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Brad Allen’s cousin runs a garbage management consultancy—they help big companies reduce the expense of their trash contracts. What’s it got to do with a table? When they moved to a converted warehouse office, they enlisted Brad to weld new furniture for the space. That included creating a table that could comfortably seat the team without taking up the entirety of their tiny conference room. So Brad, who’s 27 and works in his day job as a fabricator for a metal shop while keeping his own space in Ramona, California, got creative with it....

Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeSPOILER ALERT: Anyone who wants to know as little as possible about the new Star Wars film, turn back now.Badass Digest, an American film blog, has posted what is allegedly a partial plot synopsis of Star Wars Episode VII.Focusing on the search for Luke Skywalker, the film portrays two new characters, played by Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, who search for the missing Jedi after finding his weapon on a desert planet....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn a nod to Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors on a circuit board grows exponentially every two years, Intel said today it is now selling 16 new microprocessors with 40 percent more transistors on the chips.More transistors mean faster processing power—about 15 percent faster, according to reports. Intel also says the chips are 30 percent more energy efficient, which translates into better performance and more battery life for mobile and consumer devices that use Intel hardware....

Microsoft’s Prize Fights of the Week: First Apple, Now Google As Microsoft prepares to challenge Apple’s iPod with the release of its Zune music player tomorrow, a new security alert suggests the company isn’t playing so nicely these days with its other big competitor, Google.Users of Microsoft’s Live OneCare security application have reported receiving a virus infection alert when they open Google’s popular web-based e-mail service, Gmail. The virus, BAT/BWG.A, can be deleted from computer files, but users of Gmail report it returns as soon as they re-launch their web mail....

You can cover a lot of miles just going from one side of New York City to the other. And when the train runs slow, just the commute to the Popular Mechanics office seems to go on forever. But here’s an interesting question that requires a surprising amount of consideration (and math!): What’s the longest possible trip a person could take, without repeating stretches or riding in endless loops?If you ask the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway, its official answer is 38 miles: From 241st Street way, way up in the Bronx, through lots of Manhattan and Brooklyn and way out to Far Rockaway in Queens at the end of the line....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor some of us, Groundhog Day means Bill Murray’s snarky weatherman destined to relive the same relentless Sonny and Cher wakeup call. But most of us know that Feb. 2 is the day when a Pennsylvania groundhog emerges from his den, leaving us humans to predict the weather based on the presence or non-presence of his shadow. If Punxsutawney Phil makes like Peter Pan, we’re in for an early spring....

Carbon Engineering has an ambitious plan to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turn it into fuel. The company is aiming the facility at areas where reforestation isn’t an option, such as deserts. Air flows in through the series of fans you see in the picture, which feed into a carbon dioxide rich solution, helping pluck carbon compounds from the air. That solution is then purified, at which point Carbon Engineering extracts the carbon dioxide for reuse or disposal in underground facilities....

Whether it’s texting or Instagram captions, Emojis, XOXOs, and unnecessary exclamation points are part of the language. The trend has even spilled over into email, that boring method of communication for the olds. But if you still don’t have the hang of overly excitable messages, don’t fret—there’s a new tool for that.Writer and researcher Joanne McNeil built a Google Chrome extension that takes your emails and injects friendly/juvenile elements. A smiley-face after the salutation, a triple exclamation point on the concluding sentence—that sort of thing....

This futuristic wedge is called the Aprilia Caponord, and the next time you decide to tackle thousands of miles of asphalt on two wheels, this might be the ride you want.The Caponord is what aficionados would call an adventure-tourer—an aerodynamically efficient motorcycle with a big engine that’s stable even at high speeds, with a fuel tank that will let you cover more than 200 miles of desolate land without a refill....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith high-end cars being such a huge part of the Rodeo Drive lifestyle, it’s no wonder the Germans are introducing some of their best stuff at the L.A. show. Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Maybach all had something new and special to unveil.Porsche world-debuted a new 520-hp iteration of the Cayenne, called Turbo S. Specific suspension, brakes and an optional SportDesign body kit set this S apart from its meeker 450-hp brother....

