As a boy, I spent most of my formative years playing with action figures and reading comic books. Nonetheless, I also got to play house with my female cousins when they wanted to. Who says you have to be a girl to play house, anyway? We would use plastic toys, paper, and sometimes real cutlery…

Over the past year or so, people have been doing their best to improve living conditions inside their homes. This is the “new normal” after all, so we might as well make the best of being cooped up in a single place for the time being. One important aspect of home improvement is lighting; it…

Distinguishing the Pillsbury Doughboy from the Michelin Man can boggle the minds of some folks. Here’s a tip, though: the former has a white chef’s hat while the latter has a body that looks like stacked white tires. Even better, here’s a restoration of a 1918 Michelin Man statuette by Marty from Awesome Restorations. This…

If you haven’t seen it yet (in which case, you definitely should), Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle is a… well, moving story about the love between two opposite characters. Think Beauty and The Beast, only instead of a gorgeous woman and beast-like man, you have a gorgeous young man and a woman cursed with age.…

You have probably seen an igloo before (even just on videos) and wondered just how in the world some frozen water can keep a person warm. I mean, it’s made out of ice! But according to Joe Hanson of It’s Okay To Be Smart, there are specific reasons that can explain the igloo’s ability to…

Have you ever seen a wind turbine and wondered how in the world people keep them in good condition? Well, simple: they climb the dang things. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWSckm8zTc8&ab_channel=TomScott A few months ago, Tom Scott climbed one of Octopus Energy’s wind turbines in the UK. This wasn’t a luxury trip, however. After climbing the 50-meter tall ladder…

Forget science t-shirts and obscure math formula tattoos; there is now a more fashionable way to get your geek on. Upcycling old circuit boards, the folks at Circuit Breaker Labs handcraft unique pieces of jewelry that show the miniature beauty of a PCB. If you ever take the time to look closely at a circuit board,…

As someone in my early thirties, my knowledge of the money-making process is as follows: you go to work, get paid, end of the story. I have yet to wade through the vast ocean that is the stock market. I heard it’s also a good way of making money, provided you know which companies to…

You might have seen a gun equipped with a silencer in your favorite movie, show, or video game before. With a long, metal tube attached to the barrel of a firearm, you would hear the iconic *tfft* of muted bullets as they whiz towards their targets. But fiction is rarely anything like real life, and…

When Apple released its object-finding AirTags back in April, it probably expected us to snap them on some expensive belongings. You know: wallets, keys, those sorts of things. I mean, you’re paying $29 for a single AirTag; might as well keep it on something valuable. But in the case of Matty Benedetto, creator and product…

Owning a pet means a boatload of responsibilities. This is why getting a short break from all those tasks (or at least making them easier to manage) feels like a huge relief. We already saw it with the auto-filling litterbox on Kickstarter. Nonetheless, our pet’s doo-doo isn’t the only thing we need to mind when…

You might not notice it because of how fast it leaves your hands, but paper bills have some neat tricks up their sleeves. Everyone knows about serial numbers and security ribbons, but did you know certain national banknotes (US Dollars included) have a layer of invisible ink that makes them even harder to counterfeit? That’s…

You may just write it off as another animated film, but most people consider The Lego Movie as a big leap for LEGO animated features. That’s because prior to Chris Pratt taking center stage as Emmet Brickowski, LEGO features were quite unrealistic and focused more on the CGI rather than the strengths of LEGO. So…

It’s amazing that even with so many multi-tools on the market, very few of them have the one thing most people need: a writing apparatus. I mean, what good is a mini-ruler/blade/tape measure when you don’t have any marking tool to use with them? With this, the folks at World’s Tiniest have decided to make…

I’m happy we live in a prevalent digital age. Things are pretty instant now to the point that you don’t need to move a muscle just to have a specific task done. Need to sweep the floor? There’s the Roomba. Need breakfast ready when you wake up? There are self-timer kitchen appliances. So, how come…

Not everyone has an excessive amount of money to burn… including me. That’s why when I desperately want something fancy and expensive, I find cheaper alternatives. That’s what I exactly did when the last of my fans at home died and saw the alluring ad of that Dyson fan. The power? Check. The price? US$650.…

If you haven’t heard about it, GeoGuessr is a nifty (and sometimes free) web-based geographic game designed by Swedish IT consultant Anton Wallén. It uses Google Street View or Mapillary images which randomly plop you in a region of your choice. When the game starts, you have to figure out your exact location using your…

