Impress Your Friends with a Simple Magic Trick

Chestnuts are roasting on an open fire, which can only mean one thing: Christmas is nearly here. It's the time of year we're supposed to spend with family and friends, but usually we spend it stressing out over what to buy everyone on our list without going over budget, or sho ...more

During my time living in dorm rooms and small apartments, I would find myself in need of many different appliances—a food processor for making hummus, a blender for vegetable smoothies, or even a mortar and pestle for muddling mojito-bound mint leaves. Luckily, there was one t ...more

If you're a frequent baker like myself, you've probably realized that one box of cake mix makes quite a bit of cake. If your goal is to make a simple Bundt or an easy dozen cupcakes, all you really need is half the box mix—which leaves the other half for another baking occasio ...more

Unless you have a newer iPhone 6S or 6S Plus, the front-facing "FaceTime" camera on your iPhone has a pretty weak, low-res sensor, which means unflattering selfies. You could use the rear "iSight" camera to take a high-res selfie, but framing your mug properly and hitting the ...more

Your brain holds a lot of precious information and is capable of great feats. However, there's one quality that doesn't lie among its strengths—memory security. Yes, that's right, your brain can be hacked, and it doesn't take a psychologist to do it. Anyone with the right know ...more

It would only make sense that Google is one of the most active app developers on the Android platform, particularly when you consider that they develop the platform itself. From my count, there are an astounding 117 unique apps that the search giant and its subsidiaries have p ...more

Dumplings have been around for centuries in various forms; spätzle, as well as chicken and dumplings, are dough-y dumplings with no filling, whereas Russian pierogis and Chinese jiaozi are dumplings that contain meat, vegetables, or both. Asian dumplings, also called pot stic ...more

We are most certainly not machines. We all need some downtime every once in a while to set our sanity scales back in balance, which in turn, makes us more productive workers. This is a premise that several forward-thinking employers fully understand, but these types of compani ...more

My French press is one of the most important tools in my kitchen. It's indispensable, and it's no small exaggeration when I say that I use it on a daily basis thanks to my coffee addiction. However, it gets used for a lot more than just my morning cuppa (and my second morning ...more

In my opinion, spices are the key to a successful kitchen. With a healthy array of spices and spice mixes, you have the foundation for nearly any dish that you want to make; the culinary world is your oyster. With a depleted cupboard of spices, however, nearly every recipe loo ...more

Who doesn't experience food cravings? Whether you're trying to adhere to a strict diet, or simply hoping to avoid sugary, fatty foods, curbing cravings can feel like a monumental task. How do you say no to the tantalizing chocolate cake laying before you at a birthday party? ...more

Few things in life are as exciting and magical as fire. And setting things on fire while cooking? Well, now you're speaking my language. I'm not talking about grilling, though I do love some outdoor cooking. No, I'm talking about the most badass trick in any cook's arsenal: th ...more

Unless you're well off, you've probably experienced the hard liquor purchasing conundrum. You know the one: you want to stock your home bar with more than just one spirit, but you don't want to drop $100 or more just so you can have some variety in your alcohol cabinet. Thank ...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

Once upon a time in America, there was coffee and there was decaf. That's it. No capuccinos. No espressos. And certainly no Starbucks. Coffee was just coffee, something that you bought at a gas station or donut shop. If you made it at home, it was either in a metal pot or inst ...more

You wouldn't send your GPS coordinates to a completely random stranger just because he or she asked you for it, right? So why are you constantly sharing your location (and other data) to apps on a daily basis? While there are many apps that need your location in order to func ...more

Fall is my favorite time of year, yet I cringe every time it begins. Why? Because it seems like every business is in a frenzy to start the Christmas shopping season the day after Halloween ends. For those of us who are fans of pumpkins, that's a buzzkill. It used to be that y ...more

Aside from the occasional "creative" collage, most of your friends on social media are content with pretty basic image and video posts. You can easily one-up them with celebrity cameos or awesome time-lapse videos, but to truly outshine them, try your hands at some creative do ...more

