I used to put Kombu (seaweed) in my beans but now we just let them cook overnight in crockpot after a long soaking.
The other name for the thermal cooker was pot cozy. The DIY version I saw used foil coated bubble wrap.
Going to update and return to my “brain” – a paper planner and information notebook like DayPlanner or Steven Covey’s planners. I have everything in there but just had gone to carrying only drivers license, credit card and phone. There is just too much info that I need so I’m returning to the system I know works with tabs for health, books to get, best thrift shops when we go to the city, short term and long term shopping lists, and on and on. Phones are great but being able to stick a post it note on a page is just more useful for somethings. so I will have to haul around more but I’ll have it when I need it