Well, after a 19-year hiatus from motorcycling, I bought another BMW. My, how times have changed. I have a 2002 R 1150 RT with the new ABS-integral power-assisted brakes. The bike will literally stop on a dime. Reports indicate it will stop from 60 mph in 103 ft. I am 55 years young and am having the time of my life. I attended the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course and it helped me a lot....
Media Platforms Design Team Newport Beach, Calif.—There are cars designed for fuel efficiency and there are cars designed for luxury. But until now, there hasn’t really been a car that excels in both arenas. Sure, Lexus has a full lineup of hybrids. But these are hybrids designed to provide substantial thrust with only a modest bump in efficiency. So, if you wanted exceptional fuel efficiency from Toyota—you had to buy a Toyota....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: NowPrice: $10,495; $9455 (after 10 percent federal tax credit)Competitors: Brammo Enertia, Quantya StradaPowertrain: 25-hp electric motor, 4.4-kwh lithium-ion battery pack; direct driveApproximate Range: 43 milesWhat’s New: In addition to technical improvements like 12.5 percent more battery capacity, a new belt final drive, larger brakes and retuned suspension with wider wheels, the Zero DS’s fit and finish have also been enhanced for a higher-quality feel. In fact, roughly 400 of the 500 shared parts that go into Zero’s bikes have been re-engineered with the aim of making their lineup more robust and motorcycle-like....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Summer 2012Price: $90,000Competitors: Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, Cadillac CTS-V, Porsche Panamera TurboPowertrain: 4.4-liter V8, 560 hp, 500 lb-ft of torque; seven-speed dual-clutch transmission EPA Fuel Economy (city/highway): TBDWhat’s New: Fans of the restyled 5 Series were up in arms over its heavier, more luxurious underpinnings. So there was plenty to potentially bungle with the all-new M5. But BMW went to great lengths to ensure that its flagship’s sporting sanctity will satisfy rabid enthusiasts....
Game developer Nils Anderssen helped bring an ancient sword back to life, thanks to 3D printing. The National Museum of Art in Norway approached Anderssen about recreating a Germanic sword from the Dark Ages. Most such swords have weathered with time and are too fragile to be held by museum visitors. The museum wanted to recreate one of the swords to appear like new, and in a form guests could hold, so it contacted Andersson to 3D print a new version....
View full post on YoutubeThe Voxel8’s 3D Electronics Printer, just announced at CES, is the first that can print both plastic and conductive material, allowing circuitry and the physical structure of an object to be printed simultaneously. The technology comes from research done at Harvard by Jennifer Lewis, one of Voxel8’s founder.Voxel8 prints in two materials using two nozzles. The object itself is made of PLA, a common plastic in 3D printing, while the circuitry is made of silver ink, which comes out of a pneumatic nozzle at room temperature and dries within minutes....
Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamGene targeting, a pervasive technology that allows scientists to isolate, modify and recombine mouse DNA, got its name in lights this morning when its three creators won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine. Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies revolutionized the power to “knock out” individual genes, which has allowed pathologists to better understand diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and cystic fibrosis for close to 20 years....
Media Platforms Design TeamIt was clear that the rock had to go. How it came to its stubborn rest in the meadow mattered less than how we’d move it. The big brute could have been deposited by a glacier, or some previous century’s farm boys may have wearied of sliding, rolling and cajoling it. But it was the rock that had the last word, and it stayed put, near a line of trees and brush on PM contributing editor Tom Klenck’s property....
Media Platforms Design TeamMike Allen’s Workshop is an orderly, well-maintained place. Located a few miles from the New Jersey shoreline, the compact garage of PM’s senior automotive editor has high shelves stacked with meticulously organized, plainly labeled plastic bins of tools and welding equipment. Occasionally, however, the air in the shop is toxic. Mike is a mechanic and metalworker, and his grinding, routing and drilling sends plumes of metal particulate into the air....
This is a comet reaching the point in its orbit that’s closest to the sun—also called perihelion— bursting forth with mini-geysers of material blasted into space. This series of images of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko was taken by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe just hours before perihelion. Perihelion for the comet comes at about 1.24 Astronomical Units, or roughly between the Earth and Mars. The jets are water vapors sublimating on the surface of the comet, shooting out 300 kilograms of water per second....