There’s just something about restoration projects that really fascinates me. It might be the joy of seeing the years of wear and tear being removed from something old. It could even be the intricate process of restoration. Or, perhaps, it’s just that I see the sentimental value in every single stuff. No matter what the…

Most desk jobs nowadays involve staying indoors in front of a computer screen. While this is fine for introverts and shut-ins, it doesn’t bode well for those who long for the great outdoors. So why not bring a small and manageable piece to your workspace? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB1t82WmC-s&ab_channel=Amazing Magnapot is a series of modular ceramic pots which…

There’s just something about the smokey, outdoorsy smell and flavor of well-grilled foods that get me. But as summer ends and the weird weather approaches, chances to cook on an outdoor grill become few and far between. So instead of hoping for good weather, why not bring the grill inside your home? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLpjpgpzwWw&ab_channel=THE3BEST Flagship Light…

When I was four, I had that stupid idea of stopping the blades of an electric fan… using my tiny fingers. Really just a child curious about things. Long story short, I wasn’t able to point at things for a while. But, the good news is I still have that finger (in case you were…

Have you ever wondered how one of those perpetual Heron’s fountains works? You know, those ones with a seemingly infinite supply of water? You could look it up on Google, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, why not have YouTuber DaveHax explain it with a miniature Heron’s fountain built out of bottles and straws?…

Mark Rober, a former NASA and Apple engineer, always has something up his sleeve. This time, his newest project is a domino-stacking robot he nicknamed “Dom” (short for “Dominator”). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HEfIJlcFbs&t=130s&ab_channel=MarkRober As said, Dom has one specific function: to stack as many dominoes as fast and as accurately as possible without a single misplaced piece. Why,…

Even with the human body’s natural ability to adapt, we aren’t exactly made to withstand too much g-force. You can chalk this up to humans’ inability to fly or run at supersonic speeds. So, why do some folks even bother going to high-G training? Well, it’s to up their g-tolerance before getting in an aircraft.…

Ask anyone who has played Minecraft for 5 minutes and they’ll tell you how things start off. You are dropped into a random world, then punch some trees to get wood, and you make yourself some wooden tools on a workbench. Well, the question is: can a wooden pickaxe break anything in reality? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEz_2spRbek&ab_channel=LouisWeisz To…

You can deny it all you want but at some point in your life, you probably thought of digging a hole to (or through) the center of the Earth. There are those western folks who even believe that with enough hard work and dedication at digging a hole, they could pave the way for the…

Vegan shoes (those that are made without involving any animal in the process) are rapidly making themselves known in the footwear industry. Instead of harming animals, these supposedly Earth-friendly pieces of footwear rely on faux leathers which are made from PVC or polyurethane. This gives them that leather-like feel. However, what you might not know…

After carving a wooden spoon using a spoon, you would think craftsman Alex Apollonov wouldn’t have any more inception-like tricks up his apron. Well, you would be sorely mistaken for thinking so. Upon discovering a stray tree stump in his backyard, Apollonov decided that the best way to get rid of the said tree would…

Back in 2009, LEGO partnered with Japanese company Muji and it’s hard to see why. The former is a Danish toy company known for making plastic bricks while the latter is a retail company widely known for its clothing, furniture, and stationery, just to name a few. So, what really spurred LEGO and Muji to…

Owning pets is like having 5-year-old children around you 24/7. While their Instagram photos and videos paint a picture of a perfect world, life behind the scenes is anything but. You have to train them, feed them, and worst of all… clean up their mess, specifically their dung! No one likes to clean someone (or…

If you ever accidentally smashed your fingers or toes in a door, you’ll know it’s one of the most painful experiences imaginable. (Perhaps, second to the agonizing pain of LEGOs under your foot) The pain would usually start a little while after the impact but trust me, you’d say the nastiest words possible once it…

While most people are familiar with the classic chain gears in bicycles, there are a number of other, less greasy alternatives now which are seeing more widespread use. One of these alternatives – the chainless shaft drive – hasn’t quite found a foothold in the bicycle world. But why is that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eimLIkJaNFM&ab_channel=CYCLINGABOUT In a video…

Though I don’t wear a pair of glasses regularly, I know how annoying it can be to have dirty sunglasses at the beach. It’s hard to enjoy the scenery when someone’s fingerprints (most likely yours) are smudging up the view. You could wipe your glasses yourself, but that might just make things worse. So, why…

When you buy a safe, padlock, or any kind of security device, you want that device to keep your stuff safe. Sadly, a lot of these devices aren’t up to snuff and do a poor job of keeping your valuables away from prying hands. So how do you tell the good security devices from the…

