There are a few ways to make trapdoors, but out of all of them, this one is my favorite. It's fast, completely hidden, and both opens and closes. This particular trapdoor can be used for a variety of purposes, such as hiding your valuable possessions, having a secret entrance ...more
When you know how to cook it, tofu is a delicious dish in and of itself—truly. Too many people have been subjected to poor quality or badly cooked tofu and told to eat it because it's a "healthy alternative" to meat. Usually what they bite into is a bland, rubbery mess coated ...more
After years of making do with a cheap knife, I finally bought a really good 8" chef's knife—a Henckels, although I was also eyeing a Global santoku. It quietly but literally changed my life. I don't have amazing knife skills, but having a great piece of equipment in my hands ...more
Developers creating login systems know better than to store passwords in plain text, usually storing hashes of a password to prevent storing the credentials in a way a hacker could steal. Due to the way hashes work, not all are created equal. Some are more vulnerable than othe ...more
You may frequent hotels that treat your towels like your toilet paper, but some upscale hotels take pride in their towel presentation; therefore, they borrow some skills from master origami artists and apply them to folding towels and washcloths for memorable and decorative ef ...more
Apple just released its biggest update to iOS 17 yet, and there are 60 exciting new changes for your iPhone. With iOS 17.2, you get a brand new app, more Apple Music enhancements, upgrades in Messages, and a new security feature that was announced last year, as well as changes ...more
Summer's coming, and that means burger season. Okay, never mind... every season is burger season. Burgers are universally loved; they're the one meal you can find at numerous fast food shacks and haute cuisine spots. Don't Miss: Secret Tricks for Tender, Juicy Burgers Every T ...more
All day I dream of eggs: scrambled, poached, over easy, hard-boiled, fried, baked, raw... Okay, the last one is a joke (unless you're Gaston, which means that you eat five dozen of them and you're roughly the size of a barge). But eggs are freaking good in just about any cooki ...more
When it comes to making pancakes in the morning, most of us probably follow the instructions on the box. Mix all the ingredients together, pour onto a hot greased pan, and form perfect circular flapjacks one by one. But pancakes are so much more than that. You can turn them i ...more
Composite figures are composed of several geometric shapes and are three-dimensional shapes. The first composite shape is a combination of a rectangular prism and a pyramid. To find the volume of the entire shape you find the volume of each individual shape and add them togeth ...more
In one of my previous articles, I showed off how to make water freeze into ice instantaneously. In this article, I'd like to elaborate on this, and show how a glass of water can turn to ice instantly on command. What exactly is this supernatural power? Discover the secrets to ...more
Calculating The Area Of A Parallelogram A parallelogram is a 4-sided shape formed by two pairs of parallel lines. Opposite sides are equal in length and opposite angles are equal in measure. To find the area of a parallelogram, multiply the base by the height. The formula is: ...more
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. ...more
Over the next few months, I'll be focusing on building a fully functional, long range UAV. This series will consist of several in-depth articles on my progress and the steps involved, so you can follow along and build your own unmanned aerial vehicle! The budget is $800 and w ...more
Snapchat popularized personalized stickers for social media and messaging with Bitmoji, followed by walled-garden versions from Apple with Memojis and Samsung with AR Emojis. Even Google has gotten into the game, integrating an emoji generator for Gboard. Finally, Facebook ha ...more
Minecraft is not just a game. It is a creative tool. Over the past year and a half countless epic builds, servers, and community projects have been undertaken. I'm sure some of you have seen the one-to-one scale recreation of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek or the epic ...more
The single stitch is a very simple stitch, easy for beginners to master, which can be used to join two granny squares together. This is a useful technique for joining any two crochet pieces together of any size or shape, not just granny squares!