Media Platforms Design TeamTom Nugent likes to call his company’s current project a “wireless extension cord.” Not a bad analogy for LaserMotive’s laser transmitter/receiver system, which recently beamed enough energy to a 17.5-pound drone to keep it airborne at least 48 hours—about 46 hours longer than the drone can usually fly.The aircraft was Lockheed Martin’s Stalker unmanned aerial system (UAS). In June the defense giant held a private wind-tunnel test at LaserMotive’s Seattle-area home....
Media Platforms Design TeamWe get asked a lot of questions about the bits and pieces of cars that squeak and rattle and break—everything from why is my wheel going clickety-clack to how do I get rid of this rodent smell. But for some time now we’ve seen our inboxes stuffed with questions on the failings of electronic components. That says something about the technological progress of the automobile. Vehicles are increasingly behaving like computers with wheels, so it’s time for a discussion of a little-known aspect of your car: its computer network....
Katie Spotz always considered herself a lousy athlete–which makes the 22-year-old’s quest to become the youngest person ever to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean seem a little odd. “Growing up, I was a benchwarmer,” says Spotz, who competed on her high school swim, tennis and track teams in Mentor, Ohio. But after running a marathon at 18, she discovered that in long-distance sports, mental toughness matters more than physical strength....
Homing devices have been filling the pages of SkyMall for years, but most are far too bulky to be practical. Not only is the new Loc8tor Lite ($80, available now) tiny enough to easily fit on a keychain, but it just works incredibly well and has a range of several hundred feet. Just attach the fingernail-size tag to your remote control, keychain or anything else that’s likely to get lost (the Loc8tor’s packaging warns that it’s not to be used for finding people, just in case you get any ideas when hauling the kids to the mall....
There’s nothing worse than the stench of spoiled meat. Now you might not have to smell it anymore: Chemists at MIT have developed “smart packaging” that detects rotten meat without harming your nose.The wrapping contains tiny carbon nanotubes that act as spoil sensors. They work by detecting gases emitted when a piece of meat rots and relaying that information to smartphone app, which tells the user not to eat that meat....
Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamCredit: Flickr / adrian8_8If you bought a car within the past few years, chances are it’s spying on you. Devices known as event data recorders (EDR) tap into your car’s network of sensors, and dump a stream of data in the event of a crash—including the vehicle’s speed, throttle/brake pedal position, and seat belt use.Historically, the issue of who owns EDR data and who can access it has been left up to the states, with only a dozen enacting laws regarding EDR data use....
Media Platforms Design TeamBMW, like VW, wants to sell more diesels in the U.S., but its last 3-Series diesel came at a premium price and didn’t come with AWD. The new 328d gets optional AWD and BMW says the base price will be just under $40,000, which falls between the 328i and 335i gas-powered sedans.BMW may be a high performance brand, but they feel that they must offer fuel-efficient offerings, too....
View full post on YoutubeBreak out the superlatives: Today in the journal Science, a NASA team reports on the brightest, longest, most powerful gamma ray burst they’ve ever seen. And this sighting could change what they know about these incredible cosmic flashes.The blast is the baddest of a supremely powerful kind of cosmic event. Gamma ray bursts (GRB) happen when a giant star, tens of times as massive as the sun, collapses into a black hole, and that black hole fires twin jets of radiation across the universe....
Update, 3:30 PM ET: The Pebble Time has now raised nearly $5.5 million, reaching that total in just five and a half hours.View full post on TwitterTuesday, 11 AM ET: Pebble listed its new smartwatch on Kickstarter this morning, and within little more than an hour the project has already made almost $2 million in pledges.The Pebble Time has a timeline display, color e-paper readability, voice recognition, a week of battery life, and full compatibility with existing Pebble apps and watch faces....
In the most awesome way possible, LEGO announced today that it’ll be releasing a set for the famous firehouse from the classic 1984 comedy Ghostbusters.View full post on TwitterPhotographed in front of the Hook & Ladder 8 firehouse in downtown New York City, where the film was shot and where we visited in this week’s How Your World Works podcast, LEGO revealed that the rumored set is to be released this January, and will cost $350....
