Elevate Excess Search Results

How To: Make Marble Photo Magnets

Christmas is no more than a week away and you've still got some holiday shopping to do. Need an easy, thoughtful and personalized gift idea? Phone Snap is here to show you how to bring those cell phone photos off-screen with these DIY marble photo magnets. It takes less than five minutes to make and will look great on anybody's fridge!

How To: Make Torus Knots from Soft Metals

Torus knots are beautiful knots formed by wrapping a line around a torus and tying the ends together to form a loop. The resulting knot has a star-like appearance when viewed from above. The 36 examples with the least number of crossings can be seen at the Knot Atlas's page on torus knots.

News: Balloon Twisting Hints and Tips

Here are just a few little random tips that may help you while making balloon animals for fun and profit. This list is only a collection of random balloon tips and tricks that I've come up with on the fly tonight. If you have any other suggestions or questions, please feel free to post them in the comments section and I'll do what I can to help as well.

News: Lipstick for Dummies

Jezebel is back with another beauty basic: how to achieve a flawless, perfectly applied lipstick look. Lots of questions were posed, and hundreds of user answers sifted through. Sampling below, click through for all of Jezebel's selected tips.

How To: Clean a Butcher Block Table

A butcher block table (or counter) is a solid, wooden table. Originating in butcher shops (hence the name), this has become a popular household item. Butcher block tables and counters are durable and attractive looking. The downside of butcher block is that the wood is so porous it can stain easily. Butcher block can be sanded and refinished to get rid of stains, but that drastic step isn't always necessary.

How to Pick Locks: Unlocking Pin and Tumbler Deadbolts

Lock picking is defined by locksmiths as "the art of opening a lock without the key". There's many ways to accomplish this, but I'm specifically interested in using a lock pick set. Since locks vary in shapes and size, it's better to stick with just one kind of lock at first. Most locks are based on fairly similar concepts, so sharing methods across locks is possible.

How To: Measure Radiation in Japan, Plus Other Sources of Common, Everyday Intake

In the wake of the recent tragedy in Japan, Southern Californians have been hyper alert to any news regarding dangerous levels of nuclear radiation drifting over from Fukushima. At this time, official statements from the California Department of Public Health and the EPA are assuaging the population that there is nothing to fear. While there has been some detection of radiation in the air, the current levels recorded are "thousands of times below any conservative level of concern". But despit...

HowTo: Flash Mob Like a Boss

Watch enough Glee and Buffy's Once More, With Feeling and it will never fail to instill the urge to do something stupid in public. And hey, what better way to do this than to drag others down with you? Welcome to the world of flash mobs, and in just a few simple steps you too could be arrested!

News: Kizeme

Kizeme This Japanese word, kizeme, means "spirit of attack." It is said of Miyamoto Musashi, the famed Japanese swordsman, that as he grew older he relied more on kizeme to defeat adversaries and, as a result, emerged victorious from challenges without taking the life of his opponent.

How To: Make a Cold Japanese Soba Noodle Salad

This summer, I am looking forward to eating light. Lately I've been eating a lot of cold noodles, whether it be pasta salads or cold soba noodles with vegetables. I took inspiration for classic Japanese soba tsuyu dishes to compose this dish. Mine includes four different vegetables and delicious crisp fried tofu. This version is really a 'Kitsune Soba'—in Japan, Kitsune Soba just means there are fried tofu slices added on top. This recipe is also vegan friendly.

News: Hot Summers = Solar Shades

Solar Shades Looks like it's going to be another hot summer and this time of year, I always get questions about the best kind of Shades for the home! I may be a little bias in my opinion because I'm going through a more minimalist "less is more" style in my life right now. Taking the more modern design approach that is very popular right now, I wanted to talk a little about Solar Shades for the home.

News: So there's this new Predators movie.....

We don't often get super excited about upcoming flicks over at thesubstream.com, especially during the long, hot & more-often-than-not disappointing stretch of cinematic cruelty that summer has become. We've been hurt before. We've been buoyed up on cresting glorious waves of hype and what-ifs and heady nostalgia only to be sent hurling like a fat guy from Ohio on vacation down onto the cruel, razor sharp Jar-Jar Binks reef.

News: Levon Helm Bustin' Out the Nitty-Gritty Mud Beats

Levon Helm... The longtime drummer for The Band , Levon Helm wore many musical hats throughout his long career, including multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, impressario, studio owner, studio engineer and producer. He grew up working on a farm in Arkansas; his first instrument was guitar, which he began playing at ag eight, but after seeing the F.S. Walcott Rabbits Foot Minstrels, he decided to ...

Inventables: A Store for Superheroes & Hackers

Founded by Zach Kaplan, a "serial entrepreneur" with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, Inventables is a futuristic online hardware store based out of Chicago. The company sells innovative materials at much smaller quantities than typically available—largely to artists, inventors, developers, and researchers. If you've got a brilliant idea and cash to spare, careful, you just may go hog wild. My premature "Dear Santa" wishlist-in-progress:

Build a Home Arcade Machine: Part 2

I assume at this point you have already completed your control panel using Part 1 of this How To guide. Now, if you are anything like me, you couldn't fight the urge to play, and you have your panel sitting on saw horses in the living room.

Modular Origami: How to Make a Truncated Icosahedron, Pentakis Dodecahedron & More

Last post, the Sonobe unit was introduced as a way to use multiple copies of a simply folded piece of paper to make geometric objects. In this post, we are going to explore that concept further by making two more geometric models. The first is the truncated icosahedron, which is a common stitching pattern for a soccer ball. The second was supposed to be the pentakis dodecahedron, but through systematic errors last night, I actually built a different model based off of the rhombic triacontahed...

How To: Make Knot Sculptures from Soft Metals

In mathematics, a knot is a closed circle in a three-dimensional space that crosses itself multiple times. Since it is closed, it has no ends to tie, meaning you can't actually create such a knot. However, if you tie the ends together after you create a knot in the standard way, you will have something that is close to the mathematical description. In this post, we will explore the creation of mathematical knot sculputures using copper tubing and solid solder wire.

Math Craft Monday: Community Submissions (Plus Polyhedral Stellation)

It's another Monday, which means it's once again time to highlight some of the recent community submissions posted to the Math Craft corkboard. Additionally, I thought we'd take a look at the process of stellation and make some stellated polyhedra out of paper.Rachel Mansur of Giveaway Tuesdays posted a video from animator Cyriak Harris, which zooms into fractal hands, where each fingertip also has a hand and fingers. A few more details can be found here, as well as some other really cool pic...