You've got a great gift for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day. Awesome. Now, how are you going to present that lovely gift of yours? Wrapping paper? Cardboard box? Decorative bag? If any of those things are your answer—you're not trying hard enough. If you've got a small gif ...more
If you have ever attempted to mix and shape your own meatballs or burger patties, you may have endured bits of meat continuously and stubbornly sticking to your hands. This can make shaping more challenging than it should be. Ground meat in any form—beef, chicken, turkey, lam ...more
I've been a fan of potatoes ever since I can remember... but mainly because they weren't a big part of my daily diet (which usually consisted of rice). And because my experience with potatoes was so limited, I only knew of two varieties growing up: big, brown Russets and sinew ...more
Last weekend we had a fun workshop (not the redstone workshop from yesterday) in which a bunch of people got together and built mountains! Well, small mountains, at least. The workshop was only an hour, after all. There are three techniques that you want to consider when cons ...more
I admit, when the new iOS 5 update for Apple devices was coming out, I had iTunes open all morning with my iPhone 4 attached... waiting... waiting... waiting until finally the new version of iOS was available for download. I stopped everything I was doing and quickly initiated ...more
There are currently 27 available Animoji to choose from in iOS 13, but you're not limited to Apple's animated emoji characters — you can make your own. They're called Memoji, an available feature since iOS 12, and they're highly customizable. Think of Memoji avatars as person ...more
Want to create some cool effects in illustrator? Create a new layer. Draw the ellipse tool and add radial gradient, then go to transparency and select screen. Then create the star tool and deselect stroke. Drag and place the star shape on ellipse and group them. Then duplicate ...more
I know it seems a little redundant to post this when I've already posted a video, but it is kind of hard to get more than a vague idea from the video alone. I hope this sheds a little more light on the subject. I'm sure it also seems like I'm beating this idea to death, but th ...more
One of the best things about Android is the ability to customize your phone to your liking. From changing the layout of icons to finding the perfect wallpaper to reflect your current mood, there's a wide range of tools to make your phone yours. One of the easiest ways is to t ...more
Check out this video tutorial on how to make cheap dragon wings, controlled by body posture. You can do this project for $18 if you use plastic garbage bags and Scotch tape for the membranes. You'll see how to make very light and strong costume wings. How strong? That strong. ...more
Everything you thought you knew about cooking pasta is wrong. When I took cooking classes in Italy, they taught me to bring a large volume of salted water to a rolling boil, add a drop of olive oil so that the noodles wouldn't stick together, and wait several minutes until it ...more
When a headache strikes, I reach for the nearest painkiller. Forget closing my eyes, laying down, or even applying an ice pack—I seek the quickest and most immediate relief possible, and normally that comes in the form of pills. However, fast relief can be found from another, ...more
All fields of study have their own language. For people interested in learning about microbes, the language can sometimes be downright difficult — but it doesn't need to be. From antibiotics to xerophiles, we have you covered in an easy-to-understand glossary. Terms are liste ...more
First off, don't be frustrated. YOU CAN DO IT! Contrary to the message in the image above, it's NOT over. It's just beginning. And when it comes to solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, the old cliche does apply: practice makes perfect. I've read quite a few books and ...more
This video explains how to find the area of irregular shapes. Draw the shape on a grid or graph paper. This will help you divide your shape into pieces. Draw dotted lines to divide the shape into squares, rectangles or triangles. For instance, if you have an "L" shape, you can ...more
In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial, Bert Monroy from PixelPerfect shows you how to use the Gradient Mesh tool, which lets you divide pretty much any shape (like an apple) into a mesh. Wish a mesh created, you can alter the color of an intersecting point of the mesh with a soli ...more
Once you jailbreak, there are hundreds of options available for you to fully customize your boring stock iPhone into something more efficient and fun. We've already shown you a bunch, like how to beautify app icons and change battery icons, but now it's time for a badge alert ...more
Whether you've celebrated multiple cake days or you're just now getting your feet wet with Reddit, it's a rite of passage to choose your preferred smartphone client. Quick spoiler: Your best option most certainly is not the official Reddit app. Reddit's mobile site is pretty ...more
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our tutorials, post to the community corkboard, and come play on our free server! Looking to build an awesome one-way entrance into your base? Why not create an awesome drawbridge so that no one can enter without your permission? This sty ...more
If you're always taking blurry and underexposed pics with your mobile device, try using some of the tips below to turn your phone into a valuable photography asset. It doesn't matter if you have an iPhone, Android smartphone, or even a first-gen camera phone... you can still t ...more
Chances are that you've been using your microwave just to nuke leftovers, but they can do so much more than heat up last night's dinner—microwaves can help you peel garlic more quickly, get more juice out of lemons, disinfect your kitchen, dry out herbs, give beauty products n ...more
