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Media Platforms Design Team 1. Tropical Thunder AppliancesTo perform this investigation, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) March 26, 2010, report states that it “used four bogus manufacturing firms and fictitious individuals to apply for Energy Star partnership.” All four qualified. In fact, two of the fake firms received requests for real companies to buy their Energy Star–certified products—none of which exist.Dummy websites emblazoned with Energy Star Partnerships remain online for each of the four front companies—Cool Rapport (HVAC equipment), Futurizon Solar Innovations (lighting), Spartan Digital Electronics, and Tropical Thunder Appliances....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Infiniti Eau Rouge concept we previewed prior to its Detroit debut came with its own set of question marks– from its ballpark engine output (somewhere north of 500 hp) to its inspiration (F1, a noble, but out-of-reach inspiration for a four-door passenger car). Now that the Eau Rouge has hit the Geneva stand and nailed down its official power rating of 560 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque, we were able to catch up with Infiniti honcho Johan de Nysschen and get more skinny on the scarlet sedan....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor anyone tinged by paranoia, fear not, the eye in the sky has proven to have benevolent traits—especially if you live in the path of a natural disaster. In the wake ofHurricane KatrinaPakistan earthquakeGoogle Earth last August and the in October, —a compilation of hundreds of thousands of images culled from satellites and aerial photography—has emerged as a vital tool in aid of rescue efforts. But as its user base grows, concerns emerge about its ability to help people in far-off places, as well as where to draw the line between disaster relief and spying....

Back in 1985—before Back to the Future II and long before Marty’s arrival in the modern day (today)—Popular Mechanics took a good, hard look at the original movie’s iconic DeLorean time machine. These are the schematics. It’s hard to go too in-depth on a device that defies the laws of physics as we know them and contains several key components that can’t and won’t ever exist, but you can clearly see the pair of Time-Travel Coils, the Flux Capacitor between the seats, and the Nuclear Reactor in the back....

Media Platforms Design TeamIs there an easy way to record cellphone calls? It would make keeping track of my sales calls a lot easier. The reason call recording isn’t considered a standard cellphone feature is a good one: California, Pennsylvania, and nine other states prohibit the recording of phone calls without the consent of all parties. So first, read up on your local lawsthe Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press maintains a list of state rules on its website....

Researchers at the Riken Institute in Japan have grown retina tissue out of stem cells and grafted that tissue onto the retinas of rhesus and macaque monkeys with ailing sight. The new technique could be used to treat people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a genetic eye condition that damages the retina to the point of near or total blindness and currently has no cure. A paper detailing the team’s findings was published in the journal PNAS....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs the band hit a crescendo and a live sand artist finished his performance by shaping the Lincoln logo with a few swipes of his hands, Lincoln unveiled the 2013 MKZ to the world last night. It was all rather over-the-top, but for Ford and Lincoln the MKZ is a pretty big deal. The 2013 MKZ is the first vehicle wholly designed by Lincoln Design Director Max Wolff and his team in their new Lincoln studio....

Media Platforms Design TeamThere are quite a few differences between the Dharma Initiative and our 815 survivors, and last night’s episode of Lost, “He’s Our You,” highlighted a few. For one, Dharma members vote on big decisions. With the Losties, Jack—or Locke, depending on whether Science or Faith is winning—makes the call. For another, while the 815 survivors turned to physical torture as their main form of getting information, the Dharma went the mental route—via psychedelic drugs....

Media Platforms Design TeamThanks to researchers at Ohio State University, we may be one step closer to learning just how, exactly, a man got his mug stuck way up there on the moon. Astronomers have speculated for centuries on the origins of the dark spots, known as “lunar maria,” that resemble facial features. They knew these areas to be dried-up seas of magma, but how that magma reached the surface from the moon’s core remained a mystery—until now....

Geologist Trevor Williams, of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has spent six weeks at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, taking part in a study of the sea-floor sediments beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. The results could aid our understanding of climate change. Williams has filed reports here throughout the project. Listen to him live from the bottom of Earth here.ROSS ISLAND, Antarctica — Downhole logging is not a glamorous occupation. To the naked eye, it hardly looks like you are doing any work at all....

