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GamesArchive for May, 2009
Ralph Baer was working for a U.S. defense company when he invented the world’s first video game system. Luckily, this Stuff of Genius was too fun to remain locked away from the public. Learn more about video games in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
Like most other automotive enthusiasts, I love car museums. Of course, the more cars the better, but it doesn’t really matter to me if there are hundreds of cars on display or just a few. I’ve also found that it doesn’t really matter what kind of vehicles are on display…
You Asked: How can I make a simple solar cell? — Shayan, Delhi, India Marshall Answered: There isn’t a way for you to make a good solar cell yourself, but there are ways to create devices that produce a little bit of voltage and current in response to sunlight. For example, here is one made [...]
1957 was an amazing year for humankind. Or at least for the Soviet Union. In October 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 with an R-7 rocket, as described in the following video. The Sputnik satellite is seen at minute 6: Meanwhile, things weren’t going so well in the United States: Just a month after Sputnik [...]
Let’s start with a quick introduction to mushrooms, including white mushrooms, brown mushrooms, portabella mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and oyster mushrooms: Mushrooms 101 White and Portabella Mushrooms The easiest way to start growing your own mushrooms is to buy a box kit. You get a box of growing medium and the spawn. Basically you add water [...]
Hello, all. As you well know, it is in the 21st episode of the 13th season of “The Simpsons,” that the screamapillar is introduced. You will remember that the screamapillar is a highly obnoxious endangered species of insect that’s characterized by its endless screams for attention. According to a pamphlet created by the EPA, entitled “Screamapillar Care Tips,” the insect screams in its sleep, it is sexually attracted to fire, it will die unless it receives constant reassurance and it is the favorite food of everything.
Sexual attraction to fire is, of course, hilarious. Any suicidal lack of survival instinct is pretty funny. Which is why I think this article in Cosmos I came across is so utterly wonderful. I’ve ingested the meat of it and will regurgitate it for you here now. Open wide!
In 7th grade, my class had an elaborate project where we had to press and catalogue edible plants, as well as cook something from one of them. I chose strawberry shortcake made from wild strawberries, but looking back, I might have had a few Potentilla indica, aka “mock strawberries” mixed in there. No harm done — there was still cake and ice cream.
EcoLocalizer recently reported on the self-proclaimed “Wild Girl” Becky Lerner of Portland, Ore., a woman basically living in my class’ science project for a week. She’s only eating food she can forage or catch wild. (If she wearies of dandelion greens, she should check out this old New York Times article about how to prepare things like black bear and sparrows — although I guess hunting bears kind of forces you into a new league of wilderness survival.)
Lerner, who is blogging about her experiences on Culture Change, is no wilderness neophyte.
You Asked: How do detoxing foot baths and pads work? — Janeane, Lowell, Ark. Marshall Answered: Let’s start out by recognizing that the entire “detox” industry, which includes “detoxifying diets”, “detox elixirs”, “detox pills”, etc., is a complete scam. See How detox doesn’t work for details. But these foot pads take the scam to a whole [...]
Hey, folks. We have a very talented fan here at Stuff You Should Know and I wanted to share a little snippet of his work. His name is Box Brown, he’s a cartoonist and was kind enough to do a “commissioned” work for us after I saw his awesome Web site and begged him to. His work is what I guess you could call “alternative comics” or something like that, but by any name it’s very cool, left-of-center stuff. In other words, right up our alley here at SYSK.
Dig this cool comic strip he made just for us. Hopefully there will be more to come — thanks, Box!
Check out his site while you’re at it — http://boxbrown.com.
Here are two different ways to build a mini flame thrower, should you ever need one. Way 1 uses flash paper with flash cotton as the propellant: Way 2 takes advantage of a fun fact about aerosol cans – many of them use butane as the propellant: Make a flame thrower What if you would [...]
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