Posts

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Fall 2013 Price (est.): $95,000Competitors: Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Lexus LS, Jaguar XJ, Maserati QuattroportePowertrains: twin-turbocharged 4.6-liter V-8; 455 hp, 516 lb-ft; 7-speed automatic; RWD or AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy, est.): 15/25What’s New: The 2014 S-Class is smart—really smart. Using a network of cameras, sensors, and radars to see the road and its surroundings, the car can steer, brake, correct lane drifting, prevent a head-on or cross-traffic collision, identify people and wildlife at day or night, parallel park, and do a whole lot more....

Media Platforms Design TeamPollution doesn’t exist solely outside your door. Inside your home, mold, mildew, dust, and odors can cause itchy eyes, scratchy throats, and headaches. According to the Indoor Air Quality Scientific Findings Resource Bank, mold is responsible for 4.6 million current cases of asthma and about 20 percent of other common respiratory infections.Keep your home smelling fresh and your family breathing easy by following these simple tips.Clean Heating and Cooling System Ducts RegularlyWhile they keep your home comfortable, heating and cooling systems also drop dust particles along duct walls....

Media Platforms Design TeamAt the beginning of 9, society is in the thick of the industrial revolution. A scientist creates an intelligent machine that turns on its creators and destroys the human race. Left in the post-apocalyptic rubble are nine life forms–the creations of the regretful inventor of The Machine.The world is gritty, lifeless and dark–the rubble of a society that became “obsessed with machines and technology,” says director Shane Acker....

A small crowd mills around a yellowed Nintendo Entertainment System at Twenty Sided Store in Brooklyn, waiting for their chance to play Star Versus for the first time. The year is 2015, and I’m about to play a brand new game created for a system built in 1983.Designed and developed by Dustin Long, and manufactured by Andrew Reitano, Star Versus is a competitive one-vs-one shooter made for the NES and available only on actual old-school cartridges....

Protecting your pavement from the harsh effects of winter ice and summer heat can be smart home maintenance—if you’re not coating your driveway with carcinogens. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that coal-tar pavement sealant, typically used east of the Continental Divide, contains 1000 times more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are by-products of fuel burning, than its asphalt-based counterpart used throughout the West. What’s more, these known cancer-causing compounds might be tracked indoors....

(Published in the September 1997 issue)More: Jets vs. Props.Each year, hundreds of boaters spend countless thousands of dollars on machine-shop equipment and bolt-on gadgets in their quest to increase outboard horsepower. Yet the easiest and least expensive way to improve performance is to change propellers. Regardless of your rig’s size, horsepower or application, the right prop can make the difference, whether you seek increased speed, better handling or more power. Even if you’re happy with your boat’s performance, you and your family might participate in more than one watersport, and you may benefit from changing props....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Mars, a planet with no magnetosphere and an atmosphere roughly one percent as thick as ours, radiation is a real concern for any potential astronauts. Today there’s good news today: Astronauts won’t turn into radioactive goo the second they step on the surface, the Curiosity rover has confirmed. But, project scientists say, it’ll be a little while longer before we really know what Mars’ radiation means in human terms....

We’ve all had it happen—a sudden gust of wind in a heavy rainstorm turns your umbrella into an inverted canvass lance that pulls you backward while you get drenched. After that, the umbrella is usually destined for the landfill, its frame thrashed beyond repair. Finally, someone has designed an umbrella specifically to combat this problem. Hedgehog Products Inc. created what is being touted as “the last umbrella you will ever buy....

Q: Our 2003 Ford F-150 pickup is in the shop right now because the technician says it is only pumping oil to the right side of the motor, so the engine needs to be removed. Why did this happen?A: I need to know what engine. Is it the 4.2, the 4.6 or the 5.4? 4x2 or 4x4?And what was the symptom that led you to take it to the shop in the first place?...

Navy robotic aircraft will operate autonomously, but they will still require people onboard to land. “Carrier naval aviation is extremely safe for the level of risk,” says retired Rear Adm. Craig Steidle, the former head of the Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18 programs. “The Navy is slow to evolve, which is fortunate because we have a very safe and effective system.“Media Platforms Design Team1. At 50 nautical miles (nm) the unmanned aerial vehicle enters carrier-controlled airspace and uploads its location and fuel status to the carrier....

