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Media Platforms Design TeamAmerica’s intelligence agencies are reeling from insider leaks. At the same time Pfc. Bradley Manning is on trial for releasing thousands of classified cables to WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden—a contractor with security clearance—has made international news by revealing National Security Agency data-mining operations. But long before the these current revelations, and throughout much of the Obama presidency, the U.S. government was in full data-leakage-prevention mode, working on human and technological ways to plug the illicit flow of information....

Caulk is used to create a waterproof or insulating seal between building materials. Examples where caulk is used to fill a gap include: between a tub and tile, countertop and backsplash, or window and frame. Although applications may seem similar, the key to a successful seal is to make sure you use the correct caulk for the job.A bead of caulk should be thin and consistent. The best caulking jobs are the ones you don’t notice, so apply the caulk sparingly and clean up any residue quickly before it dries....

Q: I currently have my desktop running across two screens off the dual outputs of my graphics card. Is it possible to set up my flat-panel TV as a third screen? Can I hook up a fourth screen, too?A: It’s as easy as pie, provided you are prepared to buy a little extra hardware. (And if you really can afford three or four monitors, I suspect you will manage the extra cost just fine....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast week, just outside of Popular Mechanics’ headquarters in midtown Manhattan, a carriage horse named Oreo broke loose of its carriage and began running amok around Columbus Circle near Central Park. The horse injured three people before officers could tranquilize it. Although horse-drawn carriages are common on the streets and avenues of midtown Manhattan, it’s rare to hear about a serious accident involving a carriage and a car....

Electronics are at the very core of almost everything that makes our modern day life possible, but how much do you really know about how circuits work? Well, you could stand to know a whole lot more after just a few minutes playing around in this browser-based electronics sandbox. The circuit simulator at Lushprojects is simple. Adapted from an a Java-based sim by Paul Falstad, this HTML widget will run in just about any browser, and lets you click to draw wires, place resistors, attach batteries, rig up LEDs, and test it all out without starting a fire, frying components or somehow electrocuting yourself....

Media Platforms Design Team This story is brought to you by Gas 2.0. On Monday at the Denver Auto Show, Lightning Hybrids unveiled their concept 100-MPG hydraulic-hybrid that will vie for the Automotive X Prize. Since we at Gas 2.0 first covered this ‘biodiesel hydraulic-hybrid,’ the team at Lightning Motors has been working around the clock to finish in time for this debut. The spring snow storm last week left parts stranded and put us behind schedule....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat are you working on right now?One area is home energy and resource monitoring: sensing solutions in the home that allow people to reflect on their energy use. When you pay your bills at the end of the month, the stark difference between your energy bills and your other bills is that you dont really understand the energy bills. Your credit card and telephone bills are itemized; you know where you can cut....

View full post on YoutubeAs wars spread across the Middle East, so do shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. Matt Schroeder, senior researcher of the Small Arms Survey, identified this recent video posted on what appears to be the Iraqi Ministry of Defense’s Youtube site showing soldiers with Russian SA-24 man portable aircraft defense systems (MANPADS.)“This is the first I’ve heard of any such sale,” he says. “I don’t know where the missiles are housed but, given the Iraqi military’s collapse during the earlier Islamic State offensive and the subsequent looting of Iraqi depots, this is worrisome....

UPDATE, July 3, 2015: Success! Solar Impulse touched down in Hawaii Friday morning, completing the arduous leg across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.View full post on TwitterJune 29: Earlier today, the solar-powered Solar Impulse plane took off from Japan to begin a five-day non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. Solar Impulse says this will be the most challenging leg of its trip around the globe.View full post on TwitterThe plane began its circumnavigation of Earth in March in Abu Dhabi and made steady progress heading east....

ONLINE UPDATE (July 8, 1:45 p.m.): On Thursday, two Russian cosmonauts at the International Space Station (ISS) will take a spacewalk–one teetering on the end of a robotic arm–to make hardware changes onboard the Russian-made Soyuz spacecraft. NASA officials confirmed to PopularMechanics.com that the goal is to fix whatever caused the last two spacecraft to make last-minute emergency re-entries, one of which caused a South Korean astronaut to be hospitalized in February....

