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News: Astronomical Observing News (3/28 to 4/3)

Grab your binoculars and telescopes, because there's a lot going on in the night skies this week. The usually dim Little Dipper will appear brighter as it moves to the right of Polaris, creating a cool effect with the Big Dipper. There's also a first-quarter moon and a really good view of Saturn. If you know of something else, share with us in the comments below!

How To: Engage in a Guerrilla Marketing War

Warfare strategies have become an inspiration to different marketing professionals, many of them drawing influence from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. This ancient Chinese text provided treaties on how to effectively manage resources, tactical positioning, and timing attacks. It also states that “..if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss”, a basic concept in which you have to always watch your competitor to anticipate his next move.

News: 10 Ways to Lose Weight Using an iPhone

Sounds like a false promise à la infomercial or typical spammy web headline—how can a 4.8 ounce gadget aid in weight loss? But, in truth, "who" better to act as a dedicated personal trainer and nutritionalist than the iPhone? The smartphone is completely and utterly tethered to the daily life of the average middle to upper class American. It's reliable and exact. All it needs is a charged battery, the right app, and of course, as with every diet and fitness regime, a user with unwavering self...

News: Wig head (couldn't spell manniquin)....jk

You need a car with a sun roof. You get the wig head and act like it's a real person standing up with their head out of the sun roof. All of a sudden, you slam on the brakes, and the head goes flying. Or, you drive past one of the Jackass gang and they hit the head with a baseball bat or golf club Like Tiger's ex-wife did. Again, the head goes flying, hopefully to scare the shit out of some unsuspecting bystander.

How To: Effectively Play Hooky from Work

On average, about thirty percent of working Americans have called in sick at least once just to take a day off from work. If you are in the other goody-two-shoes seventy percent of the work force who've only called in sick for actual physical illness or have never actually used a sick day, consider giving yourself a mental health day if you ever feel like you really need it.

News: Solar Flare Gives Earth Biggest Radiation Storm in 7 Years; Auroras Likely

NASA reports that the sun erupted late last night with a large solar flare—an M8.7 class flare. The classification is calculated according to the peak flux of 100 to 800 picometer x-rays near Earth measured from the GEOS weather satellite. There are 5 letter classifications for solar flares, each with a linear 1-9 number scale of severity. M is the fourth most powerful class, with X leading the way. But last night's earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), captured by the Solar Dynamics Ob...

News: Building a Bonafide Solar Death Ray Sounds Too Easy

Eric Jacqmain is one smart cookie. Borrowing from the same principles of Archimedes’ mythological death ray, the Indiana teenager used an ordinary fiberglass satellite dish and about 5,800 3/8" mirror tiles to create a solar weapon with the intensity of 5000x normal daylight. The powerful weapon can "melt steel, vaporize aluminum, boil concrete, turn dirt into lava, and obliterate any organic material in an instant."

News: Locations Where 'Look Around' Works Right Now in iOS 13's Apple Maps

Look Around in Apple Maps gives you a high-resolution 3D view of roads, buildings, and other imagery in an interactive 360-degree layout. We haven't had anything like this in Apple Maps since iOS 5 when Google's Street View was incorporated. Now, in iOS 13, seven years later, we have street-level views again, only better. But Look Around isn't available everywhere yet.

News: Google's CES Parade Was Literally Rained On

While Google has a water-resistant phone in the Pixel 2, its CES booth was anything but. According to Tech Crunch, Google had to shut down its two-level outdoor booth once it began to rain at the Las Vegas trade show. Even though Las Vegas is the driest city in the country, Mother Nature always has her idea of fun.

DIY Portable Power Pack: Turn Your Backpack into a Solar-Powered Gadget Charger

A smartphone is pretty much useless with a dead battery. When you're out and about, it can be hard to find a place to plug in (if you remembered your charger, that is). But this DIY solar panel backpack made by electrical engineer Theodore Protasiewicz will help you use the scorching sun to your advantage and make sure that your gadgets are always ready to go. Theodore started with just a normal backpack, some solar panels, 18 gauge wire, and a USB port and hacked it into a traveling solar ch...

News: Jupiter and Venus Rising Before the Sun

Right now, Jupiter and Venus are rising in the early morning hours just before dawn. I went outside on the morning of the 4th of July and saw Jupiter and Venus right next to each other with the Pleiades (The Seven Sisters) just above them and knew that the next morning I was going to have to get up early and set up my tripod to try and capture what I saw. I used my Panasonic GH2 with the stock zoom lens set to about 40 to 50 mm equivalent and with the aperture open to about f/5. I set my ISO ...