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Media Platforms Design TeamAs if their first 48 hours weren’t exciting enough, astronauts aboard the International Space Station received another scare this morning from a false fire alarm—triggered when Russian engineers in Moscow were able to coax computers aboard the ISS partially back online following a crash yesterday. The crash involved all three lines of computers in the Russian wing of the space station, which is the hub of control for navigation and essential life support functions such as regulation of oxygen and water....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Cadillac ELR bowed in Detroit looking very much like the Converj concept first shown in 2009. The Volt-based extended-range electric vehicle is the first luxury vehicle to enter the primary electric plug-in segment. Styling is tidy and reflects the current iteration of Caddy’s “Art & Science” styling language, with an interesting, closed-off grille. (No need for the added drag, it’s at 0.305 cd). Inside is room for just two, but the cabin is handsome and high-tech, and well appointed with woods and leathers....

View full post on YoutubeIf you’ve ever wanted to see who would win in a fight between Jackie Chan and Adrien Brody, then Dragon Blade is probably the movie for you.Also starring John Cusack and Lin Peng, the film considers an alternative history in which ancient Rome battles with dynasty-era China for control of the Silk Road. Brody plays a malicious Roman general; Chan, a formerly imprisoned rival. Writer and director Daniel Lee made the film at a price tag of $65 million, making it the most expensive Mandarin-language film ever produced....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs if having a video camera in your cell phone wasn’t enough,Reliapon Police Products, Inc. has combined a digital video camera with a rechargeable flashlight into the M-II FlashCam.“By using the FlashCam, you’re not only assessing the situation, you’re recording it,” Reliapon’s President Vincent Zucchero says. “There’s no question what did or didn’t happen.“The handheld device delivers 85,000 Candlepower of light, and features built-in a video camera that operates in two modes: color, for daytime, and a black-and-white night vision mode....

Media Platforms Design Team WILLOWS, Calif.—Motor racing is certainly one of the most thrilling pursuits on the planet. But it can be horrifyingly expensive too. Many times, the race car itself is the cheap part. The budget-killer is often keeping that car fit with fresh tires, brakes and other consumables. That maintenance can run into the thousands each race weekend. Yikes. For those light of wallet but still possessed with by need for speed, a new race car called the Fun Cup recently landed on our shores....

Media Platforms Design TeamWood stoves, lightning rods, bifocals–and the founding of our country–are a few of the things we think of when Benjamin Franklin comes to mind. But somewhere in between flying kites in storms and diplomatic missions to Europe, the great man had a hand in furniture design, including an innovative step stool that doubles as a chair. We’ve created a version that’s easy to build and ideal for any home....

If you’re afraid of heights, forget about riding the new Peak to Peak Gondola at British Columbia’s Whistler Blackcomb ski resort. Passenger cabins hang as high as 1427 ft. (higher than four-and-a-half Statues of Liberty) and travel nearly 2 miles without passing a single support tower. It’s the longest unsupported span of any lift of its type. Construction of the $52 million gondola began in 2007 with its steel towers. This year, five monstrous spools of cable were shipped from a Swiss factory, through the Panama Canal, and up to Washington state....

Every antique-automobile enthusiast dreams about finding a long-lost car in some garage or barn. A forgotten treasure just waiting for someone – you – to rediscover. At least that’s the dream. But it doesn’t happen very often.I believe if you just go out looking for old cars, not for any particular model, you’re more likely to find a car you want. I think all the Duesenbergs have been discovered; all the Cobras are present and accounted for, and the locations of all the C-Type Jags and the D-Type Jags are pretty much known....

Media Platforms Design TeamThree months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, with no physical evidence of the plane having turned up, the families of those on board are growing understandably more frustrated. Now a group of those family members who believe the facts about MH370 are being hidden from them are trying to a crowdsource a campaign to get at the truth.Yesterday the group launched an Indiegogo campaign with the goal of raising $5,000,000 from online donors....

Media Platforms Design Team"The cool thing about this is that everything you’re looking at right now is from Ohio, from the vegetation to the siding," says Rob Hodge, a graduate student at Ohio State in environmental policy. “Ohio has rolling hills and barns, and we tried to preserve the spirit of that.” The facade of Ohio State University’s house is made of reclaimed wood from a barn in Southern Ohio; a now-elderly man had built the barn with his father and was “thrilled to see it get a new life....

