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Media Platforms Design TeamHow did you get involved with Owner’s Manual? Marcus Hunt: Ed had already been asked to the show, and I don’t know how he originally heard about it, but I actually did an audition for it. I auditioned against Ed, and they were looking for two opposite personality types, and we are. We’re very different about how we go about looking at things. Ed Sanders: We shot a pilot back in January last year with another host, but we needed a new co-host....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe question posed by Philips’ Hue, a series of networked LED lightbulbs, is, does mood lighting deserve to become its own technological subcategory?PopMech firmly subscribes to the idea that LED bulbs are the future of lighting. The incandescent household bulbs that have been illuminating homes for more than a century are tremendously inefficient—they may as well be electric heaters that just happen to throw light. The compact fluorescent bulbs now becoming the norm are more efficient, sure, but they are a transitional technology that is toxic and awkward to use, and throws a queasy, unappealing light....

Once private companies start ferrying American astronauts to space, then NASA won’t have to pony up the money for Russian spacecraft to carry them. But don’t cry for Mother Russia, because it’s figured out a way to restore the lost income: The country will resume its space tourism industry.With all the coverage of companies like Virgin Galactic that want to take rich tourists to space, it’s easy for Americans to forget that Russia has been playing that game for year....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast month’s fiery freight-train crash near Lousville, Ky., which spewed toxic smoke across a wide area and shut down a nearby interstate highway, highlighted the need for improved safety in the pressurized tank cars that carry millions of pounds of toxic chemicals around the country each year. Those improvements are coming—eventually—through a joint industry-government initiative called the Next-Generation Rail Tank Car Project. The standard tank car used to transport toxic chemicals today—known as a “jacketed pressure car” in industry parlance—typically consists of a 500-psi pressure tank made of TC-128 steel, surrounded by 4 to 8 in....

Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on InstagramIn his famous children’s books, Richard Scarry crafted a tiny cartoon town to prepare kids for the real world. But none of his books ever quite prepared them for brogrammers, techno-libertarians, Shingy-style digital prophets, or other denizens of that weird bubble just outside reality—you know, Silicon Valley.Illustrator Tony Ruth is helping BusyTown get up to speed with America’s busiest innovation hub updating Scarry’s illustrations....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat It IsSubaru Hybrid Tourer ConceptThe SpecsFirst unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show and now making its North American debut in L.A., the Hybrid Tourer concept is a gran turismo four-seat hatchback. A new direct-injection turbocharged flat-four engine and CVT transmission provide the primary power, while a pair of electric motors assists both axles and feeds braking energy back to the lithium-ion battery pack. To increase the feeling of interior spaciousness, the four bucket seats use pedestal mounts, and the glass area is vast....

Media Platforms Design TeamXerox Parc’s new chip isn’t quite on store shelves yet. It doesn’t really even do much. But as a proof of DARPA-funded concept, it has one gigantic advantage that could help security-minded computer users and paranoid Mr. Robot fans: it can self destruct.Made out of materials similar to smartphone display glass, modified to already have minute stress fractures. A circuit was laid throughout the surface, and a laser activated transistor placed at the bottom....

Not surprisingly, tablet computers, which relied heavily on a touchscreen interface but remained around the same size and weight as notebook PCs, never really took off. Unless you’re collecting signatures while delivering packages or have some sort of grudge against clipboards, how much one-handed computing are you really doing? But being able to convert your laptop into a tablet and back again is a great option, and one that’s becoming more common as touchscreens continue to get cheaper....

Media Platforms Design TeamMOJAVE, Calif.—Burt Rutan, 67, is the founder of Scaled Composites, which produced the 2004 Ansari X Prize–winning SpaceShipOne—the first privately funded aircraft to carry a civilian into suborbital flight. Since then, in partnership with Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin Group, and Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, Rutan had taken the next logical step, designing and leading the production of SpaceShipTwo, the first of a planned fleet of aircraft set to fly under the Virgin Galactic banner....

SKIP TO TODAY’S LIVE REPORTING11:15 PM EDT: During the launch postponement briefing today, NASA launch director Mike Leinbach confirmed that launch managers suspected an opening in the weather during which a launch could have been possible, but decided to scrub early to give technicians enough time to prepare for Tuesday’s launch attempt. First Lt. Kaleb Nordgren, of the 45th Weather Squadron, reports an improved forecast for Tuesday—cumulus clouds bring a 40% chance that rain will stall the launch, although the thunderhead problem appears to have died down....

