Real World

Today we pay homage to a phenomenon. One as diffuse and amusing as the internet itself, and as pointless as dog Halloween costumes. I'm speaking, of course, of giant games. Not Supergiant Games, makers of the forthcoming and awesome-looking indie RPG Bastion, but giant games ...more

What's the next best thing to being an official scientist? Being a non-official one. A new website called Science for Citizens helps you find the science experiment of your dreams, hook up with the scientists involved, and actually take part in the experiment itself. Here are ...more

If you're interested in nabbing superhero memory strength, the secret behind training your brain is not necessarily what you might expect. Your standard G-rated brain strengthening exercises range from crossword puzzles to Sudoku to calculating fairly simple math problems to i ...more

Does size matter? When it comes to optical illusions, it does. The size of a human brain's visual cortex determines how he or she sees the world, meaning not everybody observes optical illusions in the same way. Via io9, Dr. D. Samuel Schwarzkopf, a researcher at University C ...more

1. Construct a Giant Dick Float over a car or van or motorcycle, that resembles a GIANT Dick, with a MegaPhone! (Mega phones make everything better!!!!) 2. Scope out a Business, Office Professional, Blue Collar, Mcdonalds, Warehouse, whatever........ wherever you can find a r ...more

It seems even Al-Qaeda is not immune to World Cup hysteria. The international terror network issued the following demented statement, early in the pre-season: “How beautiful would the game between England and the USA be when broadcast live from a stadium full of spectators - ...more

What do you guys think about all these "pleasant" ties? I'm so not cool with waking up to watch a game, only to fall asleep again. The lack of goals scored in these first few games is really discouraging and detrimental to new viewers and the growth of the sport in the U.S. Th ...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

The very people this humanitarian mission seeks to help are outraged at the portrayal of their problems and lands. In my previous post, I talked about how this new internet sensation is most probably a hoax designed to force us into a new war. Guess what? It was. "The viral K ...more

Last time, we looked at archaic cryptography, so you should have a basic understanding of some of the concepts and terminology you'll need. Now, we'll discuss one of the most important advances in computer security in the 20th century—public key cryptography. What Is Public K ...more

Cryptography is a quintessential part of computer security in the modern world. Whenever you buy something on eBay or log into Facebook, that data is encrypted before it's sent to the server in order to prevent third parties from eavesdropping and stealing your sensitive infor ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play with us on our free server. Although Minecraft is a powerful creative tool, it does have limitations. The scarcity of block types and their linear size tends to make the creation of certain detailed ob ...more

Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills. Submit your best shot to our weekly competition for a chance to win an awes ...more

If you haven't had a pile of pipe and fittings to play with before, it's hard to see what is so cool about a plain, plastic pipe. All it does in the house is carry the poop away. Really, who cares? It's hard to even decide where to begin here. The first chance I personally ha ...more

Scrabble has invaded just about every medium out there. It started as a mere board game, but has since spawned numerous board game spinoffs and variations, an electronic version, mobile apps for just about anything (Android, iPhone, iPhone, iPad and Kindle), games for both PC ...more

Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills. Submit your best shot to our weekly competition for a chance to win an awes ...more

It's one of the greatest fears among parents and politicians the world over—video game violence spilling out into reality. The shooting at Columbine and the more recent tragedy in Utøya, Norway have touched deep nerves in Western consciousness. And that's why there's a giant p ...more

Listen up Scrabblers... you finally have something to brag about besides knowing what MUZJIK is, and if you think it's elevator music, put those tiles back in the bag and pack up your Scrabble board because this doesn't apply to you. You see those brains below? Well, guess wh ...more

Angry Birds and FarmVille have become two of the biggest game franchises in the world. And recently their creators, Rovio and Zynga, have hit the news again, but not because of anymore major game announcements. Zynga, the kings of Facebook gaming from San Fransisco, recently ...more

Video games were blamed in the death of Chris Staniforth last May, but now things have gotten worse as video games take the blame for a more recent tragedy... Ten days ago, a man who'd lost his mind committed an atrocity, perpetrating more evil in one day than most can even f ...more