Wilson Bickford teaches us how to paint believable rocks in this tutorial. To begin, you will first start with an easel and several paints. Wet your small paint brush with a mixture of brown and black and paint a rock shape on the paper. You will do this by drawing many lumps ...more
Writing longhand may boost learning and goal achievement, but that doesn't mean squat if you don't have pen and paper on you. For me, I'm usually on the go when I have a note or idea to jot down, and I don't always have writing materials in my pocket. Who does? But what I do ...more
These lovely scarves have different names. I call it the Spiral Ruffle Scarf. It's easy to make and looks great in either a fine or a medium weight yarn. I made mine with softball cotton yarn and size 8 needles. Here are the videos and written directions: Watch both videos for ...more
This is the third part of my electromagnetic pulse series (see Part One and Part Two). By now, I've covered the hardware and general concept of electromagnetic pulse generators, but how exactly do they disable electronics? How can an invisible field of energy have such a catas ...more
A recent update to Google Chrome replaced the colored avatar menu in the top-left (Windows) or top-right (Mac) corner of the browser that let you easily switch from profile to profile with a plain gray button that simply names what profile you're in. I use different user prof ...more
The concept and structure of Christmas hasn't changed much since its inception. In its infancy, Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn (also held in December). The pagans had long w ...more
In this video from ChickerOutItsSARA25 we learn how to make a fake lip or nose ring using a spiral notebook. At the end of the spiral notebook, pull out the spiral so one loop is out and take your scissors and cut it. Bend it until it breaks off. Now you have a small ring. Ben ...more
Whether you live in foggy California or icy Massachusetts, you've more than likely struggled with a cloudy, vision-impairing window that makes even the shortest commute impossible. While you can get rid of fogged up windows pretty easily using your vehicle's defogger system, ...more
Almost every bread recipe will tell you to look for a golden brown crust or to tap on the bottom of your loaf and listen for a hollow sound. That visual and sound technique will work most of the time, but it can still come up short, leaving you with a soft and gooey spot in th ...more
I've never been much of a runner. I've tried running alone, with a partner, on busy sidewalks, and back country roads, but I just never got it. There are a few other forms of exercise I genuinely enjoy, but have yet to experience that "natural high" that avid runners are alway ...more
Like theme music, I always feel that I need more fog in my life. Fog can be useful for many reasons—warding off smaller siblings from your bedroom, keeping curious hands out of your cupboard, and tricking your friends into thinking there's something horribly wrong with their v ...more
Description: How to cover or conceal your eyebrows in two different ways. - First brush your eyebrow hairs down and with a glue stick cover the brow. Brush the hairs to their normal place again. - Before that dries you can put a little powder right on top. It already helps hi ...more
Consider a normal and ideal height for a girl in 5feet 8inches in height. The book of Andrew Loomis is a good guide for drawing realistic human figures. It explains the body proportions, techniques, drawing the parts, human movements, and poses of the body. These are the impor ...more
This crochet how to video is a demonstration of how to make a stuffed ball shape using single crochet in the style of amigurumi. Japanese amigurumi means single crochet in the round now rows. Watch the video to learn how to crochet your own doll using Japanese amigurumi style ...more
I have a theory that chocolate chip cookies are the gateway drug to cooking. The recipe is easy, no special equipment is required, and at the end, you get warm, fresh-from-the-oven cookies that are simply irresistible. It's how I got hooked on baking and cooking, and anecdotal ...more
With the growing list of products Apple offers, the number of devices connected to your Apple ID can get quite extensive. Having all those devices connected to your Apple ID helps you keep track of them, but when it comes time to part ways with an Apple TV or Apple Watch, thos ...more
In this article, I'll be covering Triggers and Coils, part two of the series (see part one here). Generally, a simple EMP generator consists of four components; a capacitor, a transformer, a trigger and a coil of copper wire. The transformer component can be varied, but the co ...more
Hmm... wondering what to do with a lazy Sunday afternoon? Why not build a volcano that can erupt? Have fun and make a mess, all in the name of science! You Will Need: • 6 c. flour • 2 c. salt • 1 c. water • Small plastic bottle • Baking sheet • Acrylic paint • Paint br ...more
Chances are you've got a bunch of wooden takeout chopsticks doing nothing but cluttering up your utensils drawer. That's a darned shame, considering that chopsticks aren't just for shoveling food into your mouth—they're actually the best cooking tools a cook can have (plus the ...more
Here we will demonstrate how to measure the volume of a balloon. A balloon is not a straight edged polygon shape, usually, so the mathematical equations get that much harder, on the flip side, it may be a spherical or ovalish shape, but measurements with math alone are detrime ...more
During the colder months, it seems like almost everyone wears boots. Even when it's hot out, people can be spotted with knee-highs and westerns. Whether it's for fashion or because you live in a place where 3 feet of snow is common, a good pair of boots (or five) is nice to ha ...more
There are many different ways and many different apps that allow you to censor a racy photo and then share it to Instagram or Facebook. If you're in a time crunch and don't have the time or the patience to deal with something like Photoshop, then Snapseed is a great and easy a ...more