This year's biggest film certainly didn't come as a surprise: with another incredible comic book creation, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy wowed audiences more than any other movie. With its unique team of heroes, Guardians provided a set of ready-made Halloween costumes. Al ...more

Apple Pay has been available to use in stores, as well as in select apps and websites, ever since its first appearance in iOS 8.1. Now, with iOS 12, there are currently 13 different iPhone models that support Apple Pay functionality without the use of an Apple Watch, and the l ...more

In today's world of ordering food from your PC or hailing a cab with an app, it almost seems archaic when we have to actually use our vocal cords to contact a local business. It sure would be nice if we didn't have to use our smartphones as, well, you know...phones. All rheto ...more

Gatorade: its popular red flavor can stain the whitest fabric, and its sweet taste is oddly refreshing after breaking a sweat. If you've ever participated in a sport, you probably spent halftime at games and practice breaks chugging the stuff. Though it made its name as a spor ...more

I hate to break it to you, but you're probably here because you were trolled. Thanks to a Photoshopped image making rounds across Twitter, Apple fans were tricked into believing that iOS 8 allowed them to lock individual apps, accessible only through a passcode or fingerprint ...more

One of my favorite things is finding an easy way to make what is normally a complex dish. Case in point: pasta sauce. Usually its depth of flavor is the result of fresh herbs, shallots, tomatoes, seasonings, olive oil, and a touch of dairy being cooked and added in stages. Lon ...more

Only a handful of food products are impervious to spoilage—dried rice, salt, sugar—but even among those, honey is unique in that it remains edible without any preparation necessary. It's like this: if you came across honey in an Egyptian tomb, as archaeologists have, you could ...more

Break out the office supplies and kitchen utensils, because improving your morning makeup routine is about to get a lot easier. Some of the things you have lying around the house can provide the perfect solution for some of the most common beauty problems. We've collected 10 o ...more

We've already shown you how to dunk a regular-sized Oreo cookie while keeping your fingers pristine, how to upgrade Oreos into different desserts, and even make them into lazy ice cream sandwiches. Now we're going to introduce you to a few other essential Oreo hacks that will ...more

Old habits die hard. It may be a cliché, but it's undeniably true, especially when it comes to the bad ones. Nail-biting, fidgeting, and overspending can label you as someone who is obsessive-compulsive, overly nervous, and routinely stressed out, but you can make the break le ...more

Erudite. Barbiturate. Cacophony. Denouement. Okay, that last word is technically French, but words like these make the average person sweat, and it turns out that the key to learning how to pronounce them once and for all just might be getting them wrong. How We End Up Pronou ...more

Bottled water is a rip-off. Not only is it pretty much the same stuff that comes out of your tap for free, but plastic bottles are rarely recycled and thus account for a huge amount of the waste that's overflowing our landfills. Next Up: Water Bottles You Can Eat Fortunately, ...more

Marinades are among my all-time favorite tricks as a cook for several reasons. They're easy like Sunday morning, they let time do what it's supposed to, which is work for you, and you get a huge return for relatively little effort on your part. In a pinch, I've used store-bou ...more

Texting something as simple as "What up, bruh?" can be transformed into something way more baller by adding emojis, emoticons, GIFs, and textspeak. Some people would even argue that texting is a form of art, similar to Shakespearean sonnets, but it still has a ways to go if yo ...more

Lenovo brought out the big guns for CES 2014, with the Vibe Z showcased as the Chinese company's' first foray into the LTE smartphone space. Slated for a February release, the ultra-thin and extremely light smartphone will certainly be in the running for top smartphones of thi ...more

The holiday season is almost over, bringing the year to an end, and what better way to end it than with some tonsil hockey from the dime across the room on New Year's Eve? If you missed the opportunity to snag a kiss using the awesome mistletoe trick, then this is your last c ...more

If an athlete gets athlete's foot, what does an astronaut get? Mistletoe. Yup, that's about the only time I've ever really needed mistletoe for anything, but cheesy one-liners aside, mistletoe can be the greatest wingman (or wingwoman) ever, but only during the holiday season. ...more

