Media Platforms Design TeamAmerica doesn’t have the market cornered on great start-ups. A South Korean company, Dot, has a brilliant idea for a new wearable. Through a series of dots that mechanically raise up, it can give visually impaired users the time, allow them to read their text messages via a Bluetooth connected phone, translate Tweets to braille, and even work with some e-readers. The watch will retail for around $300....
A trip to the Christmas tree farm should be fun. It’s all fresh air and exercise, and you return home with a tree that is so fresh it will easily last into the new year, without shedding all of its needles on your floor. The process of cutting your own tree is simple but, based on my experience with it, there are a few things you need to know.To start, here is a list of the tools you’ll need and, below that, we offer some practical advice on this yuletide project....
Media Platforms Design TeamAs long as there have been cars, there have been gadgets that promise revolutionary improvements in performance and mileage. And every time there’s a spike in fuel prices, these gadgets proliferate like mushrooms after a spring rain. Like now, with crude oil over $60 per barrel. Scan the Internet, store shelves and, yes, even the classified ads in the back of PM, and you will find dozens of devices promising to boost power, reduce emissions and, of course, improve mileage by 20, 40, even 300 percent!...
Media Platforms Design TeamIn a farmer’s field two miles east of Jackson, Tenn., there’s a helicopter rotor blade sticking straight out of the ground. Another medical helicopter has crashed. Another three people are dead. It’s sad, but not surprising. The medical helicopter industry has more than tripled in size over the last two decades, expanding from 200 helicopters in 1988 to 668 in 2008. While the pilots and crew endeavor to save lives, they also put their own at risk: flying to the scenes of accidents in often remote, dark locations, landing not on pads but in fields and on streets....
Media Platforms Design TeamHamburg, Germany-Insisting that the new Mini Countryman is not an SUV nor even a small crossover, the engineers at BMW have nonetheless emphasized both off-road ability and people/cargo-hauling utility to give Mini a more family-friendly and spacious offering. Back in the ’60s, the original Mini Countryman was a wood-sided station wagon with only two doors, so the new four-door is the first such to wear the name. The new model, coming to America as early as next year, is not only longer but also taller and notably wider than the Mini Cooper Coupe, Cabriolet and Clubman models in dealerships today....
Earthquake Ignites Fire at Nuclear Power Plant An earthquake in northwestern Japan rattled the world’s largest nuclear power plant today, causing a fire at one of the plant’s transformers. The reactors automatically shut down for safety, but officials said they did not detect any radiation leaks.MEGA ENGINEERING: Building a Quake-Proof BridgePLUS: The Future of Nuclear EnergyUnmanned Bomber Aircraft Headed for Iraqi Skies The U.S. Air Force will soon ramp up its robotic presence in Iraq with the addition of unmanned Reaper aircraft to its forces there....
Media Platforms Design Team1. We have to recycle because we’re running out of landfill space.That was the rallying cry for recycling advocates back in the 1980s, when the Mobro 4000 garbage barge wandered up and down the East Coast searching for a place to dump its moldering load. It’s a bit of a red herring, though. After all, we have pretty much unlimited space to dump garbage–if we’re willing. In practice, for every town that refuses permission to build a landfill, there’s often another town eager for the revenues that a landfill site can bring....
Media Platforms Design TeamSo you’ve bought a wire-feed welder and you have visions of building all kinds of cool stuff out of steel and maybe even restoring an old car some day. To do all that, you’re going to need some equipment to go along with that welder so that you can use it efficiently and get the most out of it.Safety EssentialsStart with safety gear. Any welding project is going to involve a lot of cutting and grinding metal, so you’ll obviously need safety glasses....
Media Platforms Design TeamSmall drones are everywhere these days, it seems. Well, everywhere but one area where they might make a big difference: the wilderness.Sure, some rural police departments have had success flying existing consumer drones on search and rescue missions out in the boonies. But wouldn’t it be cool if there was a drone designed specifically for wilderness types — hikers, backpackers, campers, and rock climbers — who could use an aerial view of their surroundings but who don’t want to lug too much extra gear along with them?...
Media Platforms Design TeamNobody wants a blonde bison.Okay, the American Museum of Natural History’s problem wasn’t quite that bad. But according to Ross MacPhee, a curator and former chairman of the department of mammalogy at the museum, the mammal specimens had became a faded version of their former selves. Back in 1942, when the North American mammals wing opened at AMNH, it used lights that shone partly in the UV spectrum, MacPhee says, and UV is destructive to the color in the fur of the taxidermied animals....
