M.I.A. Born Free
How to Finish Drywall: 18 Steps to Smooth Joints
There are few home improvement tasks greeted with more dread than finishing drywall. If you're like most people, you hope that you've already done your last finishing job. Unfortunately, if you enjoy working on your home, you are bound to be confronted by this task again. So it's worth your while to check out the tips and techniques we discuss here. Before You Begin The selection of tools we show here are not the only ones that work. Your selection of compound is just as important as your selection of tools. You also have a choice when it comes to joint tape, between paper tape and self-sticking fiberglass mesh tape. One last tip: If you buy your taping compound in 5-gal. pails, which is what we did, be sure to buy an opening tool. What You'll Need Tools: 5-, 8- and 10-in. flexible drywall-taping knives, joint compound pan, bucket-opening tool, electric drill, mixing paddle, respirator Getting Started There are probably as many approaches to the finishing process as there are finishers.
19 Ways to Slash Your Utility Bill
Where George Scott sees red, his clients are bleeding green. Scanning the outside of a ranch home in Longmont, Colo., recently, the energy auditor's infrared camera registered blue and aqua in spots where heated air stayed put. That's what the homeowner expected. "He thought he'd done everything right," Scott says, because he had tackled obvious stuff like adding insulation. "But he was baffled by his high gas bills." When the camera scanned the attic, the viewfinder found orange and red blobs where air gushed by the chimney, 20 recessed lights and two uninsulated hatches. But you don't need an infrared camera to reveal utility-bill busters that are left after the obvious stuff is done. That old clunker of a refrigerator in the basement could be costing the equivalent of 10 cases of Bud in wasted energy each year. + Plug the Power Drain As much as 75 percent of electricity use by electronics occurs while the devices are off. + Seal HVAC Ducts Put away the duct tape. + Block the Stairs
Books that will induce a mindfuck
Here is the list of books that will officially induce mindfucks, sorted alphabetically by author. Those authors in bold have been recommended by one or more people as being generally mindfucking - any books listed under their names are particularly odd. You're welcome to /msg me to make an addition to this list. And finally, although he's way down at the bottom, my personal recommendation is definitely Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, as it turns the ultimate mindfuck: inverting the world-view of our entire culture, and it is non-fiction.
10 Home Improvements Worthy of Tax Credits | BuildDirect Blog
1. Upgraded Windows and Doors One of the most problematic sources of energy inefficiency in homes is outdated windows and doors that allow heat to escape. By upgrading to energy smart windows, skylights and doors you can increase your overall efficiency and watch your bills decline.TAX CREDIT: 30% of cost up to $1,500.DISCLAIMER: Credit does not include installation costs. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 . BuildDirect has launched our new Learning Center!
photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson
Albert Camus, Paris, 1944. Coney Island, New York, 1946. Romania, 1975. Naples, Italy, 1960. A football game, Michigan vs. At the Le Mans Auto Race, France, 1966. Uzbekistan, 1954. Visitors from kolkhozy to the eleventh-century Alaverdi monastery, 1972. Improvised canteen for workers building the Hotel Metropol, 1954. The Arbat, Moscow, 1972. Chelny, Russia, 1973. Boston, 1947. New York, 1935. An African-American student is denied entry to a theater. Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia, 1960. Jean-Paul Sartre, Paris, 1946. Dessau, Germany, April, 1945. Nehru Announces Gandhi's Death, Birla House, Delhi, 1948. World's Fair, Brussels, 1958. Simone de Beauvoir, Paris, 1946. New York, 1960. Bankers Trust, New York, 1960. Near Strasbourg, France, 1944. The arrival of a boat carrying refugees from Europe reunites a mother and son who had been separated throughout the war, 1946. Communist students demonstrate against the black market. McCann-Erickson Agency, Madison Avenue, New York, 1959. New York, 1947.
Designer Creates Fake Rocks That Help Save Water
'Water displacement objects.' Images: Rochus Jacob via designboom. Putting a brick or a bottle filled with pebbles in your toilet tank is well known as an easy way to save water -- about a half a gallon with each flush. Drastic Reductions Without Big Behavior ChangesAs the designer, who won the grand prize in last year's IIDA awards with his thermodynamic cooler that relies on evaporating water rather than electricity and his Murakami chair, a rocking chair that powers its own reading lamp, explains: I always loved taking a bath but felt guilty about the consumption. Though the concept behind Jacob's creation is far from new, the attractive look of the objects makes them appealing to a broader public that might not want to wear their eco-consciousness on their sleeves.
Former "Seasteaders" Come Ashore To Start Libertarian Utopias In Honduran Jungle
The seasteader-in-chief is headed ashore. Patri Friedman (that’s Milton Friedman's grandson to you), who stepped down as the chief executive of the Peter Thiel-backed Seasteading Institute in August, has resurfaced as the CEO of a new for-profit enterprise named Future Cities Development Inc., which aims to create new cities from scratch (on land this time) governed by "cutting-edge legal systems." The startup may have found its first taker in Honduras, whose government amended its constitution in January to permit the creation of special autonomous zones exempt from local and federal laws. Future Cities has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to build a city in one such zone starting next year. Seasteading, i.e. the creation of sovereign nations floating offshore, is enshrined in libertarian thought as an end-run around the constraints of stodgy nation-states. Instead of seasteading, Future Cities is modeling itself on “charter cities.”
DIY: Wine Bottle Light & Wit & Whistle
November 3rd, 2009 This past spring Daniel and I went on a road trip from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon. Along the way we stopped at Chateau Julien for a wine tasting. You’ll need: an empty wine bottle a drill safety glasses and gloves (just in case the bottle breaks) 1/2″ glass drill bit masking tape short strand of Christmas lights (with a plug only on one end) How to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