Audi built its all-wheel-drive reputation on the rally success of its original Quattro of the 1980s. The new S5 (the performance model of the A5) is, in many ways, the spiritual successor to that car. It shares the four-passenger coupe layout but, more important, it’s got the right moves. Our S5’s 354-hp 4.2-liter V8 was hooked to a six-speed manual–good for 0 to 60 mph in about 5 seconds. The shifter’s light throws made it easy to slip into and out of gear quickly....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team MADISON, Wis. — We’ve spent the past few days traveling to the eco-friendly mecca of all things hybrid—idiosyncrasies, Star Trek Prius mods and all. At the annual HybridFest, my fellow hypermilers flocked to join green-car techies and owners from across North America for presentations, hybrid and EV test drives—plus some of the coolest technology, coming our way soon. And it was those oddities that stood out amongst the sea—and we mean sea—of Toyota Priuses....

Asbestos is a pretty fantastically useful material. A naturally-occuring silicate material that forms in hollow rock formations deep underground, asbestos is a great sound insulator, is terrifically fire resistant, and is relatively affordable to produce. Also it will probably give you lung cancer and kill you. You’ll see a lot about the good parts and nothing about the bad parts in this retroactively chilling 1942 video from British Pathé:View full post on YoutubeBy the 1940s when this film was made, the dangerous qualities of asbestos were starting to be understood....

It’s 8 am on a Monday morning. Instead of riding the elevator up to Popular Mechanics’s Manhattan office, I find myself in San Francisco, holding my welding helmet and keying in the entry code to one of several doors in a plain-Jane industrial park. A sign on the wall reads “M5 Industries,” a surefire giveaway to fans of MythBusters. This is the TV show’s home base, where I have an audacious mission: remove the body of a Porsche 928 and weld it back on—backwards....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen a Dell laptop computer exploded at a conference in Japan last month, it set off a large-scale controversy over the safety record of Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries. There have been 19 Li-ion recalls in the last few years, and more than 40 laptop fires have been reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission since 2001 (Li-Ion batteries, with their high charge-to-weight ratio, are by far the power source of choice for laptop manufacturers)....

Installing fiberglass insulation in an attic may be a basic job, but the material itself is surprisingly sophisticated. “With glass fiber, you can control all its properties—thermal, chemical, and mechanical,” says Marcus V. A. Bianchi, senior building science program lead for Owens Corning. When glass fibers are woven into a roll or batt, they trap millions of tiny, irregularly shaped air pockets. Air, being a gas, is a poor conductor of heat energy....

Media Platforms Design TeamIs there a way to turn Track Changes on in Google Docs, so I can view changes the same way I do in Microsoft Word?Revision history has been a feature of Google Docs since 2010, but changes were only periodically capturedit wasnt very helpful. In March Google introduced add-ons for Google Drive files; by far the simplest and most useful of these is Track Changes. Open up a Google Drive document, navigate to Add-ons in the menu and select Get Add-ons....

“We want to know what you think,” said the polite fellows in custody of Infiniti’s recently completed, and still only, Q50 Eau Rouge prototype. This is very flattering to a writer, this implication that my opinion might be relevant to some important decisions in, say, the final suspension tune—or even whether or not to build the car in the first place. I told them I’m the wrong guy to ask about that, since I’m firmly in favor of sticking GT-R engines in everything that Nissan makes, including its forklifts....

Supercars are speed machines engineered with advanced hardware and blistering performance that leave just about anything else with four wheels (or two) in a thick haze of tire smoke. These cars are so seductively styled and exude so much blacktop bravado, the mere sight of them makes hearts race and palms sweat. Yet many of these high-strung stallions are tame enough for everyday use, and luxuriously trimmed to make even the longest trips pleasurable....

Media Platforms Design TeamOne of the earliest roofing materials was thatch, bundled reeds attached to rafters. Surprisingly weathertight, it is incredibly labor intensive, taking even a skilled thatcher weeks to complete. Later came roofs protected by overlapping slates, clay tile and cedar shakes (below), all of which remain in use today. But the great workhorse of the modern American roof is the asphalt shingle. Used for more than 100 years, it’s a good choice for handy homeowners who want a product they can install themselves....