Passwords are terrible. Not only are they a pain to come up with and memorize and type in, they’re also not that secure; all someone needs to break into your digital life is to find out what your password is. Technology like two-factor authentication makes things more secure, but not easier. But Google’s newest trick may kill the password all together, at least as far as your Google account is concerned....
Mythbusting is back. The new version of Mythbusters starring new hosts Brian Louden and Jon Lung will debut on Science Channel on Wednesday, November 15 at 9 p.m. Eastern. Here’s the first trailer for the 14-episode season:Mythbusters ended its long run on Discovery last year and original duo Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman left the program, but that was far from the end for the much-beloved show. Discovery’s sister network, the Science Channel, subsequently aired Mythbusters: The Search, a reality show designed to find the new hosts for the next iteration of the program....
Media Platforms Design Team"People ask me all the time: ‘How hard is it to throw a boomerang?’" says Eric Darnell, a 62-year-old boomerang inventor from South Stafford, Vt. “Throwing a boomerang is easy. It’s making it come back that’s hard.” Darnell, the subject of a feature in the new issue of PM, is only partially kidding: Throwing a boomerang takes practice, like any other sport—and a number of variables ensure that a little magic is involved, too....
The USS The Sullivans, an American Navy destroyer training off the coast of Virginia, was treated to an unwelcome fireworks show recently. On the morning of July 18, the Navy now confirms, the ship fired an unarmed Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) test missile from its vertical launch system. Shortly thereafter the SM-2 malfunctioned and blew up.No one was hurt, thankfully. The crew had to put out a fire on the deck, but that was the extent of the damage....
The New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering the possibility of implementing interconnected doorless trains in its massive subway system. The MTA is ordering a test of 10 open gangway cars over the next few years.View full post on InstagramAlready used in major subway systems around the world such as Berlin, Toronto, and São Paulo, open gangway cars are linked without doors in between them, creating a more open space, and eliminating some of the danger associated with moving in between cars—a popular act of rebellion (or just the only way out of a car that smells overwhelmingly like lamb and rice) in the NYC subway....
Media Platforms Design TeamWelcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. Media Platforms Design Team Autocorrect: it’s a mistake-prone tech that inspired tons of hilarious listicles, but it’s also an incredibly useful tool that took years to develop. A Wired reporter decided to look into autocorrect’s history and found Dean Hachamovitch, autocorrect inventor and now head of data science at Microsoft. It was the early ’90s, and Hachamovitch was working on Microsoft Word....
Media Platforms Design Team NEW YORK — Porsche is launching a new limited edition version of the Boxster, the RS60 Spyder. Unveiled here today, this sweet little roadster is intended to evoke memories of the Type 718 midengine RS60 Spyder two-seat race car that lit up the endurance race scene in the early 1960s. Based on the Boxster S, the new RS60 is equipped with 19-in. Porsche SportDesign alloy wheels, Porsche Active Suspension Management and a modified sport exhaust system with dual tailpipes that increases power output to 303 ponies—just 22 shy of a base 911....
If you’ve been on the Internet—and if you’re reading this there’s a good chance you have—you’ve likely noticed a YouTube video’s view counts freeze at 301+. You’ve likely noticed this a lot. You won’t anymore.This weird behavior is finally heading to the chopping block.According to a tweet from the official YouTube Creators account, the videos will soon feature “up-to-date video views” rather than freeze at the classic 301+. There’s even a handy infographic to help explain, though not in great detail....
Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team(Photograph by shaporama via Flickr. Some rights reserved.) Fifty years old but still structurally sound with sleek, beautiful lines. Needs a paint job and some interior refurbishment, but in caring hands could be a real gem. Rock-solid construction details, absolutely fireproof—not a speck of wood on her—and as close to unsinkable as any ocean-going vessel ever. Would be perfect as a floating school, hotel, casino or museum....
Media Platforms Design TeamVideo gaming’s biggest convention of the year is going on right now, led by press conferences from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. E3 2012 has been games and hardware, not consoles: While 2011 brought Nintendo’s Wii U announcement, neither Sony nor Microsoft is revealing its next console just yet, and Nintendo doesn’t have much new to say.But there is an advantage to the mature consoles of today: getting all sorts of new things to do with the hardware we already own (and it sure beats spending more money!...
MORE NEW DIGITAL SECURITY REPORTING* UPDATE: Air Force Pulls Plug on Cyber Command Force–For Now* PLUS: 3 Threats & Countermeasures From the Coming Cyberwar* Q&A: Georgia-Russia Cyber Warfare Blogger Explains All!In the American Civil War, agents from both the Union and Confederate sides routinely climbed telegraph poles and cut enemy lines, then disguised their work so that it was undetectable from the ground. From these humble beginnings the concept of network information warfare was born....
