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Media Platforms Design TeamThe Boeing Company released images of a new hydrogen-powered, high-altitude unmanned aircraft yesterday. The so-called Phantom Eye has not yet left the ground—its virgin test flight is scheduled for early next year—but its creators expect it to stay aloft at 65,000 feet for up to four days.Two 2.3-liter, four cylinder, 150-horsepower engines power the UAV. It has a 150-foot wingspan and should be able to carry a payload of 450 pounds....

View full post on YoutubeThe Simpsons has had a pretty good run of couch gags lately, enlisting the likes of Guillermo Del Toro, Banksy, and Don Hertzfeld to put their own spin on the show’s famous intro. But this unofficial 16-bit version may be the best we’ve seen, making retro digital animation look downright fluid and taking “The Simpsons” through the surreal and into the psychedelic.Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon made pixel-tastic new open, which includes a chalkboard gag of “Pixel Art is Not Real Art” as a chiptune version of the theme song....

Slingshots are great. Catapults are better. Catapults that launch sharp objects a ridiculous distance are the best.Joerg Sprave, man of a million dangerous slingshot variations, is back again with a surprisingly large catapult that launches a tomahawk. Not just any tomahawk, mind you, but the Flying Death from Czech company Sharp Blades.Instead of having a single sharp edge, the Flying Death tomahawk has sharp points on the majority of its edges....

Media Platforms Design Team2005’s Guitar Hero wasn’t the first video game that involved synchronizing movements with music—Dance Dance Revolution has been whipping kids into shape for years. Unfortunately, DDR also necessitated listening to songs that sounded like The Chipmunks singing Mr. Roboto. With Guitar Hero, you had Hendrix and Sabbath instead of bizarre Japanese techno. So while the original concept—see, strum, repeat—was more out-of-the-box than innovative, Guitar Hero simply rocked, pushing games from nerdy to party....

Media Platforms Design TeamMention anything about the Ford SVT Lightning to a car enthusiast and you’ll likely get one of two responses: fervid disgust or irrational infatuation. It’s a division that boils down to the existential purpose of a car. Pragmatists hate the Lightning because, as a motor vehicle, it’s useless: it’s neither fast enough to be a track-day monster nor utilitarian enough as an every-day work truck. Yet, optimists embrace its engineering ambition and utter lack of sense....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf every other Star Trek movie is the good one, Star Trek Beyond has to be light years ahead of Star Trek Into Darkness. Judging by the new trailer, that appears to be the case. The action is intense, there are FINALLY some real aliens (including new species!), and of course the old Enterprise itself appears to be in mortal danger. Or completely destroyed, as the line “we have no ship” might indicate....

The first images of the Stratolaunch airplane system have emerged, courtesy of KGET in Bakersfield, and the thing is just as massive we imagined. Bringing the enormous aircraft to fruition is not a done deal, but it’s a good sign that the incredible build is under way.Once finished, the behemoth plane will have a 385-foot wingspan, making it the largest aircraft ever. It’s not designed as a passenger plane, though. Backer Paul Allen (he of Microsoft fame) has bigger plans in mind: space launches....

Early last Monday, Richard Kowalski, a University of Arizona astronomer at the Catalina Sky Survey team’s 60-in. search telescope atop Mt. Lemmon near Tucson, flashed word to NASA of the discovery of a new Near Earth Object (NEO). The small asteroid, soon named 2008 TC3, was just 2 meters (about 6 ft) across. What made this space rock unique was its orbit: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab quickly calculated that the asteroid would collide with Earth within 24 hours....

Media Platforms Design TeamMessaging: It’s about everything but text.You know that you can message photos to your friends. With the rise of emoji, you don’t even need words to communicate. And now, with Apple allowing in third-party keyboard apps under iOS 8, the greatest form of media—the gif—is coming to iPhone messaging.Today the Daily Dot reviews two of the best free gif keyboards for your iPhone, Riffsy and PopKey. They recommend Riffsy, which doesn’t require you to create an account or to download an app that’s full of advertizing....

The next war will expose our gaps.There is no doubt that the U.S. military is the best equipped and trained and most experienced force on the planet. Pundits like to point out that it’s better funded than any 10 other nations combined. But just because a nation spends more money than its adversaries doesn’t mean it will win a war, especially far from home.As the U.S. cuts defense spending, other nations like China and Russia have increased theirs....

