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Media Platforms Design TeamWhen it comes to gaming PCs, you’ve got your dedicated rigs able to handle any high-end gaming requirements, but whose cobweb of cables makes users stationary. Gaming laptops promise freedom and performance, but many retain the bulky traits of their immobile cousins. Then there’s the Razer Blade, a 14-inch machine with desktop performance, laptop portability, and a unibody design that rivals even Cupertino’s creativity. Razer wants to be the ultimate one-stop shop for gamers who want style and true mobility without sacrificing the powerful internals that keep any game running smoothly....

LAS VEGAS —Sony President Stan Glasgow, saying “consumer electronics without compelling content is rubbish,” announced that the new Sony Bravia S televisions will stream HD content via the Internet. An optional device, the “Bravia Internet Video Link” will be a small module that will fit to the back of the TV, and connect directly to the Internet without a PC. And the service is free. Content will come from a partnership with AOL, Yahoo!...

Media Platforms Design TeamIf the titles CEO/Roustabout Co-Founder/Mad Inventor are any indication, Brent Bushnell (35) and Eric Gradman (33) are making up the rules as they go. Since founding Two Bit Circus in January 2012, the Los Angeles-based events/entertainment/education company has quickly become the go-to for big brands looking for over-the-top interactive experiences. “We’re a high-tech circus. This place is filled with performers, inventors, and builders, and we’re working at a fast pace with maximum creativity to reimagine entertainment with technology,” says Gradman....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe WindupAs the toss goes up, players press their feet against the court, using ground reaction forces to build up elastic potential energy–rotations of the legs, hips, trunk and shoulders that produce maximum angular momentum. Exploding upward toward the ball, pro players employ extraordinary timing to efficiently transfer forces from the legs, through the body segments, to the striking hand in what biomechanists call “the kinetic chain principle....

Media Platforms Design TeamDrones have gained a reputation for hunting terrorists and spying on both foreigners and Americans alike. So it’s easy to overlook the fact that these hovering, loitering aircraft have quite a following in the hobbyist world as well. To the people who build and fly them recreationally, modern unmanned aerial vehicles (the terms drone and UAV are pretty much interchangeable) are just a technological advancement of the radio-controlled planes and helicopters that amateurs have been flying for years....

Axes and hatchets are wood chopping tools that have been used for centuries. Given their similar appearance, you might think of these two icons as interchangeable. But, in fact, they are different tools that perform best when used to do what they were designed for.The modern axe and hatchet consist of a steel head attached to a wood or composite handle. Some hatchets are formed from a single piece of steel, such as this Estwing....

Yesterday, I was on the phone with the public relations contact for a Vermont ski resort (as the eastern editor at Skiing magazine, I talk to these people quite a bit). He mentioned that his resort wanted to buy carbon offsets to eliminate its carbon footprint, but he was concerned that doing so would make the resort an easy mark for cynical backlash. The whole notion of paying money to reduce your environmental footprint seems a bit suspect: It’s like buying the blood off your hands—instead of really doing something about your impact, you just shell out a few bucks and keep driving that Hummer (or running that ski lift), guilt-free....

Built with data provided by Marvel, the Marvelous DB is a compendium of (almost) every Marvel Comics character, with appearance details, biographical information, biostatistics, and more. Orchestrate built the clean looking database (frankly, one of the cleanest out there, even if Marvel Wikia is more detailed / obsessive at times) from an API Marvel opened up to developers.What’s impressive is how deep down the rabbit hole the year-old database goes. As a Marvel obsessive, I decided to put it to the test, using information gathered from 25 years of reading to try to test the limits of it....

United Airlines, American Airlines, and now Delta Air Lines have banned hoverboards—the electric scooters that are akin to a small Segway with no handlebars—because of concerns that the little toy vehicles are a fire hazard. Passengers on these airlines will be prohibited from carrying on a hoverboard or checking one with their luggage.The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is currently investigating around a dozen reports of hoverboards bursting into flames. In one case, a family’s house caught fire due to an electrical malfunction in one of the self-balancing scooters....

Lego fans, meet your new friends: the good Gallifreyan Doctor and Pixar’s adorable trash-bot, WALL-E. WALL-E was the winner of the second 2014 Lego Ideas challenge, a bi-annual competition of amateur designers to imagine the next Lego sets for collectors (assuming the product licensing can get worked out). WALL-E saw stiff competition from the Ghostbusters headquarters, the Xavier Institute / Jean Grey School for Higher Learning (headquarters to the X-Men), a replica of the Hubble Space Telescope, lightsaber handles, and Wayne Manor, home of Bruce Wayne....

