Month: July 2020

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17 Uses for Coffee Filters That Have Nothing to Do With Coffee

We all love coffee, right? Or at least a lot of us do.

If you’re a coffee drinker, then you’re probably also familiar with coffee filters. You know, the brown (or white) paper you that you use with your coffee maker.

It turns out that filters are quite versatile. In fact, you can do much more with coffee filters than you might think!

Here are 17 uses for coffee filters that have nothing to do with coffee are definitely creative.

1. Dryer sheets

That’s right: you can totally use coffee filters in place of dryer sheets. All you have to do is add a few drops of essential oil!

Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash

2. Cleaning stainless steel

Coffee filters won’t leave lint behind, so they’re pretty ideal for cleaning any stainless steel you might have.

3. Cleaning electronics

In that same vein, coffee filters are a great option for cleaning electronics, especially if you’re out of microfiber cloth.

4. Covering your food

If you’re microwaving a dish that has the potential to explode, you can use your coffee filters to cover the food and keep it contained.

5. Filtering cork crumbs

We don’t all open our wine perfectly, and that’s okay. If you’ve got bits of cork floating around in the bottle, just toss a coffee filter on top of it as you pour your drink into your glass.

Photo by Zan on Unsplash

6. Potting plants

A coffee filter is a great solution if you’re hoping to keep the soil in your potted plants from leaking out of the bottom of the pot!

7. Funneling liquid

In a pinch, a coffee filter can totally act as a makeshift funnel for brewing drinks, filling hummingbird feeders, and more.

Photo by Shengjun Shi on Unsplash

8. Spreading butter while cooking

If you don’t have a brush on hand, you can use a coffee filter to spread butter or oil in a pan while you cook.

9. Holding small parts

Anyone who has ever put together a Lego set knows that once opened, those pieces go everywhere! You can keep your pieces divided up inside coffee filters as you build.

Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash

10. Protecting plates

If you have extra-special dishes that you definitely don’t want to be damaged, you can keep them stacked with a coffee filter between each one.

11. Lining tins and containers

People who like to bake know that sometimes the most delicious treats leave a little residue behind. Storing your snacks in coffee filters inside tins and containers will help!

12. Steeping tea

If you want to use your own herbs for tea, you can simply load them into a coffee filter, tie the filter with a string, and voila: you have your very own tea bag.

13. Snacking

If you don’t want to have dishes to clean up after snacking, pop your snacks into a coffee filter! They’re portable and you can recycle them when you’re finished.

14. Lighting photos

A coffee filter can be great for softening the flash on your DSLR.

15. Cleaning up your nails

You can also use coffee filters to clean up your nails after polishing them. They absorb nail polish remover well and won’t make a mess!

16. Preventing rust

If you like to cook with cast iron skillets, you know how important it is to prevent rusting. Storing your skillet with a coffee filter inside it will help.

17. Lining a sieve

Chefs are forever looking for easy ways to line their sieves while cooking — look no further than a coffee filter.

Some of these are so creative! I can’t wait to try out a coffee filter the next time I make tea.

Don’t forget to let us know which ones you try in the comments!

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Let’s Take a Look at the Infamous Exploding Whale Incident of 1970

When kids are in high school, many of them think history class is the worst. One of the reasons for this, I’m sure, is that the worst teachers gravitate to that subject, but listen.

If teachers taught the parts of history that are actually interesting, I’m convinced it would magically turn into everyone’s favorite subject.

So, if you’ve never heard of the exploding whale incident of 1970, prepare to be amazed.

Image Credit: YouTube

It’s been nearly 50 years since someone thought “hey, dynamite seems like a good way to get this dead whale off the beach,” and now a beautiful park on the Oregon coast has been dubbed “Exploding Whale Memorial Park.”

That whale may not have died well, but at least he’s being remembered, eh?

It was November of 1970 when an 8-ton sperm whale beached itself. It had already expired when it was found, and the case was turned over to the Oregon highway division. The Navy advised them to blow the whale up, aiming it toward the ocean, where plenty of smaller animals would be delighted at the already-cooked meal.

They set to figuring out how much dynamite might be required to accomplish such a grisly feat, and, well…in the end, I think they probably wished they’d consulted a few experts.

Image Credit: YouTube

Like businessman Walt Umenhofer, perhaps, who was trained in using explosives during World War II. He happened to be driving near the scene at the time (in his brand-new car), and told the highway division he didn’t believe they’d gotten their calculations right. They’d stuck about 20 crates under the carcass, and he advised them to go with a lot fewer maybe 20 sticks) if they wanted to push it out to sea – or a heck of a lot more if they wanted to vaporize the entire thing.

Project manager George Thornton waved him off, telling reporters “well, I’m confident that it’ll work, the only thing is we’re not sure how much explosives it’ll take to disintegrate this thing.”

Image Credit: YouTube

The answer was more than they had, because when the whale exploded, massive pieces of blubber flew everywhere – onto buildings, cars in parking lots, and people suddenly caught in an unexpected and gory blubberstorm.

One journalist, Paul Linnman, said at the time that “explosions in the movies usually look like a blast of fire and smoke. This one more resembled a mighty burst of tomato juice.

Image Credit: YouTube

Poor Walt Umenhofer, who I assume was too disgusted to muster an “I told you so,” watched his car get smothered in whale debris. It caved in the roof and he required a shovel to remove all of the parts.

