If you have hardwood floors in your house, take a look at your baseboards. Right in front of the baseboards there is usually a smaller, curved molding about ¾” tall. How does this short molding look? Is it painted over, chipped and/or just beat up in general? If so, you can easily replace this molding and make a huge difference in the overall appearance of your room. And, it is fairly easy to do.
The bird of paradise looks really neat and is surprisingly simple to fold. It makes a great table decoration for that special dinner you have coming up.
Piezoelectric Energy In this article, I'll show you how to make a small, wallet-sized device that generates electricity from kinetic energy. The concept is simple: Piezoelectricity is the charge that is produced when certain solid materials (commonly ceramic and crystal) in response to mechanical stress. Piezoelectrics have many applications; in speakers, actuators, sensors, even fuses. For more information, click here.
Natural processes often create objects that have a fractal quality. Fractal branching patterns occur in plants, blood vessel networks, rivers, fault lines, and in several electrical phenomena. Many of these processes take lifetimes, or even occur on geological timescales. But this is not the case for electrical phenomena. They often occur near instantaneously. One example would be the branching patterns that sometimes occur in lightning.
After getting slammed with a crazy-big earthquake/tsunami, the Japanese nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi might be on the brink of meltdown. Not as bad as Chernobyl, but maybe as bad as Three Mile Island. Nobody wishes such a disaster on anyone...anywhere in the world. In the US, there are about 100 nuclear facilities, about 8 of which are located near hot beds of seismic activity.
One of the common mistakes I see a lot of candidates make when they go to an interview is that they think it is a question and answer session. They approach the interview with a mindset that their role is to be prepared to answer a bevy of questions thrown at them. This puts you in a passive role, playing defense. A much more effective approach is to go into the interview with the mindset that you are a salesperson, and the product you are selling is you. You want to convince the employer tha...
Scenario: it's late at night, the roads are completely empty and you are stuck at the longest light ever. Solution: don't run a red- change it to green yourself. Avoid a ticket, save yourself some time (and perhaps a little gas).
Hobby rockets are tons of fun. Vicarious astronaut adventures abound with every launch. What if you want to be closer to the action though? What if you want to feel what it's like to be in a rocket at takeoff? With the discovery of tiny keychain cameras, we have technology small and cheap enough to fit inside a model rocket!
Have a few light bulbs and a blowtorch? Then join the folks over at Harvard in a cool science experiment on the conductivity of glass. As you well know, glass is an insulator with low conductivity and high resistivity. In the video below, they flip the switch, demonstrating how heating the glass fuse enclosure from an incandescent light bulb can create a conductive material that completes the series circuit and lights the second light bulb. In the video, the two light sockets are wired in ser...
In this article, I'll show you how you can make your very own bullet/shell bottle opener. All you need is a .50 caliber deactivated round and some workshop tools!
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...
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.
For the hefty price of $200 and up, you can be the proud owner of the world's first 3D printed bikini. And not just the first bikini, but reportedly the first functional and affordable item of ready-to-wear 3D printed clothing on the market. Created by Continuum Fashion, the N12 3D printed bikini is revolutionary because it addresses the technical challenge of creating flexible "textiles" with 3D printed material. The bikini is made of a material called Nylon 12, which is entirely waterproof.
The challenge of creating garments with unconventional materials has become an all too familiar gimmick for most first year students at fashion schools. The end result is more often than not a catwalk of garbage bags, zip ties, plastic bottles and cans, assembled into a menagerie of mediocrity. Enter Jum Nakao. But while the Japanese-Brasilian artist/fashion designer does use an unconventional and impractical material (paper) for his collection "A Costura do Invisivel"(translation: "Sewing th...
Kevin Van Aelst creates witty visual "one-liners" by recontextualizing everyday, ordinary objects. With a few simple tweaks, the viewer recognizes a roll of tape as the ocean or reads gummi worms as chromosomes or understands mitosis through the use of sweet, sugary donuts.
The idea is to trick your roommate into opening a can of oatmeal that will be booby-trapped. The outcome will be hilarious, considering your roommate doesn't punch you in the face.
Starting off on Your Journey So, you've decided to learn a language, eh? First off, let me congratulate you. Why? Well, language learning is looked upon by many people as a complicated and difficult task. Unfortunately, this outlook deters many people from even thinking about starting to learn a language. So, the fact that you chose to learn a language, despite what the majority tells you, means a lot!
Especially today, with the internet making information so readily available, people of all ages, all around the world, are trying to learn magic tricks. Unfortunately, going about this the wrong way won't make you into a magician at all, but will instead make you into someone who simply knows how a few tricks work.
Would it have been possible to build a rudimentary telegraph network in the stone age? Not too long ago, Jamie O'Sheathe of the Office for the Development of Substitute Materials set out to discover just that, venturing into the wilderness to determine whether a working telegraph might be built without the use of modern tools. Inspiring? Certainly. Green? Don't be fooled:
On your farm Once you get your frame, you will need 8 of each building material (nails, bricks and boards) to build your Haunted House frame. There are 3 stages of expansion for this constructible building.