A real-life Babel fish that translates any language, exaflop-speed computers, and whisper-quiet drones: They’re just some of the dozens of out-there future projects under way thanks to funding from Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). It’s not quite Q’s secret lab for 007 gadgets, but IARPA is as close as you’ll get in the U.S. intelligence world.Founded in 2006, IARPA was modeled after the hugely successful advanced R&D arm of the Pentagon, DARPA....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs the name suggests, milk paint is a water-based paint that uses milk as a binder instead of polymers or oil, which are used in latex or oil-based paints. Yes, that means it has a shorter shelf life than those paints. But when pigments are added to milk paint, the colors are rich and earthy and the luster is somewhat translucent—perfect for achieving an antique finish.I’ve seen some beautiful furniture projects finished with milk paint, but I’ve yet to try it out myself....

Media Platforms Design Team This ride makes its debut at the Detroit auto show as a new model positioned neatly between the Lancer and the Lancer Evolution. The new Ralliart Splits the difference between the competent and the extreme and uses the same 2.0 liter intercooled and turbocharged 4B11 powerplant found in the top-shelf Evo, except this application produces an estimated 235 hp and 253 lb.-ft. of torque.The engine is mated to a Twin Clutch-SST gearbox capable of quick cog swaps, and can shift fully automatically in normal or sport modes, or manually via paddle shifter....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph by Stephen Swintek/ Getty Images)For more than a century, Popular Mechanics has been empowering people to become more self-reliant by tackling all sorts of do-it-yourself projects. However, when it comes to doing your own home repairs, there’s a thin line between being fearless and foolish. I should know, since I’ve crossed that line more times than I’d like to admit. I once thought I’d save some money by delivering my own refrigerator....

MORE BRAND-NEW HOME PREPARATIONS FOR FALL• OUTDOORS: How to Plant for Fall and Prep Gardens for WinterThe forecast from the Energy Information Administration for this winter’s home heating costs is bleak. The EIA predicts a major spike in heating oil costs, which will rise about 25 percent for northeastern customers this year. The pinch isn’t limited to the Yanks, though–the EIA expects costs nationwide, regardless of heat source, to rise an average of 16....

Astronomer and JPL researcher Ron Baalke pointed out on Twitter today that it’s the 16th anniversary of the impact of the Lunar Prospector onto the moon’s surface. Back in 1999, NASA crashed the probe into the south pole of the moon on purpose at the end of its mission, hoping to send up plumes of water ice that would let astronomers take measurements.It didn’t work—no plume appeared. The LCROSS mission later pulled this off in 2009, but Lunar Prospector wasn’t a total failure....

Media Platforms Design TeamFive billion dollars.That’s the amount of money regular people had removed from their bank accounts and given to crowdfunding campaigns as of the end of 2013. Five b-b-billion, a $3.5 billion increase from two years earlier. And what’s amazing isn’t just the raw number or the exponential upward trend. What’s amazing about the evolution of crowdfunding—the process by which people ask strangers for money to help fund a project, but the strangers only have to pay if all the money is raised—is the asininity, dubiousness, and sometimes even fraudulence of some of the projects....

Media Platforms Design Team"This!" shouts Patrick Buckley, “is the Big! Robot! Room!“Buckley is whisking me through the 10,000-square-foot factory his company,DODOcase, operates in an industrial area of San Francisco. We’ve stopped to admire the 32-year-old CEO’s “Ferrari.” It’s not an Italian sports car, but a very loud programmable CNC router with about the same footprint, and half the price tag. Right now the $98,000, red and white SCM Pratix is cutting precision details into 18 bamboo frames held in place by a vacuum-sealed jig....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen Disney acquired the rights to make Star Wars films, it promised a litany of new movies to bring the Force back to the big screen. That would include stand-alone movies in addition to those that continue the main saga, like J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII coming next year.Well, Mickey Mouse isn’t wasting any time. It has been announced that Gareth Edwards, director of the Godzilla reboot, will helm a new Star Wars movie set to be released in December 2016....

The U.S. Air Force has a lot of fighter planes. Go figure, right? But knowing there are hundreds of planes is very different from seeing them all in one place, which is exactly what this graphic will let you do. Made by Contemporary Issues and Geography, this poster accounts for every single fighter in the U.S. Air Force as of June 2015, organized by squadron, and it’s a ton and, well, it’s a ton....