Media Platforms Design TeamGas prices remain stubbornly high, and the economy is still lagging. Carmakers are responding to consumer demand for smaller, more efficient cars (and to stringent government fuel-economy standards) with a raft of vehicles claiming an astonishing 40-mpg highway rating. When a gallon of gas first topped $4 in 2008, only the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid got over 40 mpg on the highway; now there are more than 20 cars able to achieve that kind of mileage....

In Seattle, two hulking veterans of the Arctic Ocean float side by side at a pier in Vigor Shipyards. The Kulluk, an oil rig built in 1983 that spent its youth in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, is being refurbished by Royal Dutch Shell. Its neighbor is the Coast Guard vessel Polar Star, the last of America’s high-powered icebreakers. Built 40 years ago, the ship hasn’t been in active service since 2006, but it is being repaired....

Media Platforms Design TeamThough they’re philosophically miles apart, gas burning motorcycles and battery-powered electric vehicles actually have something in common: both tend to decelerate sharply when the throttle (or pedal) is released, the former due to the engine braking effect due to inherently high compression ratios, and the latter thanks to regenerative brakes which convert kinetic energy into electrons which recharge the battery. In fact, one of the lessons learned from the Mini E’s pilot test program was that brake lights needed to be triggered before brake pedal application (directly after the gas pedal was released) in order to ensure the Lilliputian ride wasn’t rear ended by unsuspecting motorists....

If you’ve ever been waiting in a gravel pit outside a .38 Special reunion concert, or just spent a lot of time in the state of Texas, you’ve probably seen someone with a set of rubber balls hanging low off their tow hitch.If you don’t own a car, you probably felt excluded from the world of testicular vehicular accessories. But fear not: Now you can get Bike Balls and have a glowing red set of balls hanging off the back of your Huffy or Bianchi....

Old age has always been like the weather: Everybody talks about aging, but nobody does anything about it. Oh, they’ve tried. For millennia, charlatans have been offering remedies for aging that didn’t work any better than baldness cures and virility restorers.We’ve long regarded aging as something almost mystical or supernatural, and it’s easy to see why. Unlike, say, smallpox, aging doesn’t come on suddenly or spread from person to person. You also don’t recover from it, as you do from most infectious diseases....

When Microsoft revealed its crazy hologram goggles earlier this year, it teased Minecraft as one of the things you could use it for. Now at E3, Microsoft showed off a demo of exactly what that would look like, and it’s pretty incredible. Microsoft pitched this as a version of Minecraft especially for the Hololens, one that gives you a god’s eye view of your world and any of the other players in it....

The USS Gerald R. Ford launched and recovered its first fighter jet on Friday. This test, performed just six days after commissioning, was not only the new carrier’s first launch and recovery but also the first use of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System or EMALS—a catapult system that uses similar mechanics to a railgun in order to launch fighter jets off the deck of a ship.Here’s footage of the F/A-18F Super Hornet’s launch and landing: View full post on YoutubePreviously, catapults used to accelerate fighter jets and launch them off an aircraft carrier’s short runway have been powered by steam, the only real alternative being a ramped runway....

The Year in Space study currently in progress will give NASA a pretty good idea of what it will take to survive a trip to Mars. One of the biggest obstacles: Weightlessness in microgravity could cause Mars explorers’ vision to degrade en route as fluids shift up to the skull, placing strain on the eyes.To combat this potential condition, NASA is launching a Fluid Shifts investigation. The study includes tests using a Russian-made lower body pressure negative suit....

Starting with Metropolis and continuing all the way up through Her, filmmakers have spent more than a century probing the fundamental question of what makes us human, especially when so many of the essential qualities can be artificially replicated. That’s why Ex Machina, out in theaters April 10, hits hard. It leaves you with that satisfied feeling of a slightly unsatisfying conclusion, and dozens of questions about what technology does to us....

Media Platforms Design TeamBy all accounts, Audi will add on to an important branch in its family tree when the 2009 A4 debuts next week at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Unlike its predecessor, the new A4 received a redesign from the ground-up—it looks like the illegitimate son of BMW’s new 3 Series and the last A4. But that’s a good thing.Many of the styling cues have been lifted from the sporty new A5, including the neatly clipped front end and an almost coupe-like roofline....