Posts

Media Platforms Design TeamFAA regulations require that an airliner engine be able to survive the impact of a 4-pound bird. The rules don’t require that an engine continue to run normally after a four-pound bird ingestion, just that it can be safely shut down without exploding or disintegrating. And the regulations don’t address the problem of simultaneous multiple strikes when a plane encounters a large flock—which is what apparently happened to U....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat Is It? 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee The Specs The new Grand Cherokee shares its underpinnings with the Mercedes-Benz ML, so it is the very first big Jeep to have a four-wheel independent suspension. Jeep says the new chassis structure is 146 percent stiffer and rides on a wheelbase that’s 5.3-inches longer than the current model. Yet the overall length is less than 2-inches greater. The additional wheelbase allows greater cargo capacity and rear seat legroom....

Media Platforms Design TeamAccording to the media coverage, Lockheed Martin and Boeing revealed designs of their newest secret warplanes this week at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Conference and Expo. Phantom Works, Boeing’s secret aviation division, released images of its next-generation fighter, the F/A-XX. Meanwhile, a few booths away, Lockheed’s Skunk Works was showcasing new artist renderings of the Sea Ghost, a stealthy carrier-launched unmanned aerial vehicle.The slick images depict sleek aircraft soaring over desert landscapes, launching from aircraft carriers, or flying in gleaming formations....

Media Platforms Design TeamA multicolored giraffe lumbers over to a group of children. They crowd around the metal beast to stroke its wiggling, LED-lit ears as giant speakers blast dance music from within its frame. About a dozen yards away, a ton of twisted steel spews fire into the sky, converting 100 gallons of propane each hour into a public spectacle. Inside the adjacent building, two 9-foot tall Tesla coils zap a giant metal cage, keeping time with a DJ who cues the Dr....

Media Platforms Design TeamFord’s voluntary recall this week of 73,320 Escapes and 15,833 Fusions is a big deal, and not just because the reason is a potential engine fire. According to the company, the fire can happen when the engine overheats and causes a fuel leak—that fuel can spill onto hot engine components and ignite. Don’t panic if you happen to own a turbo Fusion or Escape, though, as the odds of your car catching on fire are pretty low: Only 1 Fusion and 12 Escape fires have been reported, none with injury (those numbers also include an earlier, smaller fuel-related recall for the Escape)....

Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS — The SEMA show here has plenty of innovative products that help DIY-ers get the job done. And we feature the best of those with our Editor’s Choice Awards. But some stuff is just so whacky it stops us dead in our tracks. And this new product deserves special recognition.The “Hitch Critter” is a robotic animal cover that plugs into your receiver hitch, lights up … and wiggles....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe first-ever Corvette ZR1 performance option package appeared in 1970 and ran until 1972, some 20 years before the more infamous “King of the Hill” ZR1. It included the 370-hp LT1 engine and other performance equipment. But that early ZR1’s LT1 engine was a hotrodded version of the basic small block, pushrod V-8. While running strong, it wasn’t exactly the harbinger of the all-new, tech-heavy V8 that would power the ZR1 of the 1990s....

An hour after sunrise on December 7, 1996, my crewmates and I stepped haltingly onto the smooth concrete of Kennedy Space Center’s Runway 33. Before us, Space Shuttle Columbia stood solidly on her landing gear, at rest, after serving as our home for nearly 18 days in orbit—the longest shuttle mission ever. The five of us wandered slowly, almost reverently, under our ship, her black-tiled belly still warm in spots from the plasma of re-entry, as we paid our respects to the orbiter that had brought us safely to Earth....

Kim Jong-un has stated North Korea has powerful hydrogen bombs, the first time it has been suggested North Korea has such a device. First tested in 1952, hydrogen bombs are more dangerous—and complicated—than atomic bombs. Experts are skeptical of the North Korean claim.According to the North Korean state news agency KNCA, Kim made the comments at the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, a former munitions factory. Kim stated that North Korea was, “a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamThe courtship of Tesla is over, for the moment. It’s being reported that at a press conference later today, Tesla Motors will confirm that Nevada will be the site for its much-awaited “gigafactory,” which will crank out lithium-ion batteries for Tesla EVs.Nevada had appeared to be in the driver’s seat to land the factory and the 6,500 jobs that go with it, especially after Telsa broke ground on a site near Reno a month ago....

