Fred and Betsy Warren prepare for WWIII

Fred and his wife decide to build a fallout shelter in their basement to protect their family in case WWIII breaks out. It ends up being a fairly small concrete block room in the corner. It looks awfully small for 4 people for 2 weeks, but I guess it will have to do. 

They stock it with supplies, although I didn't see any guns. Have they not watched any sci-fi TV shows about nuclear war? How do they plan on driving off their panicking neighbors when the big one drops and they try to break in?  And that's not even covering how to handle the raiders and mutants when they exit the shelter. Seems like sloppy planning to me. 

 

Popular Mechanics covers

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Popular Mechanics, first published in 1902, is a magazine that focuses on science, technology, machines, DIY projects, cars, planes, rockets, tools and the like. At one time it was widely read, but as with most periodicals, the internet has cut into its domain. It is still published. Its articles about future cutting edge technology were frequently ridiculous, and from the looks of things that hasn't changed.

These images of covers from the 20th century are from the Internet Archive. There are many more covers in their archive.

Test firing a homemade rifle

In this video the gunsmith and YouTuber AK Custom test fires his latest project. It doesn't go well for him, failing when a full charge is fired. This post, highlighting a failure, isn't really fair to him. At his channel you can see a lot of the successful guns he's built.

 

For our Northern friends suffering from cabin fever

Never let it be said that Flare's doesn't tend to its reader's needs -- even those regulars daft enough to live in a climate that doesn't support palm trees. I figured you might need a project to wile away the hours and came up with this video. OK, it will only wile away the minutes, but still.
  

DIY jet airplane kit

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A company called Sonex has a program called Hornet's Nest Research which is developing a DIY kit to build a personal jet aircraft which they call a VVLJ (Very, Very Light Jet). I would suggest it as a budget gift idea -- since they say it ewill only cost as much as a new S-LSA factory-built aircraft, whatever the heck that is -- but they're not taking orders yet.

Below is a video about it that includes some scenes of it flying.