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Media Platforms Design TeamThe model airplanes illustrated, while they do not exemplify the very best performance or design, nevertheless have proved to be very satisfactory in flight. They also include structural features that make them easy to build. Because of this simplicity of design, they will appeal to the person who likes to build, whether he has the experience in this line or not. He will be able to complete the style of his choice, provided he has the necessary patience and consideration for detail....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe big news in missile defense this week is that the Obama administration will likely scale back plans to install ground-based missile defense interceptors in Europe that are designed to protect allies and U.S. forces in Europe from long-range Iranian missiles. The assessment that backs this decision will be released next week. It states that Iranian long-range missiles pose less of a threat than short- and medium-range ones....

Media Platforms Design TeamOne of the most prestigious awards at the FIRST championships this weekend in Atlanta, Ga. goes to the First Tech Challenge (FTC) team that represents the best role model. This year, the winner of the Inspire Award, the Rock N Roll Robots, have a pretty good role model themselves.Their mentor, Julie Townsend, is an academic all-star around the halls of NASA. After undergrad at MIT, the Detroit native earned her Masters in Stanford’s department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is finishing up her doctorate there now....

Gary Dahl, the inventor of the Pet Rock, has died at age 78. He is best known for putting rocks in a box and calling them pets. When the sedimentary pals debuted in 1975, they were a big hit, selling more than 1 million units. It happened through nothing more than the magic of marketing, The New York Times says:The genius was in the packaging. Each Pet Rock came in a cardboard carrying case, complete with air holes, tenderly nestled on a bed of excelsior....

Media Platforms Design TeamConsumer packaging represents 31 percent of the municipal waste stream, more than any of the products it originally carried–77 million tons of bottles, cans, cartons, wrappers and bags. While plastics like polystyrene are recyclable in principle, the energy costs are often too high for it to be practical; that means it’s best to avoid them up front. There’s also a whopping source of garbage that doesn’t show up in municipal data: Construction and demolition debris would add another 2....

View full post on YoutubeNeill Blomkamp, the director of District 9, the epic sci-fi thriller mockumentary and Elysium, the sophomore effort we often like to forget about, is coming back with a third film that seems a bit more cheery.Not much is known about Chappie except for it stars frequent Blomkamp collaborator Sharlto Copley as a gifted adopted robot who plays with childrens blocks and wears a cash money necklace.According to a synopsis written by Sony Entertainment, Chappie is the world’s first robot who can think and feel for himself, and who will “rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man....

The electric-car company with the catchy name—Think—recently unveiled plans to re-enter the U.S. market. You might remember the brief time that Ford owned Think and the runabout electric vehicles the company sold here between 1999 and 2003. Those EVs were neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs), and when compared to a real passenger car, they were a lot like glorified golf carts. The company left the U.S when Ford bailed on the project....

Media Platforms Design TeamMillville, N.J.—The spanking-new New Jersey Motorsports Park seems a little out of place in the middle of the Jersey Pine Barrens because its country-club atmosphere is a sharp contrast to the, umm, rustic countryside halfway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. Over on the other side of the property, there’s a paddock full of Porsches and Lotuses investigating the outer limits of automotive performance at a track day. Over here on the Lightning course there are three cars: a couple of Lexus IS-F mules and a single, freshly painted LFA....

Media Platforms Design TeamPrune the ShrubsTotal Time: 2 HoursIf you’re Edward Scissorhands, feel free to follow your muse. If not, you’ll want to thin the shrubs to make way for sunlight and air. Don’t just trim the branch tips. That promotes a thicker cover, smothering the heart of the plant. Here are a few quick suggestions.1. Remove dead and aging branches. Trim the ones that rub against each other.2. Cut the limbs facing the house in a straight line....

European officials are considering new cockpit rules after the Germanwings crash that killed 144 passengers.Preliminary information reveals that pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and then intentionally crashed the plane. The new regulations would require two people in the cockpit at all times, whether two pilots or a pilot and a flight attendant.These rules are already in effect in the United States, but were recently taken up by the United Kingdom and Canada in the wake of the Germanwings news....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs expected, today Apple unveiled an iPhone 5s (note the new lowercase treatment, leaving us with no easy way to write about multiple iPhones.) The new phone comes with a form factor that is very similar to last year’s iPhone 5, though it’s now available in a bling-bling gold color. But even though the upcoming iPhone 5s looks like its predecessor, the 5s is one of the biggest technological leaps forward the device has taken in a while....

