BEST SELLERS

Like doodling, daydreaming and napping, coloring books are for everyone. These delightful (40)-page books from Kathy Ireland®, printed in the USA just like Kathy, have 7-1/2" x 10-7/8" perforated sheets for children and adults of all ages. Themes of books include gardens, flowers, patterns, mandalas and animals. Originally $7.99 each, we’ll send you (2) different ones for not much more than that. Surplus!

Ceramic magnets, 15/16" dia x 3/16" thick. One side has a 5/16" sq that goes through to a steel plate is octagonal, 9/16" across with a 3/16" dia hole in the center. The plate allows flexible mounting of the 3/4 lb lift magnet. The other interesting feature is that the ceramic appears to have many poles around the rim, (4 ea N and S). This may be a focussing effect of the insert, though.

…when you crank up this 13-1/4" tall, hand-cranked Wimshurst generator. They were the toast of the 19th Century, and remained the hottest thing around, electrostatically speaking, until Bobby Van de Graaf came along. This one works like a top, zapping sparks to a fare-thee-well with very little cranking. It's mighty pretty too, in acrylic, white and silver, and will dress up a dull physics or electronics lab.

Of course you can buy science by the jar. Mason Jar Science is a 135-page hardcover with “40 Slimy, Squishy, Super-Cool Experiments” detailed inside. Includes fun with crystals, bubbles, slimes, liquids and gases, all made possible using common household items (assuming your household is common) plus, of course, the eponymous Mason jar.

Kitchen conversions are easy with this 3" x 4" deluxe American Science & Surplus fridge magnet that lists everything from a tablespoon to a cup with the equivalent in ounces, tablespoons, teaspoons, milliliters and fractions of a cup. If your kids already have fridges of their own, you can share the extra magnets with them - unless they were the only kids on the block who knew how many ounces were in a cup. Kitchen Fun.

Or are you just under heavy pressure to start writing right now! We know, we know. That’s why our copywriters always buy these pre-sharpened #2 pencils, to get those terrible jokes down on paper ASAP. And yes, they have erasers because sometimes we’re not funny, and we all make mistakes. In packs of (10) at 7-3/8” long.

Also Resaltodores. Highlighters in English, but they’re also marked in French and Spanish, so it’s OK to highlight all three languages with them. Our each is a 4-pack of Promarx 5-1/2” wedge-tip highlighter markers in yellow, orange, magenta and purple, with pocket clips. (Clips de poche. Clips de bolsillo.)

Keep your place with this gold foil replica of a US $100 bill. Looks like the real thing, including counterfeit-foiling color additions. Measures approx 6" x 2-1/2," which is just half a smidgen smaller than a real C-note. Franklin looks a little like a very old C-3PO in resplendent gold.

You can start with our single aluminum tuning fork, 2-tined and 7-1/2" long. It vibrates at 256 hz, and is labeled "C". Or you can order the set that has (8) forks and a mallet with a rubber-tipped plastic head. The forks are labeled low-C to high-C and come in a fitted, latched wooden box. Unfortunately, C.J., who has perfect pitch, tells us that his pitch is more perfect than most of the tuning forks. He also says you can file the tips, tuning them to an electronic keyboard until they're perfect - and we think there's a certain cachet to telling people you tuned the forks yourself. But they are perfect, if you're using them for things like teaching principles of sound or driving the chihuahua crazy.

Wonderful little book jammed with elaborate colored drawings that tells the beginner a little about everything to do with a microscope. And all in a mere 48 pages! From data on the history and types of microscopes, to introductions and samples and how to prepare them, (from tissues and insects to crystals) to ideas for experiments and lists of simple equipment needs, and how to build them at home, this book is a veritable cornucopia of information. If you are thinking of getting a microscope, we strongly recommend "The World of the Microscope" as a great stimulus for the novice user. It won't answer heavy duty scientific questions. But it will keep the beginner busy, challenged and entertained for days and weeks! By Chris Oxlade and Corrine Stockley. Paperback, 7-3/4" x 9-3/4". One of the Usborne science and experiments series of books.

Physics project alert! This robust puppy of a magnet has dual 6V coils and stands 4" high x 3-1/4" wide, not counting the side terminals. Each coil draws 2.4A at 6VDC, and is conservatively rated for 40 Newtons (approx 9 lbs) at that voltage. Can be wired in either parallel or series, and comes with a mounting hook. Works great with a 6-volt lantern battery.

There's nothing better for long, lonely days than watching critters in the back yard, and this National Wildlife Federation® paperback, Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife, shows you how to expand your local menagerie beyond squirrels and sparrows. Includes (17) wildlife-friendly projects for the entire family in (168) pages with more (200) color photographs. Contains instructions on getting your yard or garden certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat, too. Be the first on your block to be able to say that at a cocktail party.

You don't have to be a scientist to love these science and lab notebooks. All new, mostly hardcover, most with graph paper pages, some with lines, all with numbered pages and room for project or experiment names and dates. In a nutshell, they’re big, blank books that are as suitable for your diary entries, drawings, poems, collages, shopping lists and hand-written great American novel as they are for science notes. A few have university, lab or drug company names on the front and most are 8-1/2” x 11” with some a little smaller and some a little larger. (But Surplus rules apply: you get what you get without throwing a fit) Can you say “assorted”? Our each is a pack of (2) different, at least one of which will be a hardcover.

But cheap. Just the thing for anyone interested in life off our home planet. You pick from our 5” x 3-1/2” (passport size) 50-page notebooks. The Moon Passport has blank, ruled pages with a small moon phase in the corners plus a bonus fold-out lunar map and chart; and the Mars Passport has blank pages with 3/16” square grids and some fun Martian facts on the inside back cover. And no, sadly, they are not yet approved for actual space travel.

From our selection of things you didn’t know you needed until you saw them, these 32-sheet notebooks have lightly ruled pages that are 8-1/4” x 5-3/4”. Open them up and place the center crease on your nose, however, and they turn into a mask. You pick the Gas Mask notebook, with eye holes; the Zombie mask, ditto; or the pink Pig mask, that you just look over the top of. Perfect for adding a little something to Monday morning meetings.

Actually, it's a Round Stic®, without the “k,” which is the name BIC® gives to its #1 selling ballpoint pen. They're black, and round, with black ink and medium points. Also have separate caps with pocket clips. Hard to go wrong at (10) for two bucks. “Writes First Time, Every Time®,” they say.

It’s a scientific breakthrough! Oh, wait, no, it’s a rare-earth magnet encased in white plastic. Great for holding notes on your white refrigerator without clashing. Measures 1-1/4” x 3/8” x 5/16” and also has a piece of self-adhesive foam on the back to stick where magnets won’t grab.

A must-have for micro-warriors; Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction by John Austin (author of the best-selling Cubicle Warfare) is 241 pages of detailed instructions for building (42) implements of spitball warfare from ordinary household objects and office supplies. With the caveat that this is written for responsible individuals who take reasonable safety precautions (don't do anything your mother would scream at) we have to say that we love the binder-clip crossbow and the tongue-depressor catapult. Volume 2, which is 251 pages, has a secret-agent flair with new gadgets like the push-pin dart, toothpaste periscope and cereal briefcase. Volume 3, 267 pages, continues with a Medieval flavor and over a dozen catapults and ballistae, plus a buncha bows and crossbows. Oh, just buy the whole 3-volume Library of Destruction and get it over with.