In crash testing it’s called time zero: the moment an accident begins. When we think about vehicle safety, we tend to think about what happens after time zero. Crumple zones engage. Seat belts cinch tight. Airbags erupt. And after the violence ends, ideally the passenger cell remains intact, the humans inside unharmed. Those fractions of a second at the onset of an impact are crucial. But so are the ones that come before it....

If you look outside any morning this week, you might be able to see Venus, Mars, and Jupiter aligned in the eastern sky. The phenomenon is called a planetary conjunction, and we won’t have another one like this until 2021. Obviously, the three planets are millions of miles apart, but due to a coincidental alignment of their orbits as seen from Earth, they appear to be in close proximity. Every morning this week and well into the first week of November, the planetary trio will rise about an hour before the sun, so if you’re up early, you’ll have quite a view out your window....

In an annual announcement as highly anticipated (in some circles) as Cosmo’s Bachelor of the Year and Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive, the lexicographers at the New Oxford American Dictionary have proclaimed the Word of the Year for 2006. And we science types are swooning. The winner is “carbon neutral.” The competition was stiff (“dwarf planet”: Pluto’s lowly new designation) and also not (“elbow bump”: the World Health Organization’s recommended greeting for avoiding avian flu)....

Engineers, brain surgeons, rocket scientists, soldiers and visionaries of technology gathered at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on Sept. 29, 2005 to celebrate innovation during the POPULAR MECHANICS Breakthrough Awards ceremony. On display were a life-size model of NASA’s X-43A scramjet, rocket bikes, groundbreaking products, and more. A highlight of the evening were inspiring remarks by Hugh Herr (shown above), the winner of our Breakthrough Leadership Award....

LONDON — It’s not just a set of new bumpers and headlamp switches that have been bolted to BMW’s 3 Series cash cow for next year. This November we’ll get one of the meanest oil burners around—one that’s been selling in good numbers for a good few years in Europe, one that’ll also see service in BMW’s odd-looking coupe-come-SUV, the X6. And this improved fuel economy comes not a moment too soon....

Q: I have a 1985 Honda CRX Si with a 1.5-liter fuel-injected engine. The problem: It restarts poorly and runs roughly, at least if I try to restart before it sits for 12 to 18 hours or more. It cranks over fine but takes a few seconds to fire up. If I hold the throttle open it helps the car to start quicker. The fuel injectors are rebuilt and balanced and said not to be leaking down....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe operators of the Panama Canal are widening and deepening the waterway to allow larger ships to access the Atlantic and Pacific oceans starting in 2014. Even as port operators prepare for the vessels (see below), work on other vital trade connections is lagging. Experts such as Paul Bingham, an economist with the transportation consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates, say U.S. road and rail networks are unprepared for the increase in commerce....

KNOW YOUR STUFF:Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s a Keeper.When disassembling or assembling furniture, avoid the frustration of a missing screw or other small part by keeping small, loose parts and fasteners in a closable sandwich bag. Then, even if you have to take time out in the middle of the project, you can keep all the parts from getting lost.7:171 || THE INVISIBLE PLUG:Media Platforms Design TeamYou drilled without measuring, and now your bookcase has an extra hole....

Ford, GM and Chrysler submitted their restructuring plans to Congress yesterday in a plea to congress for a total of $34 billion. For at least two of Detroit’s automakers, that plan includes the sale, or potential sale of quite a few automotive brands. But are these plans, in their totality good enough? Our friends at Jalopnik rate each of the automakers plans here. They lightheartedly grade the plans as if they were homework assignments: GM gets a “C minus,” Ford gets a “B plus” and Chrysler gets an “Incomplete....

The sea is about to become a little more crowded. China’s Defense Ministry confirmed that China’s second aircraft carrier is under construction. The state-run newspaper Xinhua stated that the aircraft carrier is China’s first to be built “completely on its own,” without using a foreign-made hull or extensive foreign assistance.The photo above is a satellite image taken of the carrier under construction in Dalian, China. The carrier hull is being constructed in two pieces....