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So you have a room in your house that needs a new look, and you want to DIY. A new floor can make a dramatic difference. Laminate flooring can be a relatively inexpensive and relatively easy way to get a new floor. But the job might seem a little intimidating if you have never done it before. There are two ways to lower the intimidation factor – You can find a friend who has done it before, or you can watch people go through the process. The videos below will help with the latter…
A study that revealed a significant wealth gap went pretty much unreported when it came out last March. The study, conducted by the Insight Center for Community and Economic Development out of California, showed the disparity in wealth (the amount of money left over after you deduct debt from assets) between the races and among gender. What was revealed is not pretty.
I know, it’s TechStuff, so I should be telling you to pick up the electronics, right? According to a study at the University of California, San Francisco quoted by Matt Richtel of The New York Times, rats engaged with new experiences go through periods of intense brain activity. But the rats don’t actually process what they’ve experienced and learn from that experience until they stop and have the chance to think about it. Richtel said the researchers believe the same may be true for people as well.
Gearing Up for Dragon*Con: Tips for Con Crud Prevention
by Tracy V. Wilson | August 27, 2010
Here’s a nifty number, unless you hate crowds: The projected attendance at Dragon*Con 2010 is 40,000 people. And here are some less nifty numbers, unless you you’re into studying common pathogens: You can wind up with vomiting, diarrhea and cramps if fewer than 10 norovirus particles make it into your body, and you can get a cold off of one infectious rhinovirus virion.
That kind of puts con crud into perspective.
Podcast Goodness: Those Wacky Sleepwalking Freemasons
by Charles W. Bryant | August 27, 2010
Hello there, folks. Chuck Bryant here reporting from HSW.com HQ in Atlanta, Georgia. I know I promised to not mention the weather until something changed and low and behold, that’s happened. It’s actually cooled down ever so slightly here over the past day or so. We’re talking manageable heat though, it’s not exactly fall sweeping through. But I’ll take it.
This week on the Stuff You Should Know podcast program, Dr. Clark and myself talked about a couple of things — one that many people are well acquainted with and one that’s a little more, shall we say, mysterious.
Although you can’t buy Lustron homes today, they do represent a different way to build a house. Instead of being made of wood and sheetrock, Lustron homes are made of steel that was stamped in a factory, in much the same way that a car’s body parts are stamped. Then the homes were sold as 3,000-part kits for assembly by the homeowner, as described here…
How large-scale energy storage works for solar and wind power plants
by Marshall Brain | August 27, 2010
One of the problems with solar power plants is the fact that they shut down at night. The same holds true of wind turbines when the wind stops blowing. We discussed this last week:
In theory, wind power would allow several coal-fired power plants to shut down, but since you can’t rely on wind-power, the coal fired plants need to be kept online and hot for when the wind dies.
To solve this problem, there needs to be a way to store power and send it out to the grid in a steady stream. One of the easier ways to do that with solar power is to store solar energy as heat, as demonstrated here…
These days, bamboo is used to make all sorts of products, from flooring and furniture to bicycle frames. In this episode, Marshall explains why bamboo is becoming so popular — and the advantages of using it to create consumer goods.
In the Spanish city of Sevilla/Seville, you can’t turn a corner without finding Cool Stuff — from exquisite architecture and tasty tapas to Flamenco dancing! Matt and Rachel take you on a virtual tour of the romantic city of Seville in this episode.
Although numerous inventors had devised adding machines of some sort, William Seward Burroughs invented the first practical calculator. Tune in to learn more about his Stuff of Genius in this podcast.
Recent Postings by Category
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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
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Stuff You Missed in History Class
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