A World of Goodness

This is not a sponsored post, nor am I fishing for sponsored post offers.  This is just a LOOK AT THIS COOL THING post.

We've all been scammed and bought cheap things that don't work. I remember a shopping trip many years ago to the grand bazaar in Istanbul where a friend bought packets of socks for a bargain, and when she opened them in the hostel found they were just rags bundled together to look like folded socks. You had to admire the seller. It is almost more trouble to make and package up fake socks than it is to make and sell actual socks. And think of the money and work that went into that effort. If only it had been used for good, instead of evil.

Even in more regulated places, it often seems companies these days are only trying to make things good enough to actually sell, but not good enough to really work well. From the early days of manufacturing where everyone aimed to make good stuff, over the years through evolution and economic experience, companies have learned how to put the minimum effort needed into making products, to ensure not that they are great but just that someone will buy them just one time.

So it's a great and unexpected delight - one suspects in fact almost a manufacturing accident - when you come across something that is cheap and truly good.

This globe is on sale at K-Mart for ten dollars.

Ten dollars!

I was after globes for the kids for awhile. In fact I had bought a couple before Christmas from Officeworks also for $10, but put them in the garage and then Y. threw them out, by mistake.

Since then all the globes I'd seen had been light-up ones, expensive, or horrible colours.

So when I saw these at K-Mart, reduced from $20 to $10, I grabbed them.


Check it out:

It has the international date line, and this little thingy on top that you can rotate to see what time it is where:

I am sure this is 100% accurate:

The kids love these. A. immediately showed me where Greece is:

Both kids took these to bed with them the day they got them, and pored over them instead of looking through books before sleep.

They are educational, see.

They feature well-known things for each country or region. Some of them are cliched, but then so are the first books kids read about places around the world.

Here is North America:

Central America:

...where the sharks are friendly:

The Middle East:

Australia:

Africa: Land of Interesting Animals

Madagascar:

We like to move it move it

And Antarctica

I LOVE these globes!

Have you bought anything cheap and terrific?