Are you a messy burger eater? Ants and fruit flies invading your home? Hate drinking warm drinks? Find out the quick and easy DIY solutions to these problems with these 10 amazing tips and tricks for the summer. Video: . I had seen pictures of some of these useful ideas on the ...more

A spare key is one of those things that never seems like a huge deal until you need it. If you've ever lost your keys, had them stolen, or locked yourself out of your house or car, you know how difficult and embarrassing it can be trying to get your door open. So, how would y ...more

What happens when you find your ball deflated and there's no pump or needle in sight? You could always cancel your plans of kicking around the soccer ball or starting that pickup football game in the park. Better yet, you could be terribly clever and find another way to get ai ...more

In my last quick clip, I demonstrated how to take a bottle of soda and freeze it on command. I received many requests for a more detailed article on this, so here we go. This "super cool" trick works with cans of soda too, not just bottles! Video: . This project was inspired b ...more

You may not notice it when you're intoxicated and banging your head to the music, but when you're at a club or concert, your ears are getting seriously damaged. The noise level is usually above most people's pain threshold for sound, which begins around 120 to 140 decibels. At ...more

The best part about April Fool's Day is that everyone is fair game. Even big tech companies like Google and Twitter get in on the action every year. It encourages even the most uptight, unfunny party-poopers among us to have a little fun driving each other crazy with pranks — ...more

Have you ever had scrambled eggs covered in chocolate syrup? If you have—you need some help. Seriously. If you haven't, it's probably because it sounds absolutely repulsive. I know there's the whole salty and sweet thing, but that can only go so far. But you know what? Eggs ...more

If you've ever stumbled through Pinterest's boards, you'd know that Pinners have quite a penchant for aesthetically beautiful desserts. You can find a whole spectrum of "huh?" recipes, from pumpkin zebra cheesecake to sorbet terrine with plum compote. As an amateur cook, I'm ...more

I think part of the reason why I don’t eat more vegetables or fruits is because there's always a process—a simple one, but a process nonetheless. Having to wash my fruits and veggies is just flat out annoying. I just want to eat them, not take a shower with them. In addition ...more

Despite the security concerns that have plagued Facebook for years, most people are sticking around and new members keep on joining. This has led Facebook to break records numbers with over 1.94 billion monthly active users, as of March 2017 — and around 1.28 billion daily act ...more

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 w ...more

As someone who never uses Newsstand, it's pretty frustrating to have it clogging up the home screen on my iPad and iPhone. It's one of those applications that Apple doesn't allow you to delete, like Passbook and Nike + iPod. Why? Simply because Apple wants to make more money. ...more

When you're a kid, the best part about Halloween is the free candy, but if you're past your trick-or-treating years, there are still plenty of things you can do. With all the costumes, scary stories, and pranks, what's not to love? And now, you can even use your smartphone to ...more

Want the convenience of a throwaway email address without all the hassle? How about anonymous text messaging so you can get to know someone before giving them your real information? Gliph has you covered. Gliph is a service that lets you create an identity around a set of thre ...more

We all know the dangers of logging on to our personal accounts on public networks, but we pretty much all do it anyway—especially when it comes to Facebook. But the next time you're in a public place and can't wait to check out your Facebook news feed, use this simple trick to ...more

Magic? Camera tricks? Did someone build an egg inside the bottle with tweezers as if it were a ship? Nope. This is way easier. Basic science. As simple as a vacuum. The matches in the bottle burn up the oxygen. This creates a negative pressure environment, or vacuum. Voilà ...more

This is the Harpo Marx tutorial. We have several recipes for silly putty in our index... with sound, but this version (from our friends at YouTube) is more colorful. We just like it the best. It is aesthetically more appealing than the others; conceived for the visually minded ...more

Wait...with only your hand? It's simple. Take a normal Bic-style lighter. Hold down the button to release butane gas into your cupped hand. Then light it. You'll have the flame captured in your hand! Now, go find a cute girl with a cigarette. Magic! Impress a girl by lighti ...more