The Star Wars franchise is no stranger to Japanese culture. The Jedi and lightsaber battles were obviously inspired by samurai. Wipe transitions have their roots in old Akira Kurosawa films. Even the symbols representing the Rebels and the Empire were inspired by the emblems used by powerful Japanese families. Japanese culture runs deep in the…

At its core, billiards (or pool – as the cool kids like to call it) is just a game about simple geometry. Once you understand how the balls move and react on a flat rectangular plane, you can pull off some sick moves by bouncing them off of walls and into each other. While the…

Making things with LEGO is cool and pretty easy. The same thing goes for creating the bricks themselves. Due to the toy’s simple design and the amount of stuff you can build with it, there’s a lot of unofficial products which try to emulate the Danish company’s iconic bricks. Even though they might have been…

Metalworks require a lot of time, patience, and hard work. Moreover, the materials for metalworking aren’t cheap or easy to come by, so it’s always nice to see some old chunks of metal get recycled into something new. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-846gmAeNU8&t=648s&ab_channel=BlackBeardProjects Italian metalworker Black Beard Projects thought it would be a good idea to break down a…

You hate them. We hate them. They’re the bane of every vehicle owner – potholes! These nasty depressions in the roads may seem harmless to pedestrians, but they can cause millions, if not billions, of dollars in vehicular damage if left unchecked. But how do these sneaky buggers even come to be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRuarpWsKHY&t=478s&ab_channel=PracticalEngineering Civil engineer…

Unless you’ve been in a vehicular accident (which I hope you haven’t), you won’t notice how much road barriers have evolved over the years. Despite what you see on television, these accident prevention materials have actually gotten better at saving lives rather than ending them. It just so happens that the small percentage of deaths…

Back in the 18th century, travelers on the American frontier had to constantly move to get stuff done. Whether it’s to trade, settle, or explore, chances are you’d need a gun to feed and protect yourself. Be it a musket or a pistol, guns back in the day used circular bullets mixed with gunpowder to…

This is one of those instances where art begets art. Inspired by the high-octane movie John Wick: Chapter 2, the guys at Corridor decided to put their own spin on the mass-murdering hitman… only with a more kid-friendly arsenal. Meet Nerf John Wick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MrnAJsxL8c&ab_channel=Corridor The 3-minute video showcases moves lifted directly from the film, such…

Near the shores of Los Angeles stands the Ivanhoe reservoir. And covering the entire surface of this 39-hectare (96-acre) wide reservoir are over 96 million shade balls. You must probably be betting that this is the world’s biggest ball pit and you might be right! But those balls serve a greater purpose than providing the…

Unlike the expensive 3D printers, a 3D pen isn’t the most precise instrument for making printed models. That’s not entirely the pen’s fault, however. By adding in a human element, you’re effectively reducing the speed and accuracy for a more personalized 3D print. Still, some people like that human touch – even if it doesn’t…

We’ve all been told never to consume soda and Mentos at the same time. It is pretty obvious why: you don’t want to see yourself vomiting some foam. How would that happen? Well, it’s pretty simple. This scotch mint can nucleate the carbon dioxide in the soda, resulting in a rapid increase in the latter’s…

As we near the end of this pandemic and things start going back to normal, there are few things I’m definitely going to miss. I’ll miss staying indoors for weeks and weeks. I’ll miss not caring about how I look as no one but my immediate family gets to see me. But most of all,…

The thing I love most about pizza is how you can literally put anything on it and it will still be a pizza. The worst thing about pizza? Making it. With no culinary expertise whatsoever, your entire pizza crust could end up as undesirable as the cornicione; not to mention the mess and the effort…

Normally when you water your plants, you sprinkle them using a garden hose or some kind of water container. That’s for sure… unless you have the time and the vigor to create a hydroelectric dam to make this task more automatic. That’s exactly what the YouTuber known as Construction General did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzG804zrDmQ By scaling down…

If you break it down to the basics, 3D printing simply involves heating filament and using a bunch of preprogrammed electronics to place it where you want. So, in theory, you can cut out all the complexities by heating the filament and manually spreading it yourself… right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aJDnpeFHaY While 3D printing pens definitely exist, the…

Ah, baseball: one of America’s favorite pastimes. While it is fun tossing the ball of the same namesake around, what really gets the crowd cheering is when someone hits the said ball with a good, solid bat. Though Major League Baseball requires the use of wood bats, lower levels have allowed the aluminum bats to…