The M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle is perhaps the most iconic American rifle ever produced, and easily one of the most important guns in history. General Patton called it “the greatest battle implement ever devised.” The .30 caliber gun’s higher rate of fire gave American infantry forces in World War II a significant advantage in firefights against Axis forces using slower Mauser and Type 38 bolt-action rifles, while its utilization of high-pressure gasses produced by fired cartridges to cock and reload the rifle influences gun design to this day....
Media Platforms Design TeamBen Longmier saw his first aurora in Wisconsin when he was 10 years old. “I wasn’t prepared for how dynamic and beautiful they were,” he says. He saw the phenomenon again this month in Alaska, but this time he wasn’t just looking at it from the ground. He got an up-close look thanks to some high-tech cameras and a weather balloon, capturing the view from inside the aurora....
Meet Kingii, a device that straps to your wrist that’s seemingly intended to keep you safe in the water but is probably far less effective than a traditional life jacket. But it is smaller, cooler, and just more ridiculous.A wearer activates the flotation device, which literally explodes from the wrist thanks to a CO2 cartridge when you pull the release lever. View full post on YoutubeThe folks behind Kingii are currently raising funds via an Indiegogo campaign with statements like, “[t]he risk of drowning and the need for bulky safety devices is over,” but that seems a little hyperbolic and perhaps even downright dangerous....
nEUROnA team of European firms is developing this unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator, with the end goal of operating several semi-autonomous UCAVs at once to perform bombing missions while remaining invisible to radar and infrared sensors. The project will only produce a single aircraft, but the advances in swarming and stealth technologies that come from the prototype could spin off related European defense contracts. A successful nEUROn demonstrator could lead to a fully developed UCAV that’s perfectly suited to disabling anti-air weapons ahead of human-piloted missions....
Media Platforms Design TeamI’m constantly writing letters in Microsoft Word in which I have to italicize, indent, and adjust the font size of certain parts of the text. Can I apply a style to cut down on the number of steps? You need to create a macro, short for macroinstruction, which is a scripted sequence of commands that can make tedious computing tasks a bit less wearying. Macros can automate nearly any process in Microsoft Word, from something as simple as typing the word “Hello” at the beginning of every document (for which a macro would arguably take longer than the old-fashioned typing-it-out way) to more complicated tasks, such as completing multiple find-and-replace searches and creating specifically formatted tables....
View full post on YoutubeThis gorgeous new video from NASA provides a little preview of how the moon will appear to us in the Northern Hemisphere over the coming year. Yes, the time-lapse simulation shows the moon moving through its monthly phases. But there’s something more going on here: The video shows us how the moon subtly wobbles throughout the year. The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, meaning that one side always faces us....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Fall 2013Base Price: $23,990 to $28,985Competitors: Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Hyundai TucsonPowertrains: 2.4-liter I-4, 184 hp, 171 lb-ft; 3.2-liter V-6, 271 hp, 239 lb-ft; nine-speed automatic, FWD, 4WDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 21/28 (2.4-liter I-4), 19/27 (3.2-liter V-6)What’s New: The original downsized Cherokee (code name XJ) was one of the most beloved Jeeps ever. That little Cherokee was not only successful as a mainstream SUV (produced for an incredible 17 years), but its chassis was simple, honest, and very capable off-road....
Media Platforms Design TeamLast week, GM’s OnStar service required its customers to agree to a new set of terms and conditions. This sort of task is part of our daily routine as technology-using Homo sapiens. Scroll through a few thousand lines of legal jargon. Check a box. Grunt. Move on with your life. But OnStar asked for something a bit unprecedented. Its new terms and conditions stated that even if a subscriber canceled the service, the company was still free to track the car’s position, speed, and even whether or not the driver was wearing a seatbelt....
SINGAPORE – It’s going to be a while before robots take over the world.The TechX Challenge, a government-sponsored contest being watched closely during the buildup of military robotics research worldwide, concluded here on Sunday not with a single winner like its DARPA-funded predecessors but with hand-built and upmodded bots scrambling to find their way.Six teams, mostly sponsored by local schools and universities, battled all-nighters, malfunctioning cameras and total system failures in a competition that required fairly complex robotic maneuvers–navigating around outdoor obstacles, entering a building, climbing stairs, operating an elevator, touching targets and then returning outside–for a cash prize of about $700,000....
