Monday, September 26, 2011

Plot Your House Color Palette to Evolve Interior Design [Home Improvement]

 
 

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via Lifehacker by David Galloway on 9/3/11

Plot Your House Color Palette to Evolve Interior DesignOften when you first buy a house or decide to remodel your home you need to evaluate the colors used throughout the house, which rooms you plan on painting, and what order to wish to paint. Using a floor plan with each room's wall color represented can help you get a feel for your current color scheme as well planning for future upgrades.

Home remodeling blog Young House Love recommends using a floor plan tool such as Floorplanner, but if you already have a copy of the floor plan it's probably just as easy to use an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP to add the colors in.

Painting the walls with a hip color can be a great way of making a new house or apartment your own inexpensively. If you want to coordinate the design in most of your rooms you may want to consider using the color palette technique.

Our Home's Recently Expanded Color Palette | Young House Love


 
 

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Kill Bugs With Diatomaceous Earth [Pest Control]

 
 

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via Lifehacker by David Galloway on 8/28/11

Kill Bugs With Diatomaceous EarthDiatomaceous Earth (DE) is a substance made up of the fossilzed remains of plankton; it looks like an off-white talc powder. It can kill any bug with an exoskeleton easily, but is safe for any mammal to eat. It is a popular way to kill bugs without using insecticide.

Permaculture web site Rich Soil explains how DE works:

Diatomaceous Earth is almost pure silica (with some beneficial trace minerals); under a microscope, it looks like shards of glass (glass is made from silica). On any beetle-type insect that has a carapace, like fleas and cockroaches, the DE works under the shell and punctures the body, which then dehydrates and the insect dies. DE is totally nontoxic. There is no buildup of tolerance like there is to poisons because the method of killing is PHYSICAL, not chemical.

Since DE is nontoxic to humans, you'll often find it in grain-based foods, as DE is mixed in with commodity grain to keep it safe from bugs. I used it last year to kill a few mounds of fire ants in my backyard. It took a few days to fully kill all the ants, but it worked well. Keep in mind that you need to keep DE dry before using as water will make it ineffective. Also make sure you buy food grade DE instead of pool grade DE as the latter contains up to 70% crystalline silica, a substance known to be carcinogenic with sustained use.

Food grade DE can be found at most organic gardening suppliers. You can also buy it online; here's a source to purchase a 2.5 gallon jug for $11.50 plus shipping.

Diatomaceous Earth is an inexpensive, nontoxic, and effective way to kill bugs. Give it a try next time you have an infestation. Photo by Alisha Vargas.

Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): bug killer you can eat! | RichSoil - Permaculture Articles by Paul Wheaton


 
 

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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Kill Bugs With Diatomaceous Earth [Pest Control]

 
 

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

 
 

via Lifehacker by David Galloway on 8/28/11

Kill Bugs With Diatomaceous EarthDiatomaceous Earth (DE) is a substance made up of the fossilzed remains of plankton; it looks like an off-white talc powder. It can kill any bug with an exoskeleton easily, but is safe for any mammal to eat. It is a popular way to kill bugs without using insecticide.

Permaculture web site Rich Soil explains how DE works:

Diatomaceous Earth is almost pure silica (with some beneficial trace minerals); under a microscope, it looks like shards of glass (glass is made from silica). On any beetle-type insect that has a carapace, like fleas and cockroaches, the DE works under the shell and punctures the body, which then dehydrates and the insect dies. DE is totally nontoxic. There is no buildup of tolerance like there is to poisons because the method of killing is PHYSICAL, not chemical.

Since DE is nontoxic to humans, you'll often find it in grain-based foods, as DE is mixed in with commodity grain to keep it safe from bugs. I used it last year to kill a few mounds of fire ants in my backyard. It took a few days to fully kill all the ants, but it worked well. Keep in mind that you need to keep DE dry before using as water will make it ineffective. Also make sure you buy food grade DE instead of pool grade DE as the latter contains up to 70% crystalline silica, a substance known to be carcinogenic with sustained use.

Food grade DE can be found at most organic gardening suppliers. You can also buy it online; here's a source to purchase a 2.5 gallon jug for $11.50 plus shipping.

Diatomaceous Earth is an inexpensive, nontoxic, and effective way to kill bugs. Give it a try next time you have an infestation. Photo by Alisha Vargas.

Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): bug killer you can eat! | RichSoil - Permaculture Articles by Paul Wheaton


 
 

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Monday, August 29, 2011

PillowMob Turns Portraits into Pillows

nice...and creepy!