Media Platforms Design TeamThree pieces of an emergency repair to the Bay Bridge’s cantilever section made over Labor Day weekend snapped and crashed onto the upper deck of the span late Tuesday afternoon, striking three vehicles and forcing the indefinite closure of the region’s busiest bridge.Caltrans officials ordered the closure of the bridge in both directions shortly after 7 p.m. and said late Tuesday night that it would be closed indefinitely....

Media Platforms Design TeamYesterdaywe told you about the Hummer H3 Alphathe New York auto show to be revealed at . The big news? It will finally get the V8 engine. More specifically, the 295-hp, 5.3-liter V8.The Hummer H3 is based on mechanical components from the 4WD Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon pickups. The driveline in those trucks was never designed to handle the power and torque of a V8. So we were a little skeptical as to how things would hold up on the H3 Alpha under abusive off-road conditions....

We’re testing a new batch of outdoor power equipment and power tools at our test site in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. In years past, we tested farther south, in the Catskills. Our new test location has a greater variety of surfaces to test on, including steep slopes, so we can really give equipment a work out. Speaking of which, the testers are getting a workout, too. The weather has been downright unpredictable....

Media Platforms Design TeamPaul Revere might have a problem if he were called upon to go all lantern-in-the-steeple and warn of the approach of this new vehicle from England’s Gibbs Technologies. One if by land? Two if by sea? Neither’s quite right in this case—maybe three lanterns would be best.That third option would be a must if any would-be attacker used the Gibbs Aquada, a revamped vehicle that runs up to 100 mph on highways and 30-plus mph on the water....

NEW YORK – Two more big names are now set to join the pantheon of private citizens turned space tourists (if they’ll even let you call them that anymore). And, you guessed it, they’re both rich nerds–again.Virginia-based trip vendor Space Adventures announced here yesterday that it’s secured two seats aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft for 2011 in the first privately funded mission to the International Space Station. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who was a driving force in funding the new Google Lunar X Prize, will be on that flight–following the mission of fellow Space Adventures investor Richard Garriot this October....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf the initial disaster weren’t so tragic, and the potential environmental impact so cruel, oil giant BP’s response to the Deepwater Horizon would almost be humorous. At press time, the offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico was still leaking some 5000 barrels of oil per day, with approximately 80 percent of that gush diverted, according to BP, into a storage vessel at the surface. How the oil company has achieved partial control over the crisis, and how it hopes to staunch the wound entirely within the coming weeks, is a strange tale, full of seemingly half-baked solutions and an excess of crossed fingers....

If you walk through your gardens and flower beds only during the daylight, you may be missing out on the full potential of your greenery. For all your late-evening entertaining, outdoor dinners, or nighttime strolls, try these tips for a stunning moonlight garden.Flowers by MoonlightWhite flowers reflect light well, so they will be visible in dim light and stand out in bright moonlight or the last rays of twilight. The same goes for paler shades of yellow, blue, or purple....

Media Platforms Design TeamSaunders team members Daniel Arroyo, left, and Mario Medina perform a systems check on their robot.Part battle-bot rally, part engineering crash course, FIRST Robotics takes science education out of classrooms and throws it into arenas packed with fans. Each winter, high school teams receive a kit of parts and the rules to a game. (It changes yearly.) Then they have six weeks to build an entry for a rough-and-tumble mechanical melee....

Media Platforms Design TeamBack in its day, my 1934 Chrysler Imperial CX Airflow was considered unattractive, which was a painful surprise to the Chrysler engineers and designers. This styling and engineering masterpiece represented Chrysler’s moonshot at greatness. The company broke from that era’s traditional design—flat-front radiators, big fenders, separated headlights and imposing, squared-off bodies—in favor of a more rounded shape combined with several engineering innovations. Yet it was a sales disaster....