Make your own electricity?

I've always been amazed by these plasma balls. You put your hand next to the glass and the electric waves collect right under it. Electricity in itself has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I'm just thankful we got it!


Now they have these cool create your own electricity kits for kids! What a great Educational Learning Toy. I wish I would have had one of these when I was growing up. Perhaps I wouldn't be so perplexed by electricity. This one inparticular is a electricity generating windmill, a working electricity generating windmill. How cool is that?

The Illuminated Ant Farm

This seems to be the most popular ant farm at the moment. I guess it was developed by NASA for some reason and then sold to toy companies. I can't figure out why NASA would design an ant farm? Did they just design the edible gel or the whole ant farm? Anyway, it's pretty cool because the ants live and eat the space age gel and therefore no need to feed them. The habitat itself is only 6 x 1.3 x 6.5 inches, and that is my biggest complaint with any of the ant farms on the market. It can probably support about 30-40 ants. Seeing as how ants only have about a 3 month lifespan, they will probably die off about the time you run out of gell. I'd like to see a much bigger ant farm someday with a flat surface for foraging and with enough room for hundreds of ants. Maybe they'll let us ship queens across the country someday. Until then, we're all stuck digging them up ourselves.
Overall, I'd say it's better than most of the other ant farms out there simply because of the gel.

My choice for the best new Home Decor gadget.

I've narrowed it down to three different products that I like the best.

Levitating Globes by Fascinations, EcoSperes, and Sand Art by Klaus Bosch

The Levitating Globes are made by Fascinations and use magnetic levitation in order to make the globes float. Right now they offer about 4 different product lines. Floating Ideas, Stellanova, Terra Magic, and Levitron. They have to be plugged into a wall (of course), but are quite elegant looking once you get them floating. They would definitely make a great corporate gift or something.
The Floating Ideas product line actually has accessories you can swap out in place of your globe. They have a stealth fighter, a picture frame, a mood light and a few other things that are interchangeable. The main drawback to this one is that it's kind of hard to get the object to float at first. None of the other product lines offer interchangeable accessories, but the Levitron line of products has some really cool stuff besides globes.

EcoSpheres are pretty new, but seem like a real nice innovation. They are sealed in a glass bubble or sphere and they contain micro-organisms, algae, bacteria, plants, worms and even shrimp. They are perfectly balanced in their biological equilibrium and don't need anything except heat and sunlight. Did I mention they are beautiful as well?


Sand Art by Klaus Bosch are very unique as well and are far more good looking than I would have first thought. There are a few different types and many styles to choose from. You can get the desktop version that just sits on top of a desk or you can get the wall hanging version which comes with a swivel hanger so you can easily flip the image when you want a new picture.

I already have the levitating globe and the sand art, so right now I'd have to choose the Ecoshperes because I haven't seen one yet, and I want one.

Review of the top selling Levitating Globes

I've had a chance to personally examine and play with many of the Levitating Globes currently on the market. I think I sell every type and brand of Globe on one my websites, but I have no preferance from one manufacturer to the other. I am giving an un-biased review of the top selling levitating globes on the market.
If I am not mistaken, Fascinations is the only company currently manufacturing levitating globes in the US market. Cram used to have a few of its own, but I believe they are now out of business.

Fascinations has at 4 different types of Globes on the market.

1. Floating Ideas
2. Stellanova
3. Terra Magic
4. Levitron

Floating Ideas - This is probably their most distinguished looking product line out of the four. It is slender, sleek and Hi tech looking. This product line also feature 3 different styles to choose from. The Artistic Base, the Cosmic Base and the Original or Silver Base. Each of these are interchangible with custom accessories like a Stealth Fighter, a Picture Frame or a Night Light. They are all pretty cool looking once you get them floating.
That would be their only major drawback (other than their price). They come with a spacer bar for when you initially try to get them to float. The object has to be spaced perfectly between the top and bottom magnets. When I first got one, I admit it probably took me 30-40 tries before I got it to levitate right. After having it a while, I could usually get it within 4 or 5 tries. It's not really that big of an issue, because once it does levitate right, it seldom falls down.

Stellanova Globes - Fascinations other popular levitating globe is probably their best-seller! It's a basic globe that comes in two different sizes (4" and 8") and 3 or 4 different colors. There are no accessories for this line of globes and the only thing it will float is the Globe. It's main drawback for me is the overall appearance. While it looks good aesthetically, it doesn't really look like it's levitating until you are up close to it. It's so close to the top magnet that it appears to be touching it until your really close. The good side to this one is that it is very easy to get to levitating. You just hold it close to the top and you start to feel it when the magnet begins to pull on it, and then you let go.

Terra Magic Globes - These ones look like levitating globe, but they actually don't levitate at all, they just rotate on a pedestal. Stay away from these unless you know what your getting.

Levitron Globes - These used to not be that great, but they recently came out with like 6 or 7 new products for this line of globes and some of them look really cool so I'm gonna hold off making a full review of this product line.

Conclusion - Out of the ones I've experienced, I'd definitely say that the Floating Ideas levitating globes are by far the best, even with the higher price.