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Media Platforms Design Team1. Delta Deluge | California New Orleans has never had a monopoly on outdated, inadequate levees. A magnitude 6.7 earthquake in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Valley could cause 30 levee breaches. Sixteen Delta islands would drown under 300 billion gallons of salt water from San Francisco Bay. It would not only spell disaster for the residents, but also cause problems farther afield, contaminating the fresh water supply for two-thirds of California....

Trade It In You haven’t found any takers on eBay? Well, some retailers offer discounts on new equipment if you trade in your old stuff for recycling. For example, Apple retail stores accept broken iPods; shoppers receive a 10 percent discount on a new device, plus the feel-good knowledge that Apple recycles 90 percent (by weight) of old electronics. Next »> Support Tech Education2. Support Tech Education Even if your old computer, digital camera or computer accessories are broken, the National Cristina Foundation may be able to donate the gear to nonprofits....

An international team of astronomers discovered that comet Lovejoy contains ethyl alcohol, the same kind that is in alcoholic beverages, as well as the simple sugar glycolaldehyde. When the comet is warmed by the sun, is spews out alcohol faster than all the frat parties in America combined. “We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity,” said Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, lead author of the paper published in Science Advances that details the findings....

CABOT, Vt. — Full sun, seasonal temperatures (which, in this season, means below-freezing); all systems are full-speed ahead. We’re currently charging our 24-volt at about 62 amps, so even on the next-to-shortest day of the year, we’ll make nearly 8 kWh, nearly three times what we’ll use. And our Thermo-Dynamics solar hot water collectors will produce 120-130-degree water—hot enough that we won’t be drawing from our propane tanks. Even better: Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be sunny and windy....

The Claim: The Aqua Globe, a “handblown glass ornament that waters your plants for you,” contains a colored glass bulb attached to an elongated stem. You fill the bulb with water, jam the stem into a houseplant’s soil, and the globe releases water as needed by the dripful. “You can’t over-water, you can’t under-water…plants stay perfectly watered for up to two weeks, and you don’t have to lift a finger!” Small or large houseplants, hanging plants, patio plants, and “even finicky exotic plants” get the Goldilocks hydration....

Media Platforms Design TeamDespite the success of armed flying drones, their counterparts on the ground have never made it over the starting line. The Pentagon’s recent history is littered with failed efforts for armed robots. But as new technology, both in software and hardware, enables a new generation of machines, are we about to enter the age of the robot warrior at last?Failure to LaunchRobots have already transformed bomb disposal from a lethal game of Russian roulette into a technical challenge executed from a safe distance....

Media Platforms Design TeamVICTORVILLE, Calif. — The slow-motion finale of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge is at an end. After spending the night tabulating the run-times for the six robots that finished the 60-mile course yesterday, and weighing their overall speed against potential penalties for moving violations, the officials at DARPA have come up with a winner. Tartan Racing, the joint effort from Carnegie Mellon University and General Motors, beat out arch-rival Stanford University for the $2 million first prize....

Media Platforms Design TeamNASA’s launch schedule at Cape Canaveral now includes a rough date for the next Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) cargo-delivery trip to the International Space Station, giving an October date for the launch. “Hopefully this is a really straightforward mission,” Elon Musk told PM during our recent trip to the headquarters of SpaceX in Hawthorne, Calif. The last mission, he said, was a two-step. “[First we] did a loop around the space station to verify that the systems were functioning well, that we could communicate with the space station, that the docking sensors could lock on and that kind of thing, and then we went in and actually did the docking....

Touchscreens revolutionized mobile computing, but if you want to use a touchscreen phone or tablet, you need more than just fingers; you need to be able see as well. Until now, the blind have been unfortunately left behind in our race into a touchscreen future, but a new tablet called “Blitab” might be able to help. It’s not that it’s impossible for the blind to use iPads or smartphones. There are devices built precisely for that purpose....

New technology from Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research can identify objects based on the electromagnetic (EM) signals that they emit. By programing a software-defined radio to associate specific EM patterns with the objects that release them, the device can identify various electric and electromagnetic objects in real time by reading the signals coursing through your body. Just touching an object while using EM-Sense is enough for the software to detect the electromagnetic signal traveling through you , and then look up what kind of device generates those signals....

