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Update, March 23: Scientists so far have not been able to contact the Philae lander. Their first try, which started on March 12, concluded on March 20 without success. They’re not discouraged, though, calling this just a first attempt. But they won’t be able to try again until sometime in April when the comet lander is in good position once again.March 11, 2015: The Philae lander could wake up in the next few days, at which point it will pick up where it left off: trying to become the first spacecraft to drill into a comet....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamYesterday, Google acquired Skybox Imaging, a company that captures high-resolution data of the Earth from small, relatively cheap orbiting satellites. The $500 million purchase, a pittance for Google, builds upon the company’s already impressive mapping services.“We’ve built and launched the world’s smallest high­-resolution imaging satellite, which collects beautiful and useful images and video every day,” the Skybox Team said in a blog post....

Media Platforms Design TeamPolice officers and sheriffs around the U.S. are calling on Google to turn off police tracking on Waze, the traffic and navigation app Google purchased in June 2013, claiming that the feature makes Waze into a “police stalking” app that puts their lives in danger.Waze is a crowdsourcing app that alerts drivers in real time to potential hazards, delays, and other traffic happenings; users might flag construction zones, accidents, or other areas of single lane driving....

PARIS – It’ll take more than a couple of hours to shrug off the jetlag, but Daimler-Chrysler has thoughtfully flown me out here early enough to get in a nap—and maybe even a quick trip to the Louvre. Why am I in Paris? For the kickoff of the 2006 Paris-Beijing experience. Tomorrow morning, a group of journalists from all over the world will pilot diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedans on the first leg of an ambitious journey across Europe, Russia and all the way to Beijing....

With the Space Shuttle’s Hubble repair mission still in the planning phase, NASA wrapped up its Flight Readiness Review last night and declared Discovery “go” for launch next Thursday night. As the shuttle enters a new phase with this trip to the International Space Station (which soon will get outsourced shipping), check back next week for the Popular Mechanics take on the launch—as usual.Top cosmologist Stephen Hawking urged today that humans need to colonize on other planets (though we might not be alone)—or risk extinction from an asteroid or a nuclear war....

Media Platforms Design TeamA cordless drill is indispensable. It drills holes, drives and removes screws, and can do a variety of oddball jobs such as stirring paint. But without the right accessories, it will never live up to its full potential.The EssentialsProtect your eyes when drilling holes, especially when drilling into steel. Since you’re more likely to wear safety glasses if they’re comfortable, we suggest a model like 3M’s new Tekk glasses, complete with anti-fog coating....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe sun has just risen, and already the heat is shimmering over the dry lakebed. Craggy brown mountains loom over the towers and hangars of Edwards Air Force Base, the country’s main military flight-testing center. A plywood trailer sits on the heat-cracked mud, thick black wires running from it in a giant V toward a quartet of sensors in the distance. Every few minutes, the desert’s early-morning stillness is torn by a gut-thumping rumble as fighter jets take off on afterburners....

Media Platforms Design TeamTV shows like Sons of Anarchy get ratings with bad-boy outlaw bikers, but real riders know that motorcycles can be tools for the greater good. With donations and registration fees for charity rides around the country, motorcyclists are making a difference and having a great time in the process.If you like large-scale organized rides, try the Trail of Tears Remembrance Motorcycle Ride, a four-day ride covering roughly 1000 miles through eight states....

There are two really fascinating and pervasive pieces of technology in Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her. Yes, there’s the whole bit with the self-aware AI’s but there are also those fascinating little earbuds that everyone uses to control their phones. A real life Samantha is still years away, but those earbuds are closer than you think. Last year Motorola released something called the Moto Hint, a tiny single-ear Bluetooth headset complete with a microphone for making calls or sending texts, or asking for directions, or one of any number of different voice commands....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: SolaRoad)A bike path that connects two of Amsterdam’s suburbs will soon be doing double duty. Next week, a 70-meter (230-foot) stretch between Krommenie and Wormerveer will open with solar cells embedded within, allowing the path to harness solar energy throughout the day.The Guardian reports that the crystalline silicon solar cells will be encased in concrete and covered with glass. The surface is slightly tilted and coated with a “non-adhesive” finish so that dirt will run off and keep the cells exposed to sunlight....

