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The Claim: In a radio interview on Feb. 10, 2009, infomercial superstar Billy Mays claimed that the popular Shamwow has trod on the turf of Zorbeez, a super-absorbent towel he promoted in a separate infomercial about two years prior. Zorbeez is the most absorbent towel in the world, Mays said in the interview. Vince, host of the Shamwow ad, has now “unleashed and woken up the sleeping giant,” Mays said, suggesting the two settle the score via a “pitch-off....

Media Platforms Design TeamThree years ago, granola bar-maker Nature Valley began its Preserve the Parks program to support physical restoration of the national parks. But with the company’s new initiative, Trail View, is moving into the digital realm. The platform, which Nature Valley brought to South by Southwest, takes Google’s Street View technology and applies it to trails, allowing people to virtually navigate three national parks: Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountains, and the Grand Canyon....

Media Platforms Design TeamIs there really wealth among the stars? Can we tap raw materials in space for exploration and profit? That far-off-sounding question is starting to get some serious attention. Earlier this year, Seattle-based startup Planetary Resources, Inc. (PRI), announced that its group of tech and entertainment investors was backing a serious, decade-long campaign to extract precious metals and other resources from asteroids. In early June, The Wall Street Journal discussed which terrestrial minerals might run short in this century, and whether we could profitably find new supplies in space....

On-Sale Date: Spring 2014Base Price: $42,275Competitors: Ford Focus EV, Honda Fit EV, Nissan Leaf, Toyota RAV4 EVPowertrains: AC electric motor, 170 hp, 184 lb-ft; 22-kwh lithium-ion battery pack, direct drive, RWD EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy, est.): 125/110 mpgeLet me be clear: Amsterdam is hell to drive in, more hellish than crawling and cursing your way through Times Square. On the Dutch capital’s generally narrow roads, cars fall somewhere around fifth in importance, behind swarms of bikers, pedestrians, unforgiving trams, and more swarms of bikers....

Popular Mechanics: No one paid attention to the Wright brothers when they first started working on their airplane. Why do you think that was? David McCullough: The fact that they were so ignored is astonishing. Ignored by the press, by serious scientific magazines, by the federal government, and by the newspapers right in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Nobody even bothered to go out and take a look. They did it all themselves....

The buzz around Debunking 9/11 Myths is heating up on the blogs. Let’s see what people are saying. Blogger Austin Bay writes, “The book puts into practice former Senator and genuine intellectual Daniel P. Moynihan’s exquisite quip ‘Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. He is not entitled to his own facts.’ I especially like John McCain’s foreward and editor-in-chief James Miegs Afterword is also excellent. Buy the book and read it....

Media Platforms Design TeamEnjoying tire-blowout season? That’s a rhetorical question, kind of like the infuriating, “Hot enough for ya?” But those who have suffered a tire failure since the mid-May start of the season will likely answer, “No, I did not have fun.” Even if you’ve avoided tire problems, you probably have noticed road gators—the treads of failed tires—lining the shoulders of interstate highways.Tire-blowout season runs from roughly the middle of May through early October....

Media Platforms Design TeamI recently bought a 2000 Chevy 1500 pickup. The brake and ABS warning lights come on intermittently while driving, but the brakes seem to work fine. The previous owner said it had done this for several years, even after having a brake job. What are the possible causes?This sounds to me like a case where the hardware that makes the truck stop is just fine (master cylinder, brake lines, calipers, pistons, pads, and rotors), and the problem lies in the sensors used to trigger the antilock braking system....

View full post on YoutubeWe love feisty engine sounds in all their sonorous forms, but those sweet songs can be elusive behind the wheel of a janky econobox. Gamemaker 2XL’s solution is an app that samples audio from actual dyno sessions with Ferraris and Ford GT40s, and manipulates them through iPhones or Androids via the phones’ built-in accelerometers. Using an “AUX” cable plugged into your stereo system, your sad, sorry car (NSFW link) transforms into the ride of your dreams– or at least a reasonable auditory facsimile of it....

Media Platforms Design TeamFar away from all the drivers, engineers, race teams and fans sits Ohio State University’s Buckeye Bullet. This 314-mph electric powered streamliner gets refueled with the gasses it needs to generate its own electricity.>RELATED STORIES* FIRST LOOK: British Steam Car Hits Road for 170 MPH at Bonneville* COMPLETE COVERAGE: Follow Daily Galleries From Speed Week 2008!Media Platforms Design TeamSkip Hedrich’s stunning C/Gas Streamliner (Easy Rider, anyone?) heads off on another 320-mph run down the long course at the salt flats....

