 1 micron stropping compound and a sheet of balsa wood to strop on.
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A fountain pen is just a controlled leak
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I use a Kaweco Sport as my daily driver.
Bonus: Nobody ever "borrows" it at work because it confuses and terrifies them.
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Rice cookers. It's super low tech but works great to cook perfect rice.
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I can do that with a pot just fine;)
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I cook rice in a pot if I’m making a small amount and flavoring it (lemon zest and lemon mmmmmm) but otherwise I’m bustin out that Zojirusji. Basmati rice is almost impossible to make perfect in a pot, but rice cooker does it perfectly every time.
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Praise Zojirushi!
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I dont know about you, but our rice cooker seems quite high tech. It can even talk!
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Partially buried housing (ground cooling effect)
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Do you have any good resource for beginner to learn about this?
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YT Our Self Reliant Life.
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On this same note, insulation in general. We can only make something so strong, conductive, heat-resistant, light or hard, so we've internalised the expectation that there's always practical limits. But insulative? There just isn't one. That means that with an arbitrarily small source of energy - body heat is not only possible but typical - you can overcome unlimited external coldness. We've being doing this since before we were human, by many definitions.
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Automatic (mechanical) wristwatches.
I love the idea of a truly symbiotic relationship between a thoughtfully and carefully designed mechanism and a human. I walk around and live my life, and by doing so, I give it the kinetic energy it needs to keep its mainspring wound, and in return it tells me what time it is. Always. Without fail. I just have to tweak the time if it starts to get too far off, but that’s barely even an imposition. After a good long while, it’s prudent to have them serviced, but if you’re not observing any problems, it’s generally perfectly fine, and will keep ticking along as long as you wear it regularly.
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also, knowing you are listening to the same exact tick tock that has been heard for centuries
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I had a cheap automatic in college, sadly lost it in a move.
But I loved it so much, kept itself wound up without issue, and it was amazing to look at all the tiny parts that made it work.
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There are some good enough automatics out now at very reasonable prices.
Of course there are also crazy expensive ones also, but they all do essentially the same thing - convert your movements into time measurements 😀
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Similarly, I have a cuckoo clock. I could watch the internal mechanism for hours.
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String/rope. With a couple of knots, loops and tension you can make a lot of things with it.
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Dice.
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Waterwheels. Thousands of years old but still an essential part of our energy system.
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Wood working ? Whoever craftsman who first makes a stringed-instrument, compared to a piano an acoustic guitar is a relatively simple instrument and it gives me endless joy even without company or electricity.
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If I have a choice between buying a table and chairs from IKEA, or buying a table and chairs from my neighbour who loves making them bespoke in his woodshop, I'll take the second option every time. As a society we need more of this....supporting our own labour efforts over mass corporate manufacturing.
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Consider the humble pillow.
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I went hi tek with pillows and got nice memory foam pillows. Changed our backs’ lives, never going back!
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See memory foam is cool and all
But my point is that even the simplest pillow consisting of a linen sack with some animal nonsense inside it is still an exponential improvement over not that, or worse, those wooden head-supports that they still use in some eastern cultures.
Also: People use way too few pillows. I use five for the average night.
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The anvil, can make a lot of stuff with it. You can even use it to make fire, striking a piece of iron until it's hot enough to light a forge or small fire. Older copies of the Machinery's handbook(the machinist's Bible) have a few things on blacksmithing.
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I bought a can opener years back that doesn't cut the can, instead it separates the lid from the can with no sharp edges. It's dumb but I love it.
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Those are great, but somehow all the cans that i am buying now seem to come with their own "zip". Haven't used the opener in a good while.
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Not dumb. Awesome.
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Siphons
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Furniture generally, beds specifically
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Life would be very different without cozy places
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Lathes. You spin a thing and cut it, which sounds unimpressive, but from there you can bootstrap to pretty much all modern technology.
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Or, alternatively, you can bootstrap into a fine red mist as you get stuck to it and violently flung about
Lathes rule
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Yes, when bootstrapping, tuck in your bootstraps.
To add a bit of detail, it comes down to circles being nice, simple geometric objects, and an assembly of metal with contact points being capable of way more accuracy than you'd first expect.
