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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: EL Wire Basics

EL Wire is a bit tricky if all you want to do is glow. But there's a lot to know about the technology, as well as helpful information to get you addicted to it. EL Wire is a thin copper wire that gives off a beautiful glow when an electric charge is applied. There are 10 colors of EL Wire, and each wire has it's own unique characteristics. Typically EL Wire is used for safety as well as costuming. It has such a low power point that it can run off as little as watch batteries to make it glow!

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."

a closer look at keywords: wither

to be honest with everyone, this is probably the first thing ive written about magic the gathering, but i figured i might as well start somewhere. in the game of magic the gathering there are countless different keywords, some being common, like trample, or rarely used or seen, like splice. what i wanted to do was take a closer look at some of the different keywords out there, and see just how they change the average game.

News: What kind of camera do I need?

Choosing a camera, perhaps one of the most difficult decisions there is when it comes to photography. But being a great photographer on a budget isn't as hard as you think. It gets a little intimidating when you're looking at all these DSLR Canon and Nikon cameras. (By the way "DSLR" just means "Digital Single-Lens Reflex") But you don't NEED a big, bulky, expensive camera like those. Granted they are amazing cameras and you def. get what you pay for. But let's face it, the normal "just as a ...

News: New Hair Bet

You buy some booze and invite your "friends" to come have a drink with you and when they show up you start drinking and propose a bet say I bought the alcohol and invited you assholes so the first person to pass out tonight has to have a eating contest with who ever I say the next day... and they should most likely all agree because it seems so harmless....

News: World's First Bionic Cat

Oscar the cat is one lucky feline. After losing his two hind legs in a combine harvester, his loving owners had Oscar outfitted with two prosthetic paws, or metallic pegs to be more specific. This revolutionary veterinary procedure is nothing to scoff at - biomedical engineering experts and a neuro-orthopedic surgeon were both called in to create the world's first bionic cat. Via BBC:

How To: Fix the Apple TV 5.1.1 Update Bug

Last week, an update was released for second- and third-generation Apple TVs. The update included stability and performance improvements along with support for the Up Next feature in iTunes 11. A lot of users have been reporting issues upgrading, saying that the update failed or, in some cases, that their Apple TV refuses to boot after trying to install the update. Luckily, it looks like the solution is rather simple. TidBITS found that the Ethernet update is the problem. All you have to do i...

News: Teens Pulled Over in Their Almost Street Legal (And Totally Cool) DIY Wooden Car

Getting pulled over sucks, even when you're in a normal car. Just imagine how these teenagers felt when they were pulled over for driving their wooden car without a license! They also got a citation for not having a speedometer or side indicator lights, but if that's all that's keeping their DIY vehicle from being street legal, I'm already impressed. Photo by WTF.nl/Zaanstreek-Waterland Police

How To: Disguise Your Gaming Addiction with This DIY Coffee Table Arcade Machine

Love old-school games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, but don't have the extra space for an arcade machine? Get the best of both worlds (and save some cash) with this DIY Arcade Coffee Table built by Sam Wang. He started with just an ordinary IKEA table and drawers, then cut out a space for an LCD monitor. The controls (including joysticks!) are mounted on the drawers so that when they close, it just looks like a normal coffee table. Once everything was in place, he added a glass table top, ...

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...

How To: Download TED Talks Videos onto Your Computer with the TEDinator

The TED website offers hours and hours of amazing streaming videos, with subjects including why videos go viral and sixth sense technology. With so much great content, it make sense that you'd want to save some of it to your computer, perhaps for a long plane flight or bus ride home. Unfortunately, because TED uses a proprietary video player, you can't use the normal stream downloading sites that you would for, say, YouTube. Luckily, there's a way around that.

News: Um, Are Those Kids On Fire?

Just a normal day in the life of the Dunn family. Seasoned stunt professionals Jim and Celia Dunn have appeared in Hollywood films such as Poltergeist , Scary Movie, X-Men II, Shanghi Noon and Jumangi. Their children, Connor, 15, Ali, 11, and Austin, 9, boast impressive IMDB resumes as well.

News: Creepy Talking-Piano Hack

Austrian composer Peter Ablinger has created a "speaking" piano. Ablinger digitized a child's voice reciting the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court to "play" on the piano via MIDI sequencer.  Apparently, the computer is connected to the piano, which analyzes the human speech, and then converts it to key-tapping.

How To: Find Cheap Airfare

How to Find Cheap Airfare In a world with a troubled economy and where travel costs climb daily, getting the cheapest ticket for your flight home can be a scary task. Before you buy, check out this guide to help you find the best deal.

How To: Apply a drop cap to a letter with InDesign CS2

In this InDesign video tutorial you will learn to apply a drop cap to a letter. With a drop cap, the initial sits within the margins and runs several lines deep into the paragraph, pushing some normal-sized text off these lines. This keeps the left and top margins of the paragraph flush. Apply a drop cap to a letter with InDesign CS2.

How To: Add a Non-Stick Surface to a Cast Iron Skillet

Many cooks refer to well-seasoned cast iron skillets as the original non-stick pan. A cast iron skillet is a versatile piece of cookware, going from the top of the stove to the oven with ease, provided the handle is also cast iron. The secret to a non-stick skillet is in the seasoning and cleaning process. Improper seasoning, cooking acidic foods and incorrect cleaning methods can all remove the non-stick capabilities. Achieving and maintaining a non-stick cooking surface is uncomplicated and...