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Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. Media Platforms Design TeamHow does a huge company like Apple foster a sense of community and a common goal? With training courses at the secretive Apple University. And even though Apple rejected its request for interviews with instructors, The New York Times managed to get the scoop from three unidentified employees who have taken courses at Apple University....

Media Platforms Design TeamPrice: $79The Zippo 4-in-1 Woodsman is the kind of tool that makes you think, “Huh. Clever.” At first glance this is clearly a hatchet, with the blade protected by that orange plastic cover. On the backside of the handle you’ll find a hard plastic mini-mallet, which Zippo intends owners to use to drive tent stakes. At the bottom of the handle is a square metal loop designed to help you pull out those tent stakes (just make sure you’ve got the plastic cover on the hatchet blade before you do this)....

Media Platforms Design TeamSANTA MONICA, Calif. — The battle of the bands is on, and, wow, did it knock us out. In an already overshadowed by the mass-appeal, game-changing control functionality of , two new air-guitar simulators—and absolutely bitter rivals—stole the show. Halo, be gone: and especially the much anticipated (our ) might just represent the future of gaming, if you can even call it that anymore. Check out this hands-on, dueling jam session video, then get our full breakdown below…E3 gaming expothe Nintendo WiiGuitar Hero IIIRock Bandfavorite game at E3After the runaway success of the first two titles in the Guitar Hero series—nerds wanted a whole lot more than air-guitar stardom, it turned out—developer Harmonix broke up with its best-seller, taking with it the software patents for its five-button note patterns based on classic rock songs....

If a soldier takes a shot to the arm, his comrades can tighten a tourniquet above the wound to prevent major blood loss. Not so if the wound occurs on his torso. The blood loss could be so severe that even if the soldier gets to a hospital quickly, it could be too late to save his life.“These are potentially preventable deaths,” says Chirag Gajjar, a doctoral student at North Carolina State University....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou’re a proponent of creating a “Self-Healing Smart Grid.” What is that? A smart grid is one that has real-time monitoring and reaction, which allows the system to constantly modify and tune itself to an optimal state. It also has anticipation, which enables the system to automatically look for problem areas that could trigger larger problems and disturbances. And it has rapid isolation, which allows the system to isolate parts of the network that are going through failureor about to failfrom the rest of the system, enabling a more rapid restoration....

Media Platforms Design TeamPyrotechnic displays are staples of America’s birthday and other celebrations, but the chemicals that produce their eye-catching effects are nothing to cheer about. Researchers in Germany are developing cleaner combustible materials to replace the current lineup of heavy metals, dioxins and carbon monoxide that result when carbon-based fuels are oxidized. The dense, nitrogen-based chemicals under consideration yield fewer particles and less smoke without sacrificing explosive power or intensity of color....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: NowPrice: $83,545 to $99,995Competitors: Porsche Cayenne,Mercedes-Benz ML-Class, BMW X5, Audi Q7, Lexus LX570, Mercedes-Benz S-ClassPowertrains: 5.0-liter V-8, 375 hp, 375 lb-ft; supercharged 5.0-liter V-8, 510 hp, 461 lb-ft; 8-speed automatic, AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 14/20, 13/19 (supercharged) What’s New: The all-aluminum reengineered Range Rover shows the secondary effects of the virtuous circle of weight savings. Land Rover shaved a stupendous 700 pounds from the previous generation, eliminating the ponderous feeling that haunted Range Rovers until now....

Media Platforms Design Teamcellpadding=“0” cellspacing=“0”> MANUFACTURER SonyPRICE RANGE $2100 to $5000SIZE RANGE 40 to 60 inchesGLASSES $150 (two pairs included)TECHNOLOGY LCDTEST RESULTSBEST OVERALLWe tested the 52-inch Bravia LX900 ($4000), which scored highest overall. Sony’s set had standout performance in rendering 3D animation (“just like theaters,” one tester said) and games. Some griped about the shutter glasses, however, calling them “heavy” and complaining that they “hurt the bridge of the nose.” But the set also scored high marks for general picture quality....

These homemade air-conditioner designs take the mystery out of cold-air production. Some are complicated, some are cheap and simple, some run on alternative energy, and the last one is so out there that you’ll just have to try it. Check out the links below to our favorite DIY air conditioners from our friends at Instructables, and good luck keeping cool.The California CoolerThe California Cooler is a revival of an old technology driven by an insight that’s overlooked in these days of engineered indoor environments: Cool air keeps things cool....