Inspired by Jules Verne sea demons, Bea Szenfeld's “Sur la Plage” collection includes 12 pieces handcrafted with cardboard. The idea of unconventional material constraints is a classic art school "test", as well as a typical (and somewhat tired) formula for competitive design reality shows. However, Szenfeld's garments do transcend the material and would surely win any Project Runway challenge.
In this quick Blender 2.5 video tip, you'll learn how appending/linking can be used to bring in elements from another .blend file. These elements can be mesh objects, lamps, materials, or even sculpting brushes. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular 3D modeling program or a seasoned graphic artist just interested in better acquainting yourself with the application, you're sure to be well served by this free video tutorial. For more information, including detailed instructions...
The unwither ring is back!!! Previously this only could be sent to you around Valentine's Day. How wonderful!
This tutorial will walk you through how to create a car paint shader from scratch utilizing materials inside of 3D Studio Max. Whether you're new to Autodesk's popular modeling software or a seasoned 3D artist just looking to better acquaint yourself with the application, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, and to get started creating your own car shaders, take a look! Create a car paint shader in 3ds Max 2010.
This tutorial presents a general guide on how to model a book within modo, setting up the UVs, assigning some basic textures and materials to different poly groups. In the end, you will set up a studio shot for the book and create some more copies to fill the scene. In order to achieve the final product shot, you'll use some of the outputs provided with Modo. Whether you're new to Luxology's popular 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for ne...
See how to create a complete natural environment in modo. See how to add a simple river mesh and then use procedural shaders and complex modo shader layering system to create a procedural rock shader and a basic water material. We'll use adaptive microtriangle displacement and bump mapping to achieve final rock look. Lighting will be based on internal daylight/skylight system to use global illumination to achieve a more natural result. Create a 3D natural landscape in modo.
This clip will take you through the process of texturing a 3D pumpkin in Blender 2.5. This tutorial uses a procedural materials and textures. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more information, including step-by-step instructions, take a look! Make a ...
This Blender user's guide discusses techniques for creating hair and giving them textures and materials. The first is Mesh hair using Bezier Curves, and the second is Particle Hair. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more information, including step-by...
In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to make a homemade anti-aging facial mask. The materials needed for the facial mask are: 6 tsp of evening primrose oil, 1 tsp of melted honey, 2 drops of neroli essential oil, mandarin essential oil and 2 drops of orange essential oil and some grounded almond. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix it all together until it becomes a paste. Now apply the paste onto the skin and leave it on for about 20-25 minutes. This video will benefit those v...
This tutorial walks you through how to set up a procedural night sky with twinkling stars in Autodesk 3ds Max. You will be creating a opacity material with noise maps, and using an phase animated noise behind this to illuminate the stars. To edit the star size and brightness, you should play with the noise size and high/low settings on the individual noise map. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist ...
Sometimes ghetto is the way to go. Yankee ingenuity is always the way to go (at least on WonderHowTo, that is).
If you have laminate flooring, the great thing about it can be the cleanup and the look it brings to a home. But a disadvantage to having laminate flooring is that is tends to be slippery. This video tutorial will show you how to make your favorite rug slip-free using some easy to use material. Good luck and enjoy! Make a slip-free rug for your home.
Sometimes, it can be a pain to remove an countertops made of material such as wood and laminate. So an easy to do option would just let it be. If you're looking to add ceramic tile, you can easily do that over your existing countertops. This video will show you how for a quick to do and easy kitchen project. Enjoy! Apply a ceramic tile over an old countertop.
David Newton from Canon Professional Network teaches you how to eliminate dust spots on a Canon EOS camera. The Canon EOS has a self-cleaning sensor to help eliminate dust from it. You need a lens of 50 mm or longer for this to work properly. If you have a zoom lens, set it to the longest focal length it has. Switch the lens to manual focus and turn the focus ring until infinity. Enter the second red menu tab and choose Dust Delete Data at the bottom of the list. Pressing it will show you you...
Ingredients: White multi-purpose glue (do not use washable glue)
Watch as Kipkay from MAKE Magazine shows you how to make something really cool for your music skills, with parts from RadioShack. Everybody's heard of them, but nobody has one or knows how to play one... a theremin. You could be the exception as you see how to build your very own optical theremin to play the air around you. Wait, this is optical which means you'll be making that beautiful music with light, like a flashlight.
Watch as Kipkay from MAKE Magazine shows you how to make something really cool for a shake microphone, with parts from RadioShack. You'll be transforming a simple shake flashlight into a so-called shake microphone. The fun won't stop when you hear your shaky voice out loud.
The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta brings you this flash animated video tutorial specifically relevant to your student laboratory courses, specifically microbiology. If you're a student at any school of biology, this information will be helpful for learning how to perform in vitro transcription.
This version of the chest press is ideal for those who may not have weights available. It is also great if you are simply looking to try something new. For this exercise, you will need two gallon-size water jugs. Fill the jugs with water as needed.
There are a number of unconventional training methods which can be used to improve strength. The truck pull is one of them. When performing this exercise, the speed at which the vehicle can be pulled is very slow. Thus, it is ideal for building strength in the lower body.