BlurThe Game /// Blur is an online and offline road racer where up to 20 players–either online or computer simulated–go head-to-head. What’s Cool /// Using its community-based interface, Blur offers players the ability to challenge each other and affect their game’s narrative through the Internet. Players can create their own multiplayer modes or have a four-player split screen if their console is not connected to the Web.Availability /// Gamers can expect to see Blur in stores in fall ‘09 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PCs....

Media Platforms Design TeamCredit: flickr / MTAPhotosAs Hurricane Sandy batters the Northeast, most people are hunkering down at home. But for tree climbers, this is overtime.PM recently met Gary Gross, a founder of the New England Tree Climbing Association, when we took a class to learn the basics of tree climbing tech. Gross teaches classes on tree climbing for professionals and interested adventurers, but business has picked up because of recent powerful storms....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: NowPrice: $99Ultimate Ears’ Mini Boom is a strange little device. A baby brother to the subsidiary’s wireless, Bluetooth-enabled flagship speaker the Boom, the Mini Boom has a re-imagined, boxy design (unlike the Boom’s cylindrical approach) and is about half the size at half the price. Overall, the small speaker is pretty unassuming, almost cute, but its size doesn’t match its sound. Logitech and Ultimate Ears were able to pack a great audio experience in a very tiny package....

California is mired in a historic drought; we already know that all too well. And climate change – NOAA just declared this past winter the warmest one on record – is compounding the drought. It’s so bad, we’re wondering what, exactly, will we drink as the water literally disappears? Among the possible solutions are desalination of ocean water. But another potential option might turn some off: purification of waste water.The idea of purifying and drinking waste water – which includes water from your toilet – is hardly new....

Media Platforms Design TeamRussia’s Defense Ministry is testing a new nonlethal ray gun for use on protesters, which looks like a close facsimile of the American system in development. The difference could be that the Russians are willing to use it.Eleven years ago, the Pentagon unveiled the Active Denial System, a nonlethal crowd-control device firing a beam of 94-Ghz microwaves (known as millimeter waves) developed by Raytheon. The beam has a much shorter wavelength than a microwave oven and very different effects....

Media Platforms Design TeamGive me your elevator pitch. What’s so special about this stove?The Xeoos Twinfire is a double-chambered stove that is 93 percent efficient. It was originally designed by two German engineers as a way to provide an efficient burning method and minimize pollution in developing countries. This hand-built wood-burning stove exceeds industry standards as a remarkable heat source. Designed with the environment in mind, the patented burning technology of the Twinfire’s double-chambered combustion system is like no other....

Z MACHINE SPECS* The accelerator is 109ft. wide and holds up to 1.1 million gallons of liquid* When it reopens in July, the Z machine will produce up to 26 million amps It lurks in Albuquerque, N.M., a partially submerged particle accelerator built to generate data for supercomputers that simulate nuclear explosions. But in its 10 violent years of life, the Z machine has surprised its creators at Sandia National Laboratories....

Media Platforms Design TeamUpdate: On June 2, the University of Maryland team’s flight time was certified at 4.2 seconds. Though that time is less than half of what the team members recorded themselves, Maryland still became the first team with a certified flight time.Two years of work culminated in a few seconds of flight this month as students from the University of Maryland flew their homemade helicopter right into the record books....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Blaster’s 25-dart belt can be unloaded in about 10 seconds.Like plenty of other toy guns, the Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 Blaster ($40, nerf.com) has a pneumatic pump that’s used to fire off single rounds. But six D batteries turn the hybrid Blaster into a foam-shooting tommy gun—feeding a 25-dart belt through a fully automatic chamber at more than two shots per second. The result: the fastest, most powerful Nerf gun ever and the one best equipped for mowing down moving targets....

Q: I have a question about fuel economy. If you are driving downhill, do you save gas by putting your transmission in Neutral and coasting, instead of having your vehicle in Drive? I think that you do but my wife seems to disagree. Can you give me the correct answer, so I can tell her that I’m “Mr. Right,” as usual?A: That depends. The engine isn’t braking the car going downhill if the transmission is in Neutral, so economy would seem to be high....