Media Platforms Design TeamThose who preordered Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 smartphone will be getting more than just a 13 megapixel camera and the latest quad-core processor when the phone ships later this month. They’ll be among the first consumers to own a gadget that can track eye movement.For now that means software on smartphones will make use of front-facing cameras to pause a video when the user looks away from the screen or scroll through a web page based on the user’s eye movements....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe film is powerful because this isn’t sci-fi. This is a real disorder, one I’ve never heard of, and one that seems too bizarre to be real. Where did you hear about it, and how did you make it fit into the movie? JOSH DANZIGER: A doctor friend of mine called me one day and told me about these two people who came into the ER claiming to have worms coming out of their arms....

Media Platforms Design TeamNATO has flown more than 7000 sorties in Libya in the seven weeks since the start of the conflict in March, but Muammar Gaddafi’s regime still shows little sign of cracking. Now two NATO nations are sending some aerial reinforcements to support the Libyan rebels.The HelicoptersBritain is initially committing four AH-1 Apaches, which will operate from the assault ship HMS Ocean . These are a British version of the Apache helicopter, manufactured in the UK under license from Boeing....

Famed sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke called them biots—biological robots that use real muscle tissue to walk or crawl. While they’ve been created in the lab, today’s biobots are currently little more than strips of muscle that inch across surfaces like caterpillars. But researchers predict machines guided by primitive artificial brains of their own, machines that could one day travel inside the body to conduct minimally invasive surgery or even venture out into the world to clean up pollution....

Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS—Despite being part of a fast- expanding category, wearable devices are still difficult to get right. Smartwatches aren’t ready for primetime yet, and fitness bands have such a targeted function that beyond the health-conscious audience, the gadgets don’t exactly enjoy mass appeal. But now, Razer is aiming to mitigate these problems. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, the popular gaming peripheral maker has launched the Nabu, a “smart band” that the company claims belongs to an entirely new class of products....

Media Platforms Design TeamWell, we’re packing up our bags here as our time at CES comes to an end. It has been, as always, an experience that is both exciting and bewildering in its humongousness, and it will be months (perhaps even years) before the products and services that have been launched here attain their full significance. But if there was one overarching theme to this year’s show, it would be … war....

View full post on YoutubeOriginal 1981 trailer.Maybe you groaned when you heard an Escape From New York remake was in the works. But fear not: Original director John Carpenter has signed on as a more-than-nominal executive producer and will help to steer the project.The 1981 movie, one of PM’s 100 best science fiction movies, took place in a dystopian 1997 New York in which mercenary Snake Plisken, played to gritty perfection by Kurt Russell, helps the United States President escape New York City, which has been turned into a penal colony....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Lexus GS was a comfortable, reliable and finely crafted midsize sedan. But sporty? Not really. Lexus hopes to remedy that situation with the 2013 GS 350, unveiled this weekend at Pebble Beach. Lexus engineers are said to have taken the LFA supercar as their inspiration for a sportier GS sedan. The all-new platform is stiffer than the old one, with a wider track and a revised suspension system that is both lighter and stronger, according to Lexus....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph by Chris Eckert/Studio D)THE BAGS* Hefty 2-mil ($10 for 18 bags)* Grip-Rite 3-mil ($15 for 20 bags)* EconoGreen 3-mil ($17 for 30 bags)THE TESTSWeight CapacityWe started with a 20-pound slate paver and added weights until the bags burst.Hefty 2-mil: The thin, stretchy resin held until the load hit 40 pounds. Grip-Rite 3-mil: Despite being thicker than the Hefty, it actually held less weight–a tear appeared at just 35 pounds....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph courtesy of Apple).Q: My hard drive recently failed and I lost a lot of data, but my music is backed up on my iPod. If I plug my iPod back into my computer with the new hard drive and blank library, will it erase the music on my iPod, or will it repopulate the music library on my computer?A: Several third-party tools will allow you to re-import all your music, both MP3s and files purchased from the iTunes Store, but I’d suggest importing that music back before you install iTunes....