Things are looking good for SpaceX. Not only did the Falcon 9 return to flight for the first time since July, but the company pulled off a successful ground-based landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Monday night.At around 8:40 p.m. EST, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket returned to the ground to an uproarious crowd, cheering the safe landing after months of unsuccessful attempts. This was also the first SpaceX flight since July, when a Falcon 9 exploded due to a faulty strut in an upper stage....

Media Platforms Design TeamTo some, the word “lunacy” may describe the idea of spending days, nights and weekends for the next six weeks inside the walls of their high schools. To the 42,000 students who will participate this year in the FIRST Robotics competition, it’s the name of the game–and their single-minded goal. This year’s FIRST Robotics challenge, called Lunacy, was announced Saturday at a kick-off event in Manchester, N.H. The challenge defines the rules of the annual competition, in which teams of high school students have six weeks to build a robot and then compete with it in regional events....

The Canadian military is worried enemies may attack an unlikely, unseen vulnerability: the software of a car. Canada’s Department of National Defense posted a notice seeking someone who could hack a government-provided vehicle and not only explain how they did it, but how to prevent it from happening again.According to the listing, “a car produced in 2014 may include up to 100 computers that run 60 million of lineof codes and manage 145 actuators and 75 sensors....

Media Platforms Design TeamFuturama: The Complete Collection 19-Disc Set (2009)Media Platforms Design TeamFuturama, creator Matt Groening’s spiritual-successor to The Simpsons has had a tumultuous history and is poised for a rebirth. Running sporadically on FOX for four seasons between 1999 and 2002 before the network finally pulled the plug, Futurama eventually found new life through syndication, first on Cartoon Network, then finally Comedy Central which also produced four original direct-to-DVD titles....

Q: Lets say we have 250nm coming from the gearbox to a standard 2wd diff. The diff now doubles the torque to 500nm and evenly distributes the torque to both axles (i.e. 250nm per axle). With AWD system the 250nm from the gearbox is evenly (assumption) split in two giving 125mn to the front and rear diff’s respectively where the diff doubles the torque to 250nm, times two diffs, and again we have a total of 500nm accelerating the car....

Media Platforms Design TeamEarth is one rough place. Even the most devastating storms of recent years pale in sheer destructive power against outsize natural disasters of the past, such as continent-smothering ice sheets, ocean-raising floods, super volcanoes and the occasional asteroid. Because cataclysms will always be a regular feature of life on Earth, PM consulted with leading scientists to detail five more disasters that may be in store. Some will be beyond human control; others could be disasters of our own making....

Xiao Zhu, a Chinese company that sells air purifiers, has a vested interest in helping the country to solve its terrible air pollution problem, one that kills more than half a million people each year. It is currently drawing attention to the crisis with a head-turing ad campaign called Breathe Again, in which it projects the faces of crying children onto the pollution billowing forth from Chinese industrial plants.Says Design Boom:Visualized on the cloud-like canvases were dozens of pictures of Chinese youth, shown in numerous stages of dismay, pain, and ultimately suffocation....

Media Platforms Design TeamResearchers have developed a battery in the form of a temporary tattoo that can monitor your workout and even make electricity from your sweat. Eventually, biobatteries like this may be able to charge your watch, heart monitor, or smartphone. Wenzhao Jia from the University of California San Diego presented the research today at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the in San Francisco. American Chemical SocietyThe device has a sensor printed onto it that detects lactate, a chemical present in sweat that rises during strenuous training regimens....

LOS ANGELES — The team at Audi, unlike many manufacturers, doesn’t build concept cars as flights of fancy. When they build it, odds are you’ll see it in a dealership in some form. That’s why it’s worth getting excited about the Cross Cabriolet Quattro, unveiled here today and, we bet, headed to you as the Q1 about a year after the A1 hits our shores as a 2010 model. The Cross Cabriolet is a small, open-top SUV powered by a 3....

Today, the Chinese government issued its first emergency red alert for Beijing due to dangerously high levels of smog. A red alert bans outdoor construction projects, requires factories to drastically reduce their emissions, and prohibits half the city’s cars from driving on the roads. The government also recommends that schools shutter their windows and warns against outdoor exertion. The alert is expected to stay in effect until at least Thursday December 10....