Drink a lot of beer in the bottles and have too much recycling every week?

Don’t worry, you can turn your empty beer bottles into powerful solar-powered LED beer lanterns that will light up your house at night for free.

Al Gore and company have helped us to see that our planet is in peril. Lend a hand, make a toast, and help illuminate ways for saving Earth — all at the same time! It’s easy to do your part: recycle, refill, and recharge. Just take your fave beverage bottle (keep the cap), drop in a flexible solar panel, a step-up switching regulator circuit, a rechargeable battery pack, and a powerful LED, cap it, and you’ll have a self-sufficient garden lantern that is ideal for shedding some light on solving environmental issues. You will have to choose your bottle carefully, though. Clear glass rules. Also, wide-mouth bottles are easier to convert than narrow opening long-neckers. Like your grandfather who built ships in discarded bottles, put a modern spin on bottle building while being conscientious of your world. Cheers!

via popsci

You know those telepromopters that TV news reporters use to read their daily news?  Well, here’s a simply way to make a teleprompter for any type of presentations.  (This one is an example for a church but I don’t see any reasons why you wouldn’t use it outside god’s house.)

1. Whatever you do…. no matter what…. and this is job #1 so pay attention…. always have a paper copy of your notes in your suit pocket.     Allow me to repeat myself — Have paper backup of your talk.    To sum up this point:  Make sure you have your notes on paper, and easily accessible in case your computer dies.
2. Write your talk, refine it and get it to the point where you would normally print it out as notes. In my case I work from a hybrid of a bullet point outline & written-out quotations.
3. Enter those notes,  page by page into a power point presentation.   Use huge font, as it is irrelevant how many slides/pages you use.
4. Get a “wireless presenter”    You plug a small receiver into any USB port, then hold the tiny clicker in your hand.  My clicker is 1-1/2 inch across, 3-1/2 inches long and about 1/2 inch thick.  It fits easily, and unobtrusively into your hand.   No one will even notice it.

via ldsym

Here’s a really useful DIY for those of you with concrete floors.  Basically this DIY shows you how to paint your concrete floor with epoxy finish.

Why is this good?

Well, you can give your concrete floors a new shiny finish with your favorite color without spending a bunch of money on new wood flooring or whatnot.

I did this to one of my former job offices, (well, I hired someone to do it) and it’s a really good solution for turning a warehouse into an office. (that’s what I did)

It sure beats spending more than $2000 on hardwood flooring.

If you have a garage that you park a vehicle in or use as a project work area then you probably keep wishing the floor looked a little better. Well with a few gallons of Epoxy Paint and a weekend your floor can look better then new.

via yourepair

Here’s a cool set of DIY colo-changing LED coasters.  Basically, it runs on solar power, LEDs light up in red for hot drinks and blue for cold drinks.

Looks pretty simple to make, maybe a good idea for your next circuits projects.

Smart Coasters are cast-plastic coasters for your drink that light up red when you put a hot drink on top and light up blue with a cold drink. The design is fully analog– no microcontrollers and no programming– and they incorporate a solar cell so that the whole thing is hermetically sealed: waterproof and washable. Complete step-by-step DIY instructions are included for both the electronics and the resin casting.

via evilmadscientist, hungryscientist

Here’s a cool DIY hydroponics system you can make for growing all types of your favorite plants indoors.

This is a great way to keep your plants constantly filled with nutrients, now don’t burn your house down with lamps that are too powerful.

The air pump has become a staple component in most systems for various reasons. Moving water with air makes complete sense to me while solving several issues and being cheap, reliable and easily serviceable. Pump maintenance is algae free and time will tell just how reliable.

via instructables

Here’s a cool way you can make your car smell better while not having to spend more money.

It’s a DIY on how to make your own natural car air freshener out of old clothing and smelly perfumes you have.

Great idea, isn’t it?  At times like this where U.S. economy is failing miserably (probably mostly due to miserable failure), we need to save every dollar we can or at least learn to re-use or re-make.

First you need some old fabric. Think about the clothes you no longer wear and towels and blankets you no longer use. If you’re not inclined to sewing, you can simply cut out the shape you want from the fabric. Cut out two of whatever shape you choose. Glue these shapes down to some cardboard (think cardboard from old shoe boxes, cereal boxes, etc.). You should make the cardboard the same shape and size as the fabric pieces. After this is done, you can decorate how you wish. Add sequin, other layers of fabric, paint, etc.

When you’re totally completed, soak the fabric with your favorite essential oil to your liking. These oils are incredibly strong, so be cautious at first.

via discovery

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Here’s a fun DIY on how to make a bacon princess tiara out of bacon.  Now, can we eat this after we make it?

It’s not as simple as it looks so be prepared to dig into this if you want one for yourself.

You are going to be working with an enzyme that bonds protein. You are made of protein. Unless you want to glue your lungs together or glue your eyelids to your eyeballs, you absolutely must follow these safety rules. We cannot be held accountable for any mishaps you might have while working with transglutaminase.

via bb, DIY Page

Concorde may be one of the fastest airplanes that most of us will ever ride in our lifetime and someone has made a 1:1 real life-size replica of the Concorde engine using what he learned from a $10 Concorde engine repair book he bought on eBay.

This engine might not run but I am sure the guy who made it knows almost every detail of what went into making the Concorde engine.

Design firm PostlerFerguson has created Olympus, a 1:1 model of one of Concorde’s engines, which will be on display in the window of Selfridges until October 22.

via crblog, Designer’s Page

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Here’s a video of how to make a ghetto flame thrower using your jacked-up lighter and some spray cans.

Now, don’t go out there and burn off your dog, that is very BAD BAD BAD.

via metacafe