Media Platforms Design TeamCrowds flocked to the 50-mpg, 33-hp Nano at India’s AutoExpo today as Tata chairman Ratan Tata (middle) fielded questions about worldwide production. (Photographs by James Vlahos)NEW DELHI — Fireworks blossomed on giant video screens, the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme reached its brassy peak, and the world’s most affordable car—the $2500 Tata Nano—rolled out onto the stage. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, parked and got out as hundreds of camera flashes speckled the darkened convention hall....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: SeptemberPrice: $18,995 to $23,395Competitors: Mini Cooper, Fiat 500Powertrain: 2.5-liter I-5, 170 hp at 5700 rpm, 177 lb-ft at 4250 rpm; 2.0-liter turbo I-4, 200 hp at 5100 rpm, 207 lb-ft at 1700 rpmEPA Fuel Economy (city/highway): 22/29; 22/30What’s New: It’s not easy to remake an icon. Yet VW did just that when it introduced the New Beetle in 1998. So what to do for an encore?...

Is this the biggest special effects movie ever made?There was more data pushed through on this film than on anything we’ve ever done. More native stereo (3D) to deal with, so twice the data. And more IMAX, both digital IMAX and film IMAX. Now, an IMAX film frame, compared to a normal 35-mm film frame, is eight times more information. So, eight times more rendering. It was tremendous. There are so many people on this filmmore than 500 artists, most of them here [in San Francisco....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs a truck driver hauling produce and food up and down the West Coast, Tom Martin knows first-hand how vulnerable the U.S. food supply is to disruption. “I know what our supply chains are like,” he says. “I know grocery stores rely on just in time services; they only have three days worth of food in any grocery store.“In a disaster, that food will be gone in less than a day, and if you don’t have food stored up, you’ll be stuck, says Martin, who is one of a growing number of “preppers,” or people who are prepping for large-scale disaster....

Sears is offering plenty of Black Friday deals in-store and online. Their tool storage selection is tough to beat and you’ll find some of the best bargains on tool chests and tool boxes. Here are some of our favorite Black Friday deals from Sears.Craftsman 444 piece Mechanics Tool Set - $899 to $450Craftsman 320-Piece Mechanic’s Tool Set - $299 to $15026 In. 10-Drawer Heavy-Duty Ball Bearing 2-PC Combo – Red/Black - $503 to $199Craftsman 26pc Inch Combination Wrench Set - $80 to $40Craftsman 65" Workstation - $1200 to $800Craftsman 300-Piece Drill Bit Accessory Kit - $50 to $25Craftsman 2-1/4 ton Floor Jack - $70 to $30Craftsman Extreme Grip 14-Pc....

Airbus A380Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamClick to EnlargeThe world’s largest passenger plane has proven to be the most expensive civilian airplane ever developed. Airbus claims its fuel efficiency, control system and sound-reduction technology also make it the most advanced airliner ever built. The first-class section sets standards in luxury, but the A380 began service during a global recession. “They’re going to see years of losses before that [luxury] market fully materializes,” says investment consultant Paul Nisbet, president of JSA Research....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen Anthony Reynolds came upon a tasty 911 Turbo while rolling through Newark, New Jersey in a stolen BMW, his accomplice thought he could drop Reynolds off, have him scoop up the Porsche, and add other hot German car to their stash of ill-gotten goods. But when Reynolds pulled a .38 caliber revolver and demanded the Porsche driver abandon his ride, little did he know that the turbocharged car had three pedals and a stick shift– which left the would-be double thief paralyzed by his lack of manual transmission skills and enabled the car’s owner to flag down the police, who caught and arrested Reynolds following a short foot chase....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’re considering a basement renovation as a way to expand your living space, don’t be surprised if your building-codes office has something to say about it–especially if a new bedroom is part of your plan. Without an egress window in case of fire, regulations simply won’t allow a basement bedroom. And because this ruling is fairly recent in many parts of the country, most existing basements were not built with egress windows....

UPDATE 5:09 PM ET, APRIL 15: High-res video of SpaceX’s launch was temporarily online this afternoon, long enough for internet users to capture the dramatic landing attempt. Seriously, watch this on full-screen:View full post on Youtubehttps://vine.co/v/euEpIVegiIx/embed/simpleUPDATE 4:54 PM ET: Elon Musk says the Falcon’s first stage actually landed successfully on the drone platform, but tipped over afterwards because it was moving sideways.View full post on TwitterHere’s the Falcon approaching the ship:View full post on Twitter4:33 PM ET: The third time wasn’t quite the charm for SpaceX’s attempt to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket on a drone platform at sea....

Media Platforms Design TeamCredit: flickr / AllanSToday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a consumer safety advisory on malfunctioning counterfeit airbags. The NHTSA suspects that in the past three years, bags that look identical to the real thing but don’t work properly may have been installed in nearly 0.1 percent of all U.S. vehicles (which works out to about 250,000 cars). So far no deaths have been linked to the bags, but federal testing has found them to consistently fail to deploy or even explode in a burst of shrapnel....