Reading is no longer a leisure activity—it's an on-the-go activity that requires speed and less attention. That's why speed reading apps are growing in popularity. As smartphones and tablets increasingly take over the traditional book market, reading skills need to be adjusted accordingly, so you can cram in 5 pages in-between texts and emails.
One booze hack that's been making the rounds for years is that inserting a spoon by the handle in a champagne bottle's neck will preserve its carbonation. This is one of those tips that I wish were true. Champagne is a great thing to have around on a special occasion, and it seems a shame to pour any leftovers down the drain once its lost its fizz. While there's lots of anecdotal evidence surrounding this trick, Harold McGee and Stanford University chemist Richard Zare debunked this myth as d...
Not many people use film cameras anymore, so it can be hard to find the materials to develop your own photos at home since most local camera stores are closing. But it's actually relatively easy to make homemade developer, and you can make it with a few relatively common ingredients.
Cheese is one of the most loved foods in the world, and there are hundreds of different types. Some prefer super expensive gourmet cheeses, others are fine with the cheaper processed stuff.
Last summer, Universal Pictures released the sequel to the popular 2010 animated film Despicable Me, bringing back everyone's favorite characters—the Minions. They're adorable, yellow, and they speak a gibberish "Banana Language." What's not to love? If you're planning on dressing yourself (or your kids) as Minions for Halloween this year, you'll be in good company. There are tons of costumes out there you can buy or make, and here are five of the best DIY options for you.
Writing longhand may boost learning and goal achievement, but that doesn't mean squat if you don't have pen and paper on you.
Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out, according to director Martin Scorsese, who asserted that when describing his life's work. Getting the perfect shot can turn an otherwise ordinary scene into something great, both on and off screen.
If you've recently joined the ever-growing ranks of the cable cutters, you're far from alone. More and more people (myself included) are getting fed up with service providers' outdated subscription models and absurd pricing—and canceling their service.
We frequently associate plastics with the modern era, starting at around the 1950s with the prevalence of bakelite. However, for all of you "you can't use plastic in Steampunk" purists out there, I have bad news for you:
Most people wouldn't think of butter as a flammable substance, but in this project—it definitely is! We're making emergency candles that burn for hours using just some toilet paper and a bit of butter!
In this article, I will be showing you how to make a crude form of aspirin from the bark of a willow tree. It is a great remedy for headaches, hangovers, and other minor pain. The use of the willow tree as a mild pain reliever goes back to the Native Americans, who used it in much the same way that I do.
How to install concrete anchors.How to attach timber / wood to concrete or any other SOLID masonry surface using masonry anchors / DynaBolts. DynaBolts (that's the name for this particular anchor in Australia. They are know by other names in other countries) are the ideal anchor for attaching almost anything to solid masonry such as concrete. This video will look at attaching timber to a concrete floor.
Here's how to make dry-ice at home, or wherever you feel like it! All you need is a pillow case, and a CO2 fire extinguisher.
I don't know how many of you had this experience in your youth, but when I was a kid, I used to actively think about what would happen if I suddenly woke up in a fantasy land, or were to pass through a portal into another space and time. I knew it wouldn't really happen, but when you're a kid, these can be important issues to you. So I slept with my glasses on every night, just in case. Photo from George Pal's The Time Machine.
For some people, a costume is just a necessary prerequisite to get into Halloween parties. If you're female and you're going the sexy route, it's not too hard to find something to wear, but transforming yourself into something terrifying takes a little more work.
In my first few articles, we focused on operating system hacks. These hacks have been primarily on older operating systems such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003.
Here is how you can build a frame for your MEGA SOLAR SCORCHER in under an hour, and for less than $8!! This is effectively a 4 foot magnifying lens that concentrates insane amounts of heat from the sun. What would you do with all this free solar power? My design for this custom "Scorcher Frame" is easy to use, and incredibly cheap to make, as you can see in this step-by-step video.
Imagine you're holding a cookout with family and friends. You're having a good time—the grass is green, the sun is shining, and the smell of the burgers sizzling on the grill is irresistible. There's creamy potato salad, mountains of golden brown chips, and a hefty watermelon chilling on the table, but you forgot something—the drinks!
One thing that's very crucial to gardening is the seed starter. Seed starters are very important for a number of reasons, including the fact that is an excellent way to make sure your seeds survive in their own little environment until you’re ready to transfer them to your garden. Plus, it is very rewarding to grow plants from seeds (versus transplanting).
It's summer, which means vacations, barbeques, and, most importantly, no school. But that doesn't mean you can't learn something while you lounge by the pool. Schools and organizations all over the country are offering online courses taught by real professors—for free.