The debate over whether video games can be considered art or not has intensified in recent years as games like Braid and Flow have taken the digital aesthetic experience to new heights. These new games are great examples, but there are much older ones that present compelling a ...more

Is that House? Built in Minecraft? Well, time to cross out one more item off my bucket list! As inspiration for this week's Minecraft-themed Tuesday Giveaway (enter here to win an awesome Minecraft Pickaxe!), I present a roundup of amazing things found in Minecraft. The great ...more

Do you know how you are perceived by your peers? In real life and online? In the physical world, you could be seen as intelligent, thoughtful and hard-working, but on the Web you could be looked at as irrational, selfish and slothful. There's just something about the Internet ...more

Nobody could predict the success of Microsoft's Kinect, not even Microsoft themselves. So, it was quite a surprise when it ended up earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics device, and an even bigger surprise to see people buying one that didn't ...more

George Plimpton may be one of the most interesting Americans ever. Foremost a sports journalist, he was also a novelist, Fireworks Commissioner for New York City and host of Mouseterpiece Theater. Some of you may also recognize him as one of the men who tackled Robert F. Kenne ...more

Pressing the button on a video game controller quickly is like running the 100 meter dash. Both require dedication and a precise exercise regime. There is also an odd quality about both in which the range between the very best and complete neophyte is tiny. Sprinter Usain Bolt ...more

Do you ever really know someone? I mean really really? Super really? Sometimes we can talk and be with people normally for years and then bam: five people dead, house on fire, dog missing. All the while people shake their heads and regret that if they had just put the little ...more

I was raised in the glory days of Japanese RPG's (JRPG's) on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were the biggest game franchises, and real gamers could debate their merits endlessly. We remained engaged in the stories of the games, even though ...more

You're walking down the street, minding your own business. Then you see it—a large, bright fireball in the near distance. A tremendous heat wave speeds towards you at one thousand miles an hour, and before you can think, before you can even blink, the extremely heated wind pus ...more

Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass boys have finally returned from their whirlwind world tour promoting Jackass 3D. Along with their return comes the long-awaited Honorable Mentions for the Jackass 3D Prank Contest. So, straight from the source, a note from Knoxville: As you kn ...more

Watch enough Glee and Buffy's Once More, With Feeling and it will never fail to instill the urge to do something stupid in public. And hey, what better way to do this than to drag others down with you? Welcome to the world of flash mobs, and in just a few simple steps you too ...more

This is my fourth (and final) installment on SCRABBLE adverts. I'm sure there's a lot I haven't found, but that's for another day. But this post features all of the remaining SCRABBLE advertisements (prints and posters) that haven't already been listed in my previous posts: O ...more

Hey now! Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay are doing very well in their respective groups. The are all expected to qualify to the final 16. In fact, they are doing better than any other continent. Europe's top flight teams are disappointing, as are the host Africa ...more

Now that I am jumping full swing into WonderHowTo Worlds here... I can see why this is platform is much better for socializing... With Facebook, you might as well flash your naked self for all to see, because there isn't much left to know about you. I was wondering this morni ...more

Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille?  That it currently has over 80,000,000 users?  That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of 80 to 1? Crazy, right? And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  There's plenty of other od ...more

Three-dimensional printing is one of the many wonders of modern technology. It's the first step towards real life Star Trek replicators and Timeline-esque teleportation chambers. While we aren't at the level of reconstructing strands of DNA, it's already possible to make tons ...more

I think it's fair to say that every maker yearns for a 3D printer. You can replace circuit board connectors, fix your glasses, create ski grips, and make whole machines out of printed plastic parts—even a 3D printer. But without a 3D printer on hand, you can always resort to S ...more

Who doesn't love Star Wars? No one, that's who. And if you love Stars Wars, logic would follow that you like lightsabers, so central are they to the tale's mythology. It's part sword, part laser, and makes a sound like a humming motor have multigasms. If I saw one in real life ...more