Media Platforms Design TeamA customer looking to get out of his cellphone calling plan early often faces hefty termination fees. These fees exist as a sort of hedge for the carriers: They slash the up-front cost of phones to get you into a long-term contract, and punish you for breaking that contract. For those looking to get out of their contract, however, it is possible to eliminate or at least reduce those fees....

Media Platforms Design TeamTREESA trunk-to-trunk distance of 13 to 16 feet is ideal. Distances of 16 to 25 feet can be spanned with straps. If the span is too small, a two-poled mounting stand is a must. “Traditionally people want trees,” Lintner says, “but the stand at least ensures a proper fit.“HARDWAREA popular fastening option is a pair of removable tree straps, which have a loop of fabric at one end and a metal ring at the other....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday” paradigm seems to work best when showroom offerings closely resemble their racecar counterparts. As such, NASCAR’s recent approval of 2013 Sprint Car designs should make the on-track action more relatable to fans when the series kicks off next February with the Daytona 500.The product of two years of collaboration between manufacturers and NASCAR, the changes bring about more diversity to previous cookie cutter-style designs....

Click here to post this video on your blog or website.Click here to post a photo of this winner on your blog or website.Jefferson Y. Han likes big computer monitors. If a screen is large enough, four or five people can work at it together, rearranging blueprints, say, or editing photos. But they can’t do that if they’re taking turns at a keyboard and mouse. The answer, which Han demonstrates on a 3 x 8-ft....

NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a modest $892,292 earlier this month to study the feasibility of developing an unmanned hypersonic spy plane called the SR-72. This superfast recon drone, first teased in November 2013, would fly at speeds of Mach 6.0, or 4,500 mph. That’s almost double the speed of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which made its first flight 50 years ago.Neither Lockheed Martin Skunk Works nor NASA Glenn Research Center officials are talking about the recent award....

Architect and industrial designer Aldana Ferrer Garcia has created three pop-out window concepts in her More Sky line that provide an extra seat in any room. As an added bonus, popping a squat in your window sill will let you soak up some vitamin D in an otherwise sun-deprived apartment, at least if you’re not afraid of heights.The first design, called the “hopper niche,” folds out of a window frame like an accordion, allowing the occupant to recline against the glass....

Media Platforms Design Team cellpadding=“0” cellspacing=“0” border=“0”>1. Camera SystemsThree pressurized housings on aluminum arms will contain a total of three HD, three ultra-high-resolution video and two digital still cameras. Four more cameras record outside and three inside. “We basically built a flying television studio,” says Jay Nemeth of FlightLine Films. 2. Outer FairingThe Gemini shape of the capsule is “really a very elegant way of putting a lot of insulation around a lot of the systems,” says chief engineer Bill Dodson....

Media Platforms Design TeamTougher than some forms of steel and lighter than water, a new material exceeds the strength-to-weight ratio of many other construction materials. Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany used an advanced Nanoscribe 3D printer to construct tiny aluminum oxide–coated polymer structures, each 40 microns tall, or about the diameter of a human hair. When compressed, they can withstand up to 40,611 psi of pressure, compared with stainless steel’s 30,458 psi....

To watch the entire human brain at work—seeing it as an interconnected whole rather than a group of connected regions—is a scientist’s dream. Even the Obama administration thinks so. The White House is backing an initiative to create a brain-activity map, a record for the entire human brain that shows not only how the neurons are wired together but also which neurons are active at any moment. Think of it as a Google map that shows both networks of roads and the cars on those roads....

Media Platforms Design Team NEW YORK—It’s like the EV motorcycle equivalent of Ford vs. Chevy. Two short months ago, we swung a leg over the new Zero S electric street bike. Now, we’ve spent some time with Brammo’s Enertia—an electric two wheeler that just might steal some of Zero’s eco-friendly thunder. Check the specs and the Brammo Enertia isn’t very impressive, taken strictly as a traditional motorcycle. After all, it makes just 18 hp and it tops out at a barely adequate 55 mph....