The final chapter of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is here, The Dark Knight Rises, and if you're anything like me, it made you want to immediately don a cowl of your own and run around punching criminals. Don't forget though, one of the most awesome aspects of Batman is his never-ending supply of crazy gadgets. Unfortunately for most of us, we don't have a billion dollars, nor Morgan Freeman, so we'll just have to make do with some good old-fashioned DIY tricks. Read on for a rundown of ...
One thing that's always important to have in your home office is a bulletin board, because they let you quickly display papers that you need to see every day, such as schedules, notes and memos.
For those of us with small children, bath time can be very fun. Kids usually love splashing about and playing with their toys in the water! One thing they don't love however, is getting water in their eyes or on their face.
Everybody should have plants in their home. Not only do they give off oxygen, but they add a whole new level of decor and awesomeness to an otherwise drab room. So naturally, if you want to improve a room, just display a few plants.
Omniscience is not required to make some really cool shit happen. Yes, it took a while, but we can make fuel from the Sun! Solar panels are basically our answer to God. And now that we can make solar electricity, finding the most efficient way to harvest it is tricky.
The guitar is a double-edged sword. I've played all my life, and though I love the act of guitar playing, there are quite a few people I could live with never hearing play again—ever.
Fairs and festivals are awesome, and one of the best parts about them is the food. Sure, it's all deep-fried and terrible for you, but it's so delicious. It's also always on a stick, which makes eating fried food even easier for us fat Americans.
What's the first thing you would do once you realized you were lost in, say, a desert? If you're like me, you would immediately pull out your cell phone and start dialing every number. But what if you have no service? What if your battery is dead?
Brushing your teeth is a necessity. You don't want to walk around with yellow teeth and stinky breath, and it's common courtesy to those around you to care about your personal hygiene at least that much.
Isn't laundry day the worst? You have to pack all your dirty, stinky clothes into a laundry bin. Then, you have to lug the often-times heavy bin all the way to wherever it is you have to do clothes. If you have a big family, like I do, then you might even have more than one bin.
There is something special about a secret knock. It gets you into secret super villain meetings and is a surefire way to test for rotating bookcase passages. Secret knocks usually work with an intimidating drug lord and for policeman listening at the door for the correct pattern of raps.
Home cooks know firsthand what it takes to make delicious and amazing food for friends and family. One of the most effective ingredients to making foods as delicious as possible is herbs.
Indian food is amazing. One of the things that makes it so great and exotic is the cooking methods used. Among the best of these methods is the use of the tandoori oven, a cylindrical oven used to primarily cook skewered meat and various flatbreads with heats upwards of 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Regrettably, such heat and taste is hard to replicate in the average home kitchen.
We've all been there. You wake up early, hungry for breakfast, but not just any breakfast will do. You want bacon and eggs. So, you blindly stumble into your kitchen, underwear-clad, and begin fumbling about with pots and pans. After a few minutes, you fill your pan with delicious and smokey rashers and turn the heat on. Everything seems okay... until the bacon actually starts to cook. With a splat, burning hot grease flies out of the pan and bombards your skin, causing intense pain and great...
Home chemistry is great, but what happens when you forget to label your chemicals? How do you know if you turned a clear glass of ammonia into a clear glass of unobtainium? Chemists have a tool for just that.
Just about every household gadget we own runs on 1.5 volt batteries of one size or another. Wouldn't it be great if you could reuse all of those dead AA, AAA, and D batteries after they've passed on? It turns out you can make a simple circuit called a "Joule Thief" to reanimate the undead flesh of your deceased batteries and create a zombie battery.
The best chemistry experiments are those you can perform with items already laying around your house. With only some sugar, salt substitute and an instant cold pack, you can make your very own gunpowder! Being able to make homemade gunpowder without a trip to the store can be a lifesaver, no matter if it's just for testing out a Civil War-era musket, blowing up stubborn tree stumps, or preparing for battle when imperialists overrun your country.
We've all made them. I remember making hundreds of paper snowflakes when I was in elementary school. You take a piece of paper and fold it in half, then fold it in half again. You now have a piece that is one fourth the size of the original. Now you fold it in half diagonally. You then cut slices out of the edges of the paper, and unfold to find that you have created a snowflake. The resulting snowflake has four lines of symmetry and looks something like this: If you fold it in half diagonall...
Watch as artist Christina Varga teaches how to become a self-made artist. Learn about different materials for artists, how to create art out of everyday materials, how to build a reputation, how to get your art into a gallery, how to create museum pieces and much, much more. Start your life as an artist today with the help of these free tutorials and artist lessons.
In this video series see how to plan an environmentally sound home from a professional environmental decorator. Learn what kinds of materials go into building and environmentally friendly home in this series of videos. The expert will focus on building straw bale houses. Straw bale is actually the dry leftover part of the plant after harvest. Wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice and others are mostly used in straw bale houses to construct walls which are then covered by stucco. She will go through ...
