Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: Emy Mazzola)Rippling Images is a fitting name for Nathaniel Stern’s latest works of art, and in more ways than one. The collection shows off 18 prints captured under the rippling water of a live coral reef near Kay Largo, Fla., and he made those images using a device known for rippling: a desktop scanner.Stern has been known for more than a decade for his method of scanning landscapes....
NEW YORK – The last time we caught up with Zack Snyder on Watchmen, the 300 director’s latest big-budget comic-book movie, he bemoaned Hollywood’s “broken” approach to pen-and-ink adaptations. Last night he discussed the enormous effort (and studio money) that it takes to find the delicate balance between the real and fantastical, even as he polishes the first cut of what may be the most highly anticipated film of 2009. “I’m a character-makeup kind of guy,” Snyder told PM after an exclusive East Coast press screening when we asked if he’d use CGI to recreate historical figures, sets and scenes from the original book–or even take the Forrest Gump approach by digitizing historical footage and adding in characters from the comic later....
Media Platforms Design TeamNATC teams have full access to the manufacturer’s service manuals while attempting to repair their rigged vehicles. New York—The tension in the room is palpable as the digital clock mounted high on a pillar ticks down to the final seconds. This isn’t the countdown to the final bell over the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange. No, this is the end of two days at the National Automotive Technology Competition....
Media Platforms Design TeamMORE BREAKING NEWS FROM THE 2008 L.A. AUTO SHOW• 2008 LA AUTO SHOW: All of Our Updates and Analysis in One Place Hyundai has an impressive goal. It wants to become the most fuel-efficient automaker on the planet, according to Hyundai’s John Krafcik, vice president of product development and strategic planning. The first step to hit that mark is a new line of “Blue” edition Accents and Elantras that are set to hit the market in 2009....
There are a bunch of ways to check for a razor-sharp edge. Some folks try it out on their thumbnail, while others shave a few hairs from a forearm or gently stroke the edge across the flesh of their thumb. But you can keep your body parts away from danger if you simply look at the edge in the right light. If you see any glint or thin line of reflected light on the edge, it’s still dull....
Deadly asteroids are headed for Earth, that much is a fact. We just don’t know where they are, how far away they are, how big they are, how fast they’re moving, or when they’ll get here. And while scientists are desperately trying to put a plan in place to find these planet-killers to give us as much notice as we can possibly have, there’s still the question of what we’ll do about it....
Media Platforms Design TeamRobot mobility is a big issue – bipedal bots only work for certain situations, and … aren’t far along. There are plenty of concepts out there that crawl, roll, jump, and utilize all sorts of other methods to move along. But a project by a group of MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab students takes a brilliantly simple new tactic for an all terrain bot: it uses a metal tongue to “jump,” and couples it with a soft body to keep the bounce going....
Jason Larke had to travel for business just before the birth of his third child, and found himself on the other side of Australia when the big moment came. But thanks to a Samsung Gear VR headset, he was able to watch his child’s birth from afar.The Larke family gets by on just Jason’s income as an electrical engineer, Samsung says in its press release, and so he couldn’t turn down the trip even though his wife, Alice, was so close to the birth of their son....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe eyes of the global aviation industry were focused on deep-diving robots as they swept the seafloor with side-scan sonar 2.5 miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic in early 2011. The French government, Airbus and Air France had rented the remotely operated submersibles to find the wreckage of Air France Flight 447, which had fallen out of the sky in 2009. Officials were still looking for answers to explain why an Airbus A330, one of the world’s most sophisticated planes, had plunged into the ocean, killing all 228 passengers and crew....
Media Platforms Design TeamImagine a deck of cards lying flat on a table. Now, pretend those cards are layers of rock, and tilt them up on one side. The cards that begin to slide first are layers of clay, which, unfortunately for homeowners and drivers near San Diego today, are also the weakest.That kind of analogous disaster is the worst-case scenario when it comes to landslides, according to Larