Category: Physical Tricks

  • Protect Yourself from ATM Fraud by Shielding the Keypad

    This video shows a couple of thieves installing a card-skimmer and a pinhole camera in an ATM. It also illustrates just how effective shielding the keypad can be in defending yourself against scammers. It is a simple trick, but it still provides little protection from more sophisticated techniques, such as keyboard overlays that are capable…

  • Fire a Handgun Safely and Correctly

    Safety is the number one priority when dealing with any kind of firearm, as just one mistake or lapse in attention can be devastating. The Art of Manliness blog has put together  a nice tutorial that covers the basics of handgun safety and tips on how to actually hit your target. To get the lowdown on how…

  • How to Move Quickly Through Crowds

    Navigating through a large crowd is not as easy as it would seem. Wired’s how-to wiki presents several tactics for moving fluidly through crowds. Apparently the main trick is to look down, watching the feet of the people around you. To get on autopilot, pedestrian-style, look down at the feet of the people around you.…

  • 10 Second Paracord Handcuffs

    This is a simple trick from Instructables user Jake22 for quickly making secure handcuffs from a length of paracord. Back during my military service we used to use these for POW’s.  Zip tie handcuffs are much more common now. As with all restraints – the object is to restrict the movement of a supervised detainee. It…

  • Tied Up Woman Types With Toes for Help [Brilliance in the News]

    39-year-old Amy Windom was tied to her bed after being robbed at gunpoint around midnight last Tuesday. The robber had taken various items from her home and stolen her car. Windom struggled to free herself for hours before, in a feat (no pun intended) of incredible dexterity, she used her toes to type a message…

  • Cut Down Power Lines to Draw Attention [Survival]

    When an unnamed man found himself stranded in the woods of northern Saskatchewan, he came up with a clever method to signal for help. Knowing the power company would have to check on the downed lines, the man cut down several power poles with an axe he had on hand. A man stranded in the…

  • Fall Through Ice and Survive [Survival]

    You just fell through thin ice. Struggling to get out, you keep a cool (no pun intended) head and remember the following article: Roll away from the hole. Don’t stand up right away. The ice around the hole may be weak, so you want to distribute your weight over as much area as possible. Roll…

  • An Intelligent Accent That Masks Origins [Disguise]

    Ever wanted to speak and sound intelligent, but make sure that no one knew where you were from? This might occur in a situation when you are working as an agent. The following can be very helpful for masking your origins and creating a intelligent facade. [Y]ou get the accent in one of three ways:…

  • How to Disguise Your Walk [Change Your Gait]

    In Little Brother, a novel set in the future by Cory Doctorow, there are cameras that detect a person’s gait so that computer can track the person’s whereabouts. But in the present, all we have are regular video cameras and security teams. So how could changing your walk possible help you? Actually it can. As humans,…

  • Easily Unlock a Sliding Chain Lock [Holy Crap: Locks]

    Holy crap. After reading this Lifehacker article, I realized how easy it would be to break into a hotel room solely guarded by one of those sliding locks. Check out the video below for a shock. Blogger and lock-picker extraordinaire Barry Wels demonstrates how to unlock a sliding chain lock with a rubber band in…