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Let’s face it: beating the summer heat isn’t always as simple as it should be. Running the AC all day really puts a hurting on that electric bill, and not everyone is lucky enough to live near the cool waters of the ocean. Still, what this German architect and resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, did to cool off might just be a bit too extreme for some people.

A like-new(but really refurbished) iPhone 6S 16GB made entirely from parts purchased in the public cell phone parts markets in Huaqiangbei.

Turning your cottage into the ultimate weekend getaway has never been more simple thanks to Adam Holman, as he drums up some easy, quirky and fun DIY projects that you can do next time you’re at the cottage.

A predictable consequence of the move to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour will be the hastened transition from human to a more robotic work-force. A photo that went viral this week showed a robot "manning" the take-out window at McDonald's. You can expect to see more of this. Employers will, of course, be pilloried by the usual cast of economically-challenged Marxists in the political and chattering classes as heartless, sexist, homophobic racists, etc., who put profits before people. But the non-economically challenged among us realize that the increased use of robots is a completely rational response of...

I think we all agree that the quality of the opuses here on Free Republic has dropped considerably. Yes, I know that the plural of opus is opera. To me, opera is just some people putting themselves on a stage and waving their arms around and screaming something that nobody understands. By golly, that is exactly what the opus writers do. Still, the dictionary assures me that "opuses" is also a correct plural form of "opus". If you don't like it, well, write that into your opus....in Italian. My Dad always told me, "If you're going to write an opus,...

New York woman arrested for driving with a handmade license plate. On Friday, CBS News reported that Amanda Schweickert, 28, of Sardinia is in trouble for using a fake license plate. She is not supposed to be driving because she has a suspended registration and no car insurance. However, it did not stop her from using a little creativity. She decided to create her own license plate. Authorities say she used a piece of cardboard and painted blue text on it. Although the plate didn’t look too dreadful, it fooled no one. On Wednesday, a police officer pulled Schweickert over...

When we released Raspberry Pi 2 in February this year, we announced that Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT Core, a version of Windows 10 for small Internet-of-Things devices that may or may not have a screen, would be available for the device. Since the Windows Insider release of Windows 10 Core in August, we’ve found that lots of people looking for a Pi 2 are arriving at sellers’ websites from sites catering for Windows developers. Many Windows developers are coming to Raspberry Pi for the first time; we couldn’t be more pleased to welcome them, and we hope they’ll encounter much...

From the video description: Published on Sep 4, 2015 I built this tiled roof hut in the bush using only primitive tools and materials. The tools I used have been made in my previous videos. It should be pointed out that I do not live in the wild and that this is just a hobby. It should be obvious to most that this is not a survival shelter but an experiment in primitive building technology. To cut and carve wood I used the celt stone axe and stone chisel made in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-34JfUrHYTo carry water and make fire I...

The iconic image of the American farmer is the man or woman who works the land, milks cows and is self-reliant enough to fix the tractor. But like a lot of mechanical items, tractors are increasingly run by computer software. Now, farmers are hitting up against an obscure provision of copyright law that makes it illegal to repair machinery run by software. Take Dave Alford. He fits that image of the iconic farmer. "I do farming on the family ranch," says Alford, standing on a piece of grassy earth with a white barn behind him. "I've been farming for the...

Full Title: Pimp my filing cabinet!: Man shows off incredible DIY skills by turning an old grey filing cabinet into a BBQ smokerA man has shown off his incredible DIY skills by turning an old grey filing cabinet into a barbecue smoker. The handy man, whose identity has not yet been revealed, captured his ingenious invention on camera which comes complete with wired shelves in each drawer to put the food on. His sleek gray filing cabinet looks office ready at first, but it soon turns out to be the ultimate barbecue smoker as he pulls open each drawer to...

Contending that modern automobiles contain computer programs that entail trade secrets and are too complex to be touched by do-it-yourself car buffs, the General Motors Corporation is urging the government to make unauthorized auto repair illegal. It won’t take an Act of Congress to accomplish this objective. A mere reinterpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) would do the trick. GM spokesman Lee Hunsacker asserted that “letting just anyone look under the hood is archaic in our day and age. What if they mess something up? The victims of any subsequent crashes will sue us. We are the deep-pocket...

There are over 100 pre-oil change treatments products for removing engine sludge. Each product endorser swears on a stack of Bibles that IT is the best --the others are all dastardly liars. But see, I trust Freepers: Is there a stand-out product, detergent, or some DIY product for gasoline-powered car engines that average Joe's can buy or formulate and run in their engine for 10 minutes right before an oil change in order to free up engine sludge...? This gasoline-powered Camry has not changed oil in over 10,000 miles, I believe. Sorry for the Vanity, I think this is almost...

[VIDEO] Anyone with some brains and lots of courage can build their own space rocket using everyday, off-the-shelf products. We recently flew to Denmark to meet the founders of Copenhagen Suborbitals, a non-profit open-source D.I.Y. space endeavor.

Most of us are aware of the KISS principle: Keep it simple, stupid! And while simplicity is certainly a theme in many 3D printers, they are anything but stupid—and created by those who are the polar opposite—with ingenuity in abundance—which they use to share new innovations with the world. One quite simply has to give up with wondering what the collective ‘they’ will come up with next and just roll with the idea that the possibilities in 3D printing are infinite. And as progress in the industry and the community of makers marches on daily and hourly, it’s hard not...

In this day and age, everyone could use a pair of headphones. And if you want to stand out from the sea of white cords, you’ll definitely want to check out this DIY tutorial. He takes two bullets, and with just a little bit of work, he’s left with headphones that look more like a work of art than your new BFF on your daily commute.

Homemade Railgun Experiment Yes, that's right. After gathering all the materials I built my first little railgun experiment. Read the whole article after the break! Let's first take a look at how a railgun works, a video about the whole topic can be found here. Similar to a coilgun, a railgun works by magnetic propulsion. A basic railgun consists of three parts: A set of parallel, metal rails, a huge powersource like a capacitorbank and a metal projectile. Here is a railgun's schematic for your convenience. What happens inside a railgun? There's a huge current flowing through the rails and...

For those who've always wanted to build their own home, the prospect may now be more realistic than ever, thanks to a new wave of kit homes.

Big or small, contemporary or traditional, kit homes are an intriguing alternative for homebuyers today. Most kit homes are designed to be swiftly assembled by even novice do-it-yourselfers, and the price per square foot runs as low as $20 (and as high as $400). We've pulled together some of our favorite kit homes, and the tour starts here!

A dinosaur hobbyist who made his name as a Microsoft multimillionaire published a scientific paper on Monday alleging “serious errors and irregularities” in dinosaur research involving some of the world’s top paleontologists. The research, some of it dating to the 1990s, analyzed skeletons of different ages to estimate how quickly dinosaurs grew. For example, a 2001 paper, published in the journal Nature, estimates that the giant dinosaur Apatosaurus had a growth spurt of 12,000 pounds in a year. The papers, particularly a 2004 paper in Nature on the growth of Tyrannosaurus Rex, were influential in offering an explanation for why...

Chinese professor Chi Nan has built her own Li-Fi wireless system that can use LED lights to send and receive Internet data. "I bought the lights from Taobao," she said, referring to the Chinese e-commerce site. The professor from Fudan University showed off the technology on Tuesday at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai. Unlike traditional Wi-Fi routers that use radio signals, Chi's system relies on light to send and receive data wirelessly. Others scientists, especially in the U.K., have also been researching the technology, and dubbed it "Li-Fi". But rather than develop specialized hardware, Chi bought off-the-shelf retail...