Media Platforms Design TeamFor patients diagnosed with brain tumors, long-term survival rates tend to be bleak. Glioblastoma, the most common primary brain cancer, may reappear even after intense chemotherapy regimens, which typically prolong life by only a few months. But new wearable devices that can treat patients outside of a hospital’s walls could be the key to better treatment.Yesterday the Israel-based oncology company NovoCure announced that its wearable, noninvasive therapy had achieved the longest median survival rate yet for these recurrent brain cancers....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe Gaia spacecraft is not impressed by your camera’s megapixel count. This newest spacecraft by the European Space Agency roared into space this morning carrying a digital camera capable of capturing a billion pixels. Its five-year mission: to create the best 3D map of the galaxy ever made.Over the next few weeks, Gaia will travel to L2, one of the Lagrange Points where the Earth and the sun’s gravity cancel each other, allowing a spacecraft to sit undisturbed....
Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeOk Go’s insane new video for “The Writing’s on the Wall,” which spread like wildfire around the Internet this week, is a tour de force of optical illusion. Walls disappear, band members step through painted cubes, and directions get all topsy-turvy. It’s a celebration of playing with the eyes and the mind. But why do we love to be fooled like this?By definition, in an optical illusion what we are seeing disagrees with physical reality....
Media Platforms Design TeamComputer generated imagery is now so ubiquitous at the box office that it’s a pleasant surprise when a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road goes light on the CGI. But while this technology came into its own in the 1990s and has gotten much more realistic from there, computer-generated graphics have existed since the early 1960s. Those early attempts are amazing to behold, and show us something cool about the history of graphics....
Media Platforms Design Team1. Speedy Tree Topping You find a flier stuck in your door advertising a service to make your yard sunnier by cutting the tops off overgrown trees. It’s a bad idea because:Each truncated branch will send out multiple shoots. So the yard might look brighter this summer, but it will be even more deeply shadowed next year. And, come winter, you’ll be staring at some hideously ugly branches....
Volvo ReCharge ConceptMedia Platforms Design TeamVolvo’s ReCharge concept takes a quantum leap in technology by anticipating a world in which rechargeable batteries can be plugged into city power grids, and augment or draw from public utilities. The concept is built on a C30 platform, and features individual motors that operate at each wheel, transferring power as directly as possible with a minimum loss of drag. An added benefit of the transmission-less setup is enhanced crash safety, a feature well-suited toVolvo....
Several years ago my son built a 318 engine for a 1946 Dodge business coupe that I was working on. Because of a move, I lost my garage space and was forced to sell the car, but kept the engine. I have since purchased a 1970 Challenger, 318 auto, with 164,000 miles on the clock. The first mod was to put the disc brakes up front, then an 8-in. rear axle with 3....
Media Platforms Design Team Browse expert reviews and compare info on the HHR at the Media Platforms Design Team At first glance, the HHR seems like a rather unlikely candidate to get Chevy’s top performance moniker—SS. As cool as it may look, the HHR is and always will be an inexpensive family wagon. Right? Well that’s what we thought before we drove the new one a few days ago in Arizona....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale: March 2011Price: $50,000–$55,000 (est.)Competitors: Lexus GS450h, Mercedes-Benz E350 BluetecPowertrain: 3.5-liter V6, 302 hp; 67-hp electric motor; seven-speed automaticFuel Economy (city/hwy): 27/32What’s New: The first application of Nissan’s Direct Response Hybrid system lands underneath the slippery sheet metal of Infiniti’s M sedan. The M Hybrid slots in between the V6 M37 and V8-powered M56 in both power and price. Under the hood is an Atkinson-cycle version of Infiniti’s venerable 3....
Media Platforms Design TeamApple’s Craig Federighi reveals the Healthkit developer framework and Health app at WWDC 2014. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesJust days after Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Japanese outlet Nikkei reports that Apple’s anticipated iWatch is coming in 2014, and more specifically, in October.Although officially unannounced, the elusive iWatch will most likely run on iOS 8, Apple’s latest mobile OS, feature a curved OLED screen much like Samsung’s Gear 2 smartwatch, and also read messages from bluetooth-tethered iPhones....