The most recent viral video on YouTube is just that. A viral video. After seeing all the hype and 'support' that the 'movement' is getting, I want to tell you that this is a misleading video and somewhat of a propaganda campaign. These are strong accusations against such a 'hu ...more

Does this video prove that otherworldly intelligent life has visited Earth? No. It does not prove anything other than there are designs ‘etched’ onto the surface of a field. Does the video immediately above prove that otherworldly intelligent life hasn’t visited Earth? Yeah, y ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. For last week's Workshop, we decided to attempt to communicate long distance without the use of the chat bar. To accomplish this, we built an elementary redstone pulser that would a ...more

Nikola Tesla In my opinion, one of the most neglected inventors of all time. The names Edison and Marconi come to mind as familiar, but Tesla? Most think of a car. Few know that Tesla is responsible for alternating current, florescent lights, radar, remote control, generators ...more

Two weeks ago I reviewed browser-based video editor WeVideo and was amazed. Amazed not because WeVideo is a competent iMovie replacement for the casual editor (which it is), but amazed that a browser-based editor can work at all. Today I'd like to have a look at another brows ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. While it may first appear complex, the Multi-Channel music sequencer made famous by User FVDisco is rather simple in principle. It relies on proper combination of timing and tone to ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Real time redstone clocks are a marvel of redstone technology. Not only can they keep track of time, they are capable of powering other more complicated redstone machines. Regardles ...more

A degree in nursing from Kaplan University addresses the challenges and scenarios real nurses work through on a daily basis. Kaplan University’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN program) is based on relevant material to help ensure our students are prepared for their careers. ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. We're back again for another Pre-release! This time around it's 1.9 Version 4. Notch released version 4 today saying, "...instead of trying to squeeze in another real release, we’r ...more

Improve your bingo skills with a roundup of this week's Scrabble Bingo of the Days. What exactly is a bingo? It's when a player empties his or her rack in one turn, placing all seven of their letters on the board to create a word that's at least seven letters long. The term " ...more

You're never going to see a project from me that involves straight pipe. You would have when I was a kid, but after too many years in the construction industry, I need to see a good finish. If the project doesn't look slick, I don't want to say I did it. I have to say right o ...more

Now that Google+ is open to everyone, there are a lot of new people who aren't techies trying out the service. When you first sign on, it can be overwhelming. I've decided to round up a bunch of resources to help you get started, and recommend some people for you to follow, if ...more

This week, Google held back on introducing a slew of new Google+ features, and introduced new Chrome extensions instead. The new additions won't replace of your favorite Chrome extensions, but they are very useful, and elegant. Google+ Chrome Extensions From Google +Timothy ...more

There are two types of Scrabble players in the world—those who enjoy it and those who love it. I definitely fall into the latter category. Unfortunately, most of my friends don't. I'm lucky to have a few who simply enjoy it from time to time—some are even standing on the edge ...more

Grand Theft Auto 3 was the biggest video game of the last decade, by far, introducing open-world adventure games to consoles, a genre that now rivals shooters and sports games for market dominance. A huge map, decentralized narrative, and myriad of interlocking quests and obje ...more

Game demos are unfortunately a dying breed. While broadband has made it easier than ever to distribute demos to PC and console gamers, they've become more expensive and risky to make. They seldom come out before the full game, especially for AAA games. Developers realize their ...more

Deep in their heart of hearts, most Americans dream of having their car festooned with missile launchers and machine guns. Anyone who cuts them off or looks at them funny in traffic could be dispensed with quick and extreme justice, leaving a real-life James Bond and his passe ...more

The philosophy of street art is a long and complex one. This is just the first in a series of the individual street art philosophys i have come across. First a quick history/philosophy lesson. The culture of graffiti goes back to the 70's where the first taggers were kids liv ...more

What happens when a person who has never played a building sandbox game tries it for the first time? Reality happens. The harsh reality of human nature. You would think playing with friends in a creation game would be utopia, but in truth it's more like being stuck with people ...more