Make a Fire with Rocks

If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate predicament of being stranded outdoors in the snow, don't eat snow off the ground. Eating solid snow will sap your body of precious internal heat (since the heat will be used to melt the consumed ice), so it is best to melt the snow ...more

The worst can always happen. Even if you think you're absolutely prepared, you can somehow find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere by yourself.  It can happen.  Without a map, without a compass, without a cell phone... without food and water. There are plenty of dange ...more

Fire.  It’s everywhere— always has been.  From the Ordovician Period where the first fossil record of fire appears to the present day everyday uses of the Holocene.  Today, we abundantly create flames (intentionally or unintentionally) in power plants, extractive metallurgy, i ...more

I am writing this quick post in response to the recent earthquakes and tsunamis that are affecting Japan. As soon as the news broke, and we began to hear of tsunami warning for our area, I immediately realized how under prepared I was for a natural disaster. The thing that dro ...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

I made several spud guns in my younger years.... They were never the same. The only constant in my potato gun construction was AquaNet. AquaNet hairspray was the key to my spud gun's fire power. When we ran out of potatoes, we'd spray rocks with the hair spray to create an am ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our tutorials, post to the community corkboard, and come play on our free server! Hello, it's iDwarf again! Last week's redstone trap competition was a HUGE success. We had at least 30 entries! But before we get to showing off the winners ...more

Nothing beats eating a meal with soup, especially rice. So here comes my own version of chicken tinola. This one is among the favorite viands on a Filipinos meal, because of its tasty soup and also its meat and vegetable combination saves you time and fuel when cooking. Ingre ...more

Nearly all humans (admittedly childishly) admire the ability to emit uncannily musical armpit or hand farts, or even rarer- mouth fart motor engine aping. However, it is the rare occasion that a performer's gaseous-sounding melodic notes are indeed truly gaseous (meaning liter ...more

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie is one of the funkiest drummers of all time. With his carefully rationed ghost notes and brilliantly placed hi-hat groves, its no wonder why he became one of the most recorded drummers of all time. His famous Bernard "Pretty" Purdie shuffle is one of to ...more

The clock is ticking! Pick up some bokeh tips or buy an app—whichever method you choose, you have until Monday, November 7th, 11:59pm PST to participate in this week's Giveaway Tuesdays Photo Challenge. Below, 50 beautiful bokeh photographs to inspire your entry. Something He ...more

Last week I did some beach camping at the San Onofre State Beach "Trails" and my experience was less than satisfactory. I'm hoping that by reading what happened through my trip, you'll be able to plan for a better trip. According to the CA State Parks Website, San Onofre Blu ...more

Blizzard Entertainment is considered one of the most successful game developers in the world. Ever since the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (their debut Warcraft game) in 1994, they've set sales records and created genre-defining games with remarkable consistency. But the ...more

Do you have an awesome rig that is able to run anything you throw at it at 60 fps with maximum settings? Prepare to be humbled. The Witcher 2 is the first game in quite some time to tax your system the same way Crysis did when it first came out. On my system ( i5 at 4.9, ATI ...more

The sudden deceleration, shifting in the knee, popping sound and screaming from the intense pain that immediately follows is becoming increasingly common among our young athletes. Those who have witnessed or suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are familiar with ...more

The sudden deceleration, shifting in the knee, popping sound and screaming from the intense pain that immediately follows is becoming increasingly common among our young athletes. Those who have witnessed or suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are familiar with th ...more

L4D2: Chapter two - The Underground "Ok explain something to me, how is an under-the-river tour scenic?" - Nick The second chapter(out of 3) of the Passing DLC is The Underground.  The goal is to go though a passage under the river to reach the bridge generator on the other ...more

Levon Helm... The longtime drummer for The Band , Levon Helm wore many musical hats throughout his long career, including multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, impressario, studio ...more

Founded by Zach Kaplan, a "serial entrepreneur" with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, Inventables is a futuristic online hardware store based out of Chicago. The company sells innovative materials at much smaller quantities than typically available—largely to artists, invento ...more

Here we have a unique piece of work. Miley Cyrus, the girl that started out as a 12 year old acting on Hannah Montana, is now 17 and showing some skin. Do we care? Apparently, parents do. So it seems as if if Cyrus wasn't able to do what she wants in her music videos because o ...more

QI and ZA. QI n pl. -S the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things ZA n pl. -S a pizza For over a decade, these words have been used in SCRABBLE play, but not in the US or Canada. It wasn't until their addition in the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionar ...more

Like the press covering film and many other specialized fields, video game journalists use all sorts of jargon to convey to their knowledgable readers as much information about a game as quickly as possible. For non or newbie gamers, this can be extremely confusing. Those of ...more

If you're like me, you were disappointed when NASA cut their human space flight program. No longer could children and adults in dead-end jobs dream of someday walking on the surface of the Moon or drinking floating globules of water through a straw. Homo sapiens as a species a ...more