Media Platforms Design TeamThis unlikely duel pits what is arguably the world’s best sports sedan, the BMW M3, against a dedicated sports car—the Corvette Grand Sport. But despite having to haul around a rear seat, this BMW is a solid matchup against the Vette. Under those hoods, both cars have V8s with over 400 hp. In each machine, rear-wheel drive puts the power down to the ground. And more to the point, these two overtly sporting machines cost about the same—$55,720 for the Vette, $59,975 for the M3....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Japan Oil, Gas, and National Metals Corporation () announced last week that it had successfully extracted fuel from a deep-sea bed of methane hydrate located off the coast of Shikoku Island. This particular deposit of methane hydrate (also known as fire ice) contains an estimated 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, equal to 11 years’ worth of gas consumption in Japan. The country, as the world’s and a country still recovering from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, could see this natural gas as a major part of its energy consumption over the next decade....

On November 26, a commercial Boeing 757 passenger jet successfully landed on a blue-ice field in Antarctica for the first time. The landing was organized by Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions (ALE), and the airliner was piloted by Loftleidir Icelandic as “part of a larger investigation into the use of such aircraft for ALE’s Antarctic operations.“The Boeing 757 was landed on Union Glacier, near ALE’s primary camp. ALE transports between 400 and 500 people to Antarctica each year, primarily scientists traveling to the frigid continent to conduct research projects....

We love fireworks, but from now on, will we have to see them in person to believe them? This weekend, a Chinese newspaper broke the story that some of the fireworks footage from the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony was prepared digitally in advance of the broadcast. The Beijing Times reported that the recording of 29 firework footprints walking across the Beijing sky was computer-generated and prepared months–yes, months–ahead of time by deft CGI programmers....

The past few days have been a whirlwind in the evolving knowledge of our solar system. Pluto slowly but surely came to life before our eyes, expanding from a few pixels of light into a complex world with cliffs, mountains, valleys, and maybe, just maybe, geysers. The data from the New Horizons spacecraft is coming back slowly. Very slowly. Transmitting at a current rate of 1 kilobyte per second (though it may eventually get up to 4 kbps), the data will take 472 days to completely transmit back to Earth, with two 8 GB flash drives filled to the brim with spectrographic, photographic, isometric, and compositional data about Pluto and its moons Charon, Nix, Styx, Kerberos, and Hydra....

With all the concern about dirty bombs and nuclear weapons, researchers have been on the lookout for a better way to find trace amounts of uranium, plutonium, or other radioactive elements. Some University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers, working for the Department of Homeland Security, think they’ve found the solution: laser x-rays.“We showed that we could detect uranium when it was shielded by thick steel,” co-author Donald Umstadter, director Diocles Extreme Light Laboratory at UNL, said in a phone interview....

A team of researchers from IBM believes it has found a way to use big data to slash travel times by as much as 10 percent on the congested public transit system of Abidjan, Ivory Coast.The project was born out of the French telecom provider Orange’s Data for Development initiative. Orange released about 2.5 billion call records (none of which included personal information) from 5 million cellphone users in the Ivory Coast, the largest data dump of its kind....

Media Platforms Design TeamSAN JOSE, Calif. —AAAS conference After four straight days at the in San Francisco, I decided to reward myself with a leisurely trip down the California coast. But while I can drive away from that last powerpoint, I just can’t leave my editorial curiosity behind. I found myself stopping for a tour of one of the craziest home improvement projects of all time: the Winchester Mystery House.This 160-room mansion started out as an 8-room farmhouse in 1884....

Media Platforms Design Team1.) Find Parts Hit the hardware store to find: three 1-inch-diameter, 10-foot galvanized steel pipes with threaded ends; six threaded 1-inch pipe caps; six 3⁄8-inch-diameter, 4-inch eyebolts, with 11⁄2-inch eyes, nuts and lockwashers; nine ratcheting tie-down straps 12 feet long; three 18-inch ground stakes. You can hang up to three hammocks.2.) Prepare PipesDrill a 3⁄8-inch hole in the center of each pipe cap. Insert the eyebolt and fasten it securely with a lockwasher and nuts....

Media Platforms Design TeamHow many tablets were launched at the Consumer Electronics Show this year? Well, there were the big announcements, such as the Popular Mechanics Editors’ Choice AwardBlackBerry PlayBookEee Pad SliderDell StreakMotorola Xoom (which won a), Toshiba’s as-yet-unnamed tab, Research In Motions’ , Asus’ and the . With the exception of BBerry’s PlayBook, which uses RIM’s own operating system, most of these tabs are using Android. Forward-looking tabs such as the Xoom and Toshiba device should launch with the made-for-tablet Honeycomb Android build....

The Threat: Floods cause an average $5 billion in losses and 100 fatalities yearly—about 3800 towns are on floodplainsWhere: Mainly coastal states and the Mississippi ValleyWhen: Spring and fallSump pumps are the best defense against minor flooding and chronically wet basements, but if a river is rising nearby or a coastal storm surge is imminent, the best advice is to move your valuables to a high floor, then evacuate. And if there are flash-flood warnings, be quick about it....