The Magnetic Splitting Car of Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt ShowAs part of the explosive finale to the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show (parked permanently at Disney Hollywood Studios since 2005), an Opel Corsa splits in half, as if it had just met the business end of a chain saw. So how does a car split, only to come back together backstage, multiple times per day, every single day? The surprisingly simple secret: Magnets....

Do you want widgets on your television? Your answer may not matter–they’re already on their way. Last week’s announcement at the Intel Developer Forum that Intel will partner with Yahoo, Samsung, Disney, CBS, Toshiba, eBay and Comcast to create a widget channel received relatively minimal news coverage or buzz on the Web. Well, it may be hard for tech writers to get excited about interactive television, but it might just become the next trend in HDTV....

Media Platforms Design TeamCABOT, Vt. — Last week, we put the finishing touches on our new Glenwood wood-burning cook stove. Actually, there’s not much that’s new about our Glenwood; it was manufactured somewhere around the turn of the century, and I ain’t talking about Y2K. We bought it down in Rhode Island from Emery Pineo, an opinionated-but-charmed fellow who refurbishes these ol’ beauties for a living. Not content to leave well enough alone, we rigged our Glenwood Sunny with a hot water loop....

Media Platforms Design TeamSan Diego, Calif.—The 2011 Buick Regal is sold in Europe as the Opel Insignia (recipient of the 2010 European Car of the Year award) and under the Buick name in China; its development was truly a cooperative venture on a global scale. The Regal’s appearance confirms its cosmopolitan pedigree; it would not appear out of place in any modern city, from San Diego to Shanghai. As a midsize sedan, the new car is smaller and more tautly sculpted than any previous model bearing the Regal name....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: N/APrice: $95,975Competitors: BMW ActiveHybrid 750Li, Lexus GS HybridPowertrain: 333-hp supercharged V6, 47-hp electric motor, eight-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive.EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 22/28 (estimated)What’s New: The Panamera S Hybrid borrows and tweaks the supercharged 3.0-liter direct-injection V6, 34-kilowatt electric motor and eight-speed transmission from Porsche’s Cayenne S Hybrid. A 1.7-kilowatt-hour nickel-metal-hydride battery provides about a mile and a half of electric-only range, but significantly improves around-town fuel economy....

The new standard for flashlights, energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are durable and long-lasting. We pushed a trio of LED minilights from different price points to their limits, testing for battery life, light quality and the ability to handle falls on concrete.Test Criteria* Battery Life: We ran fresh batteries through each light until they completely ran out of juice.* Durability: We dropped the lights onto concrete from as high as 20 ft....

The first transatlantic cable to be laid in 10 years will not carry voice or Internet data. Instead, the line from New York to London will beam financial data to money marketers and hedge fund traders. And thanks to a shorter route than its competitors, the fiberoptic cable will transmit information across the Atlantic 5 milliseconds faster. “If you are trading in one market you want to be listening to the other markets,” says Bjarni Thorvardarson, CEO of Hibernia Atlantic, the company building the new line....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt Can Tear You ApartQ: I’m trying to replace the engine in my car with a used one because I can’t afford to have the old one rebuilt. I have the new (old) engine in my garage, and it still has all the fuel-injection hoses and stuff. This is probably easy–but how do you take apart the fuel lines? The new engine’s hoses just end in a steel fitting, and I can’t figure out how to get the ones still in my car apart....

Media Platforms Design TeamBoeing and BlackBerry are teaming up to build a perfect spy phone, one with dual SIM card capacity—and a self-destruct feature.The phone is an Android device called Black. Not to be confused with the privacy-focused Blackphone, Black also features radio and satellite capabilities, solar charging, biometric scanning, and various levels of encryption. The self-destruct feature doesn’t need to be “detonated” remotely. Rather, the phone can sense case tampering and responds by wiping the phone clean of all data, preventing information from falling into the wrong hands....

SAN DIEGO — Last week, we took this wild-looking three-wheeler for a serious test drive. It’s officially known as the B.R.P. (Bombardier Recreational Products) Can-Am Spyder Grand Sport Roadster. Yes, that sure is a mouthful to say, but it was more than interesting to see what kind of a handful it was to ride:Three-wheelers aren’t usually the most forgiving when it comes to sharp turns. Remember the old Honda ATC? The difference this time is that the two wheels are out in front instead of in the rear, and stability control is there to rein-in any naughty behavior....