Bootstrapping the first lathe is harder; most likely some historical elite master craftsman was able to make one freehand, and future ones derived from it. We still have the one Vaucanson made that way, although it sounds like it was a one-off. David Gingery wrote a book on the topic, but he still assumes you have a power drill and a ready-made threaded rod.
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Axes, I have four and I will get another next year.
I have a hatchet for small tasks, a midsized axe for cutting small trees down and chopping, a Pulaski for landscaping/ digging tasks and I have a splitting axe/maul for splitting rounds.
There is something incredibly rewarding and fun about swinging an axe.
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Brother!
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Maps and compass. I like the reliability of finding my way no matter where I am. Plus it’s fun!
Especially the trick of using two landmarks to pinpoint my location on a map makes me feel like an old-fashioned navigator :)-
I love me an old map. Sadly I lost my Orienteering compass many moves ago
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Hand tool woodworking. It's amazing what you can make without a single electron. Its also amazing to feel the tools, the resistance and subtle vibrations as you use them. Like an extension of your own body. I love chiseling, especially large mortises. Hearing that sharp, deep thud, and seeing it sink in as it bites into the wood is so satisfying. Especially when using metal hammers, they are so responsive.
I love sawing, especially when relaxed and working at a slow pace, seeing all the sawdust fly out with each stroke. Sawing isn't fun when working on difficult pieces of wood, when working in a relaxed manner with softwood, the hoarse sounds of the saw starts to sound like purring and it begins to cut exceptionally well.
I love the finish of handplanes, so smooth it becomes water resistant.
Overall very spiritual and relaxing (as relaxing as you allow it to be at least)
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Hand tools are spiritual in a way that machine tools will never be. I love the texture and heft of planes. The simplicity and quiet operation. Working with timber and steel is one of the greatest pleasures in life.
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Hey Paul Sellars, looking forward to your new video!
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Wheels are pretty cool
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Tweezers.
When you realize how many wars were averted because of them.
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Rock.
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fire!
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I have a mechanical doorbell at my house that I adore. I'm never getting rid of it.
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I would love that if my climate allowed for it.
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Recently made some jam. Was really impressed by how low tech the process was. Just cook some fruits, separate the roughage and branches and seeds, etc. Add sugar and cook it again. I believe you also have to add pectin if the fruit you’re turning into jam doesn’t have a lot of it.
Then bottle the stuff and enjoy it with bread for a long long time!
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Candles
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Permanently Deleted
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As a user of threaded fasteners, the inclined plane.
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I like to get all up in my snuggie. Get a little weird.
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I'm a huge coffee drinker. Used to have a machine. It broke. Bend using an aeropress and French press for awhile and find that I really don't miss the machine.
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Same, I actually use a french press and then pour the coffee into the insulated carafe from my dead coffee machine to keep it hot until I finish it.
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Using a brush to paint my house as opposed to an hvlp setup
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Stools
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Sleeping pad shnozzle bags (pump sacks).
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Hands. They’re freaking awesome and allow you to do lots of things.
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I have a crowbar that I named Art. I like to compare my crowbar to a piece of art, it's a masterpiece of engineering. So many uses for the humble crowbar, such a simple and powerful piece of equipment. I love the way it feels in my hand, I love the way I can stash it anywhere easily and keep it handy and secret. The Crowbar is Art, and I study the Art of the Crowbar.
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Exercising equipment. Jump rope, dumbels, pullup bars, rowing thingie and such.
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The Thermos!
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Knipex Cobras. It's like being able to pinch anything with a force of about ten tons per square inch, they're indispensable
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On that topic, if you are in a squeeze and don't have a sharpening stone in the kitchen, you can use the bottom rim of a ceramic mug to sharpen a kitchen knife
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Turbine style desk fans. They push wind very fast.
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I agree with knives, love them.
Natural fermentation is a technology I love, that is pretty ancient. The way I make bread, it's leavened the same way as almost 15,000 years ago. Beer is like that too - it's commercial now but you can achieve it at home without the industrial tech.
Windshield wipers are so clever.
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The alarm clock
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Swamp cooler
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Pasta House cheese grater
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G-Shocks 🤗
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Cooking
