To use a DSLR most effectively, you need to understand how settings like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO (light sensitivity rating) affect your photos. You can read all you want about the various things you can do, but until you actually try it out and see the results it can be hard to imagine. There are a lot of variables that contribue to your final result, and CameraSim lets you see how they all work. There’s even a spinning pinwheel in your frame so you can change your shutter speed and see what’s necessary to avoid motion blur.

The simulation is very detailed and a great way to learn what every little setting does. If you’re thinking about purchasing a DSLR but want to learn more about how it works first, you should spend a little time with CameraSim and teach yourself.

CameraSim: The Online Camera Simulator

Drop two tablets in warm water, then soak a cotton ball in the solution. Apply it to the infected area for 30 minutes for relief from the insect bites. More Unusual Uses For Alka-Seltzer

By Treehugger.com

Updated: 10/16/2007 9:36:38 AM

What’s the Big Deal? Cleaning products are everywhere in our homes and offices: on dishes, countertops, furniture, clothes, floors, windows, and floating through the air. In our war on dirt and germs we may often actually be making things worse. Most of the conventional cleaning products we all grew up with are petroleum-based and have dubious health and environmental implications. Instead of opting for cleaning products that annihilate everything in their path, there are plenty of natural products and methods that keep a house clean and fresh-smelling without the toxic side effects.

Top 10 Tips
Here are 10 highly effective ways to go greener. Hit it.

1. Cleaner, greener, meaner
As the health and environmental impacts of conventional cleaning products become more thoroughly understood, more and more brands of healthy, green, and effective cleaning products have started hitting the market and competing for that coveted place of honor under your sink. Many of these products are non-toxic, biodegradable, and made from renewable resources (not petroleum). But if designer labels aren’t for you, home-mixed cleaners can get the job done and then some. Vinegar and baking soda can be used to clean almost anything. Mix in a little warm water with either of these and you’ve got yourself an all-purpose cleaner.

2. Healthy airflow
It is not uncommon for the air inside a home or office to be more toxic than the air outside. This is because of the presence of toxic materials and substances and the fact that homes and buildings are better insulated than ever before (which is a good thing from an energy standpoint). Keeping windows open as often as possible allows fresh air in and keeps toxins flowing out. This is especially important when cleaning your home.

3. Are we breeding supergerms?
The antibacterial and antimicrobial ‘cleaners’ that many people think are necessary, especially during cold season, don’t clean hands better than soap and water, and also add to the risk of breeding “super germs,” bacteria that survive the chemical onslaught and have resistant offspring. The FDA has found that antibacterial soaps and hand cleansers do not work better than regular soap and water, and should be avoided.

4. Help your home smell soda-licious
Baking soda not only removes those strange smells coming from your fridge, it’s also a great odor-eliminator for your carpet. Just sprinkle on a little baking soda to soak up some of those odors and then vacuum it up.

5. Clean peace
Skip the store-bought air fresheners and instead try boiling cinnamon, cloves, or any other herbs you have a fondness for. Fresh chocolate chip cookies also have been known to create a friendly aroma. Also, plants may not make your house smell different but are good for filtering interior air — pretty much any broad green leaf plant will do. Peace Lilies are a favorite choice.

6. The toxic toss
When replacing your cleaning products, don’t just throw the old ones in the trash. If they’re too toxic for your home, they won’t be good for the drain or the landfill either. Many communities hold toxics & electronics recycling days and will take all of these off your hands. Throwing chemicals in the trash or down the drain means they might end up back in your water supply and come back to haunt you.

7. Drycleaners
Conventional drycleaners are the largest users of the industrial solvent called Perchloroethylene, or perc, which is toxic to humans and also creates smog. The two most common green drycleaning methods are carbon dioxide cleaning and Green Earth. Seek out cleaners that use green methods. If you do take clothes to conventional cleaners, be sure to air them outside before wearing them or putting them in the closet.

8. Green house cleaning service
For people don’t have the time to clean their own homes, fortunately there are an increasing number of green cleaning services out there to help get things spic and span. If you can’t find one in your area (or their rates are outlandish), call around until you find a service willing to use the products and methods you specify.

9. Leave the toxins at the door
Imagine what’s on your shoes at the end of the day. Bringing that oil, antifreeze, animal waste, particulate pollution, pollen, and who knows what else into the house is not good news, especially for kids and other critters that spend time on floor level. Keep the sidewalk out of your home with a good doormat or a shoeless house policy. Many green buildings now include entryway track-off systems as a means of maintaining a healthy interior environment. Less dirt also means less sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming, which means less work, water, energy, and fewer chemicals.

10. Clean design
Designing houses and other building with cleanability in mind can create spaces that are cleaner, healthier, and require fewer substances to maintain. In larger buildings, good cleanability can also be a big money-saver as cleaning costs can often add up to as much as half of a building’s total energy costs.

So You Wanna Do More?
Not content with just getting by? Go Hardcore.

1. DIY
Create your own cleaning solutions made from products you have around the house. These save money and also keep toxic chemicals out of your house. See below for suggestions on homebrewed cleaners.

2. Taking it to the cleaners
Talk to your boss/co-workers/custodial team about switching cleaning products to green cleaning products. The people most at risk from the toxic effects of cleaning chemicals are custodial workers.

3. Underneath it all
Consider replacing your carpets with wood, linoleum or other non-carpet flooring. This will reduce the toxic cleaners needed for rugs as vinegar and water works great for cleaning non-carpet floors. This can also save energy, because you won’t need to run that vacuum.

4. Clean carpets
When getting carpets steam cleaned, look for companies that use only water or natural solvents.

5. Non-disposable
Paper towels and other disposable, single-use cleaning things can be replaced with reusable clothes and mircrofiber wipes. Clean them in the dishwasher and whiten them with hydrogen peroxide when they need it. Also, when it comes to buying sponges, natural ones are biodegradable and can break down or be composted when their useful life is through. But make certain that the natural sponges you buy come from a “sponge farm” and not from a natural ecosystem.

By The Numbers
Want the Real Deal? Here’s where the rubber meets the road.

1. 17,000: the number of petrochemicals available for home use, only 30% of which have been tested for exposure to human health and the environment.

2. 63: the number of synthetic chemical products found in the average American home, translating to roughly 10 gallons of harmful chemicals.

3. 100: the number of times higher that indoor air pollution levels can be above outdoor air pollution levels, according to US EPA estimates.

4. 275: the number of active ingredients in antimicrobials that the EPA classifies as pesticides because they are designed to kill microbes.

5. 5 billion: the number of pounds of chemicals that the institutional cleaning industry uses each year.

6. 23: the average gallons in chemicals (87 liters) that a janitor uses each year, 25% of which are hazardous.

See More

Learn how to make massive outdoor soap bubbles.

From Process Junkie:

I put together this list of my favorite figure drawing, sketching and anatomy books for fellow artists and student friends. You can download any and all of these books for free. I hope you’ll find them useful. Link

When you get bleach on your clothes usually means ruining the fabric, but Phelyx managed to turn bleach into a tool to “inverse” stencil an awesome t-shirt design!Here’s the tutorial: Link – via Boing Boing

This is super excellent: Howtoons by Saul Griffith, Nick Dragotta, and Joost Bonsen. What is it? It’s a DIY comic book to teach kids about science, engineering, art, and crafts: it contains how-to projects such as marshmallow shooter, turkey-baster flutes, and soda bottle submarine (above).

So wanna make a soda bottle submarine? You can print a downloadable PDF from the website (designed with help from Ryan McKinley and Phil Torrone):
Link