Media Platforms Design TeamSlowly but surely, a blogger named 64jim64 brings Commodore 64 into the 21st century, creating a modern user interface with very old hardware. His progress now manages to incorporate touch screen technology into the mix, creating an uncanny mix that can all be stored on a double sided floppy disc. The focus is on creating an iPad / iPhone-like graphics environment on Commodore 64, so not all of it is touchscreen enabled, though there’s a pretty wonderful version of Flappy Bird installed on the system, impressive for a disc that only has 340 kilobytes to work with....

Media Platforms Design TeamPing.It’s Friday, June 26, and Ethan Lowry’s phone just sent him a notification: Someone just backed his new Kickstarter project. Soon that ping would turn into a symphony.“That first day was a real rush,” Lowery says, describing those continuous pings of support. Lowery is used to startup success, being the cofounder of the popular dining app Urbanspoon, but his latest project, Poppy, taps his lifelong interest in photography to turn the average iPhone into a 3D camera....

From shipping containers to skyscrapers to turbines, good old steel is still the workhorse of our modern world. Now, scientists are discovering new secrets to make the material better, lighter, and stronger. Today a team of material scientists at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea announced what they’re calling one of the biggest steel breakthroughs of the last few decades: an altogether new type of flexible, ultra-strong, lightweight steel....

Media Platforms Design TeamNASA has decided to make to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which is slowly dying after more than 16 years in orbit. The telescope was last serviced in 2002. Since then, technical problems have mounted, and a short circuit in January claimed one of its main instruments.one final – and controversial – repair callScheduled for a 2008 liftoff aboard Atlantis, the HST-bound crew have their work cut out for them....

Media Platforms Design TeamAt the 8 ½-mile mark, Jim Campbell is at the head of the pack, in control of the race. The two-time defending champion has every reason to be confident—he knows the course inside and out, he owns the most time-tested vehicle and he still has a few tricks to pull out, including a parasail, which on this windy day could be a potent weapon. But when he grabs his remote control to adjust the speed, Campbell, his boat and its cargo—400 pounds of lead-acid batteries—suddenly stop....

There are two kinds of people in the defense aviation world: those who love the A-10 Warthog and those who want to see it mothballed. The Pentagon wants to save money by retiring these old fixed-wing tank busters to make room for new, advanced warplanes like the F-35 Lightning II. This has led to a howls from politicians and National Guard units in states that base the airplanes.This debate is about more than the performance of a single airplane....

Lesson 1: Clean White Ice Can Come From Breathing Soil — Find a Solid Layer of Ice, and You Can Bet on Liquid WaterMedia Platforms Design TeamThe picture Phoenix took on Mars that captured the world’s attention showed clean white ice, which had been just below the surface, exposed by the lander’s own tracks. But, the latest studies now confirm, the lander also found the same hard ice table, about 2 to 7 inches deep in the ground, every place it looked....

After a summer of wildfires, hurricanes, and nuclear threats, it isn’t hard to see the value in being able to surveil the Earth with daily—or even more frequent—updates. But traditional satellites, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, have orbits that mean they may not see the same target for a week or more. So an Earth-imaging company called Planet, in San Francisco, is doing something different. In the past year, it has sent nearly 150 satellites into space, including a record 88 at once from India on Valentine’s Day....

The Syrian government charged Tuesday that U.S.-led coalition forces bombed a Syrian army base, killing and wounding government soldiers. A spokesman for the coalition responded by denying the charges, and instead claimed that the Russian Air Force was responsible.The attack, which took place at an Syrian Army base in the province of Deir al-Zor on Sunday, killed three soldiers and wounded 13. The US countered claiming that a Russian bomber—likely a Tu-22 Backfire bomber—was responsible for the attack....

Media Platforms Design TeamFirst, some numbers: When the program retires this summer, the fleet of five space shuttles will have flown 135 missions, made more than 20,000 orbits of the Earth, carried 363 people (some multiple times) and spent a total of more than 1300 days aloft. At peak thrust, the shuttle’s engines burn 660,000 pounds of solid fuel and 45,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen every minute, accelerating the massive craft from 0 to 17,500 mph—and into orbit—in 8....