“My insurance company’s never going to believe this,” he said afterward.

The project manager refused to admit any mistake, saying that an unknown hole under the whale was what caused gawkers to be sprayed in whale innards.

Basically, you can see why this incident would grab kid’s attention in schools – perhaps part of a math lesson, even, about how to calculate force needed per ton or something? I’m not a math person, but I guarantee this story would have caught my attention.

For now, though, I applaud the people of Oregon for realizing there was never really any other name for this beach.

Live in infamy, giant sperm whale. You’ve given us more than we’ve deserved.

The post Let’s Take a Look at the Infamous Exploding Whale Incident of 1970 appeared first on UberFacts.

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Put Your Thinking Cap on for These Brain Teasers

We all feel a little slow on the uptake sometimes, or a little foggy, if you will. We need to force our brains to focus and remember what it’s like to solve a problem, to really work for it.

If you’re feeling like that’s exactly what you need today, these 6 brain teasers are here to help!

6. The reversing ball.

5. The end of it all.

4. A black dog on a black road.

3. Which is correct?

2. Born at the same time, but not twins.

1. A poisoned drink.

Continue reading to check your answers!

Are you ready?

Really ready?

Really, really ready?

Okay, let’s go!

6.

ANSWER:

5.

ANSWER:

4.

ANSWER:

3.

ANSWER:

2.

ANSWER:

1.

ANSWER:

Did you solve them all?

If so, I’m impressed!

Come back another day for more riddles like these!

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A String Quartet Performed for 2,300 House Plants Because That’s What Our World Is Now

If you’re a performer of any kind, then you know that one of the best things in the world is your audience. People are tough – they whisper, they shift, they crinkle their programs, they have to go to the bathroom…

Plants, though, are completely quiet and attentive for an entire performance, no matter how long it goes on.

A fact this string quartet surely appreciated after they put on a performance for an audience of 2300 house plants. They performed UceLi Quartet’s rendition of Giacomo Puccini’s Cristantemi (Chrysanthemum) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Image Credit: YouTube

The pictures are as bizarre as they are beautiful.

The theater hasn’t held any performances since March, so artist Eugenio Ampudia was able to implement his idea for a Concert pel Bioce (Concert for the Biocene), inspired by how his thoughts about nature have been impacted by the pandemic.

The plants were afterward gifted to the frontline workers at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona.

Image Credit: YouTube

The artist spoke with the Associated Press about his inspiration for the idea:

“I heard many more birds singing, and the plants in my garden and outside growing faster. A

nd, without a doubt, I thought that maybe I could now relate in a much more intimate way with people and nature.”

The performance can now be viewed online, and even though you might be tempted to laugh at the audience of greenery, the fact is that there’s evidence that plants enjoy music quite a lot.

Image Credit: YouTube

In 1962, botanist T.C. Singh believed his plants benefitted from a growth spurt after hearing classical music, and the idea has been explored by countless children in science fairs ever since.

The type of music does seem to matter, as subsequent papers have claimed rock music like Zeppelin and Hendrix actually causes plants to wilt, and there are whole Soundcloud videos dedicated to music for plants.

Image Credit: YouTube

A 2014 study tried to establish how and why plants might benefit from certain types of music, positing that waves of varying intensities could impact cell growth – plants like lettuce, spinach, cotton, and rice grew between 5 and 20% more while in the presence of music.

Word is out on how the plants that enjoyed this performance reacted, but we all liked it, and I’m sure the hospital workers are happy to have their days brightened by fresh greenery.

There’s something otherworldly about seeing these plants in the seats where humans once sat (and will hopefully one day sit again).

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LEGO Makes Pop Culture Art Kits for Adults Now. Yay!

Just about everyone loves LEGO…I mean, except for the parent who accidentally steps on one (or several) when they least expect it.

Many a child has spent their time happily building with the toy blocks, and the company knows it. Now, they’ve decided to release a brand new product that’s for adults LEGO Art.

The LEGO Art sets feature famous faces you probably already love, like Marilyn Monroe, The Beatles, Iron Man, and Star Wars characters.

LEGO explained more about the sets in their press release:

The LEGO Art sets offer adults a new creative experience to help them relax and recharge as they transform a blank canvas (or in this case, small interlinking base plates) using LEGO tiles.

The art kits are designed to be easy to rearrange so that it’s easy to display a brand-new version of your kit in your home. After all, you’re definitely going to want to show off your hard work!

LEGO also says that each kit is super easy to hang up:

All four new sets come with a signature tile unique to the set that is worthy of any true work of art, and a new hanging element to make them easy to hang up and switch around.

The art sets are also a great way to relax and unwind during this extended time of turbulence around the world.

Each set is priced at $119.00, and the art is truly stunning.

Photo by Fleur on Unsplash

The customization options mean that you can decide how you want your LEGO art to look. For example, you have the option to recreate Andy Warhol’s famous painting of Marilyn Monroe exactly, or you can mix up the colors and put your own spin on it.

Beatles fans will love being able to recreate the Fab Four’s liner note portraits from the White Album — and you might even want to buy four separate kits so you can display all four Beatles on your wall when you’re finished!

Don’t forget to let us know which set you plan to buy in the comments!

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