Media Platforms Design Team1.) Build the BoxThe boots dry on perforated PVC pipes that waft warm, gentle air supplied by a light bulb and a computer fan. Build the box out of ½-inch-thick plywood, 1-inch deck screws, two light switches, a lamp holder, a lamp cord, a “rough service” 40-watt bulb (for safety, don’t use a higher wattage), a 12-volt DC 80-mm computer fan, a few feet of 1½-inch-diameter PVC pipe and smooth PVC couplings and pipe end caps....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn case you haven’t had your fill of crossovers, Volkswagen is set to unveil a jaunty two-door concept at next week’s Geneva Motor Show.Volkswagen’s T-ROC slots under the Tiguan in size and uses a Golf-based MQB platform, offering a compact sized crossover that fills yet another VW niche besides the 7-passenger CrossBlue Concept and the more squarely styled, four-door CrossBlue Coupé Concept… Media Platforms Design Team… but here’s where things get interesting....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team “Mr. Sorenson,” began Mr. Theodore Sorenson last Thursday morning at MIT’s Giant Leaps conference in Cambridge, Mass., as he addressed a question to himself. The special counsel and speechwriter to President John F. Kennedy demonstrated his eloquence, not to mention wit, remained well intact nearly fifty years later. “Isn’t prestige a thin basis for such a massive expenditure?” he asked, referring to the billions of dollars dedicated to the effort of sending man to the moon....

Media Platforms Design TeamI’ve started to welcome more and more smart gadgets into my home, like thermostats, smoke detectors, locks, and lightbulbs. But I’m concerned: These devices collect data on my habits and power usage. Who has access to itor can demand access to it?An increasing number of objectsin the home, the car, and even the officeare being embedded with sensors and are acquiring the ability to communicate. They help make up the so-called Internet of Things, a rapidly growing product category, with items that range from gratuitous (Internet-connected toothbrushes) to lifesaving (water-leak sensors that can help you catch floods in your home when they start)....

Media Platforms Design TeamWay back when, if you wanted to know what typefaces a website used, you’d have to view the page’s source code. Now all it takes is a browser extension. The best two are Type Sample (for Chrome only) and Whatfont (for Chrome and Safari).Whatfont is best if you just want to know the typeface but don’t particularly care about saving it. Just click on the browser extension’s button, hover over text, and the name of the typeface pops up....

A tip sets the plan in motion–a whispered warning of a North Korean nuclear launch, or of a shipment of biotoxins bound for a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. Word races through the American intelligence network until it reaches U.S. Strategic Command headquarters, the Pentagon and, eventually, the White House. In the Pacific, a nuclear-powered Ohio class submarine surfaces, ready for the president’s command to launch. When the order comes, the sub shoots a 65-ton Trident II ballistic missile into the sky....

I’m ashamed of my listening habits. Typically, I put on music during my daily 45 minutes of commuting, and I have a tendency to skip to the next track after about 90 seconds. Even with a whole world of music at my disposal through Tidal, I rarely listen outside of my two dozen or so favorited songs. Getting time with the ZX2 Walkman sounded like a way to end these bad habits....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamTesla Motors has been fighting it out state-by-state for the right to sell electric cars directly to the consumer, as many states have used old laws that mandate the franchised dealership system as the only way to legally sell an automobile as means to keep Tesla out. Iowa is going even further to make life difficult for Tesla, trying to stop the automaker from even offering test drives of the Model S....

Media Platforms Design Team A Suzuki pickup seems natural, especially since the company sells so many motorcycles and dirt bikes. And just about everyone that owns a dirt bike needs a pickup, right? Well Suzuki hopes those folks will have a look at its new 2009 Equator, the company’s first entry into the midsize pickup truck segment. Developed in a joint effort with Nissan, and based on Nissan’s Frontier pickup chassis, the Equator will be available in both extended cab and crew cab body styles in rear-wheel and four-wheel-drive....

Media Platforms Design TeamDaily assistance to disabled people at home increasingly has been the domain of skilled dogs and even monkeys. Inspired by these highly trained animals, Georgia Tech’s Healthcare Robotics Lab has developed a robot that can perform basic household tasks on command. The El-E helper bot was first programmed to retrieve objects designated by a human using a laser pointer. Multiple cameras helped guide a grasping, two-fingered hand to the target....