There's nothing better than sitting around a fire in your own backyard, but store-bought fire pits can get pretty expensive, and unfortunately (but understandably), most states have pretty strict regulations on outdoor fires. Want to have your cake and eat it, too? This DIY f ...more

Here's a great video that shows how make make a hand drill fire from scratch using Stone Age tools... How to make a primitive fire by rubbing two sticks together. You know, using only two sticks. And some rocks. And a caveman. And a bathroom scale to measure the downward pres ...more

How to build an outdoor, homemade fire pit out of an old washing machine drum! It looks great and works fantastic. Fire pits are conventionally made from stone or bricks and as the name suggests, are made into a pit in the ground. The fire pit that l have just built is a littl ...more

Perhaps the most important decoration of the holiday season is the Christmas tree. It's where all of the magic happens. If you're not into real Christmas trees, there's always some festive alternatives, but for those of us who can't live without a natural Christmas tree, choos ...more

As the Notorious B.I.G. once said, via his hit single, "Mo Money, Mo Problems." However, it would appear that Magic Leap feels a bit differently about piling on the cash. Magic Leap is currently in the midst of closing another funding deal, this time from Saudi Arabia's Publi ...more

To make yourself a tasty meal during a camping trip, all you need are chopped up raw meats and vegetables, glowing embers, and a roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Simply place ingredients in a tightly wrapped aluminum foil packet, place on hot embers, and wait until everything ...more

Here's a way you can turn a mousetrap into a fun little handgun that shoots up to 40 feet! This is a great project because it can be made with simple materials, very basic tools, and in just a few minutes! Video: . This pack of two mousetraps was only $0.98! Aside from those, ...more

Camping in the rain sucks. It's not enough to deal with your clothes and tent being soaked—it makes starting a fire nearly impossible if you're not carrying waterproof matches. You can buy them pretty much anywhere that sells camping gear, but if you've got regular matches and ...more

When it comes to platform games on mobile, endless runners are some of the hardest to play since they can go on seemingly forever. There's always room for improvement since your goal is to beat your previous score (or someone else's high score). But which endless running games ...more

Step aside, vodka—whiskey will soon be the best-selling hard liquor in the United States. The whiskey renaissance has been largely attributed to the current trend for locally- and artisan-produced goods. Local whiskey distilleries are rapidly increasing in number across the n ...more

There's no reason to wait for Halloween to play with dry ice. It definitely creates a creepy fog-like effect when you add a little water to it, but there are some other really cool things you can do wit dry ice. Here are just 5 non-Halloween ways to use dry ice for tricks or p ...more

Here's a survival technique for making a fire with the most basic of resources—assuming you can find two sticks to rub together! Video: . With a little creative license, let's imagine you're cast away on a deserted island with little hope of rescue. In a situation like this, b ...more

If you're ever lost or hurt out in the middle of nowhere with a dead cell phone, you might be able to "flag" down help as long as you're near some railroad tracks. Some train tracks carry a small electric charge as a means of detecting other trains for signaling or for detect ...more

Trying to figure out which music streaming service to subscribe to can be a difficult task when the playing field is so crowded. Each has its benefits, as well as downsides, so finding the right one for your needs and wants can take a lot of overwhelming research. But we've do ...more

Lighthouses and signal fires may have been the first social media. Without the ability to share language, a distant light meant "humans here." A new study from the University of California, San Diego, finds that bacteria can also send out a universal sign to attract the attent ...more

With folks drawing lines in the sand before the upcoming election this November, it's important to know where you stand on some of the most important issues: the economy, foreign affairs, domestic affairs, and apples—caramel or candy apples, that is. Yeah, so one of these thi ...more

When I left off on our last hack, we had hacked into the ubiquitous Windows Server 2003 server by adding ourselves as a user to that system so that we can return undetected at any time. The problem with this approach is that a sysadmin who is on their toes will note that a new ...more

For the last three years, Apple has hosted its Worldwide Developers Conference at the San Jose Convention Center, but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWDC 2020 is now an online-only event. So what can you expect from the new virtual format and when and how can you watch the k ...more

Coverage for the 88th Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, will air live this Sunday, February 28th at 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET). The ceremony itself, hosted by Chris Rock, is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET). This is the third year that ABC will be streaming the event onli ...more

The balanced and refreshing taste of a cocktail should always entice you into another sip. You'll know you're drinking something of quality when no specific ingredient, including booze, dominates its taste. A great cocktail can even mirror a great meal by exhibiting flavors li ...more

The long rumored and recently leaked Amazon phone has finally been unveiled, and in the interest of branding, continues down the Fire line—the Amazon Fire Phone. You can check out the full reveal here (warning: it's long), but I'll take you through all the features that sets t ...more