 
 

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

 
 

via PetaPixel by Michael Zhang on 8/29/11

PillowMob is a new service that transforms photos of heads into puffy pillow heads. In addition to human faces, you can also use the face of your beloved pet. They cost $25 each with free shipping — it's currently available to US residents only, but the company may begin shipping internationally soon.


Thanks for the tip, Jeremy!



 
 

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Artist Mocks the Absurd Poses in Fashion Photos by Showing Them in Real Life

 
 

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via PetaPixel by Michael Zhang on 8/24/11

Have you ever noticed how ridiculous many of the poses seen in fashion and glamor photographs are? Artist Yolanda Dominguez has a project called Poses highlighting how absurd and artificial the poses are by having a group of women do them in public locations and filming the reactions of passersby. It's interesting how something so ridiculous when seen in real life can look so "normal" when done by a model in the context of a fashion photograph.

(via mashKULTURE)


 
 

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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Remove Yourself from All Background Check Web Sites: A Master List [Public R...

 
 

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via Lifehacker by Melanie Pinola on 8/2/11

Remove Yourself from All Background Check Web Sites: A Master ListAn alarming number of sites publish your name, address, and other information online. If you want to remove your data from sites like ZabaSearch and WhitePages.com, reddit user pibbman (via LawyerCT) has compiled a helpful list of them with links to the opt-out forms and instructions.

For most of these sites you just need to fill out an online form to have your information removed. A few annoying ones require more hoops to jump through. It's a worthwhile endeavor, though: since these are the major public record/background check sites, removing your name from all of them should get you removed from the smaller ones too, pibbman says.

How to remove yourself from all background check websites | Reddit


You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.

 
 

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Are These Really The 25-Best Ice Cream Shops In The Country?

been to 2 out of 25. i've got some work to do!

 
 

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via The Consumerist by Chris Morran on 8/10/11

What's that dividing line between a good spot to pick up an ice cream cone and a place truly deserving of being called the best in the country? The folks at Food & Wine magazine think they know and have put together their list of the 25 best ice cream spots in the entire U.S.

You won't find Dairy Queen, Cold Stone, Carvel or Mister Softee anywhere on this list. In fact, only one of the 25 eateries mentioned lists more than one location.

Only 19 states made the list and if you believe the Food & Wine editors, there are two areas with the highest density of quality ice cream. All three shops in California are located around the Bay Area (San Francisco, Berkeley and San Rafael) And while the three Massachusetts ice cream spots are more spread out, they're all within a short drive from the Boston area. Throw in the one listing for nearby Portsmouth, NH, and eastern Mass. may be the ice cream center of the country.

The full list is below and awaits your scrutiny. I've only tried one of the 25, so we want to hear from people that have actually sampled these wares -- and from everyone else who thinks they know of shops that deserved to make the list instead.

ARIZONA
Scottsdale: Sweet Republic

CALIFORNIA
Berkeley: Ici Ice Cream

San Francisco: Bi-Rite Creamery

San Rafael: Three Twins Organic Ice Cream

COLORADO
Denver: Sweet Action Ice Cream

DELAWARE
Hockessin: Woodside Farm Creamery

HAWAII
Honolulu: Bubbie's Ice Cream

LOUISIANA
New Orleans: The Creole Creamery

MAINE
Bar Harbor: Mt. Desert Ice Cream

MASSACHUSETTS
Cambridge: Toscanini's

Centerville: Four Seas Ice Cream

Sharon: Crescent Ridge Dairy Bar

MICHIGAN
Traverse City: Moomers Homemade Ice Cream

MINNESOTA
Minneapolis: Pumphouse Creamery

MISSOURI
Kansas City: Glace Artisan Ice Cream

MONTANA
Missoula: Big Dipper Ice Cream

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Portsmouth: Annabelle's Natural Ice Cream

OHIO
Columbus: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

Multiple locations: Graeter's

NEW YORK
Brooklyn: Blue Marble

NORTH CAROLINA
Hillsborough: Maple View Farm and Dairy

OREGON
Portland: Cool Moon Ice Cream

TEXAS
Austin: Amy's Ice Cream

WASHINGTON
Seattle: Molly Moon Ice Cream

Bainbridge Island: Mora Iced Creamery

SLIDESHOWS: Best Ice Cream Spots in the U.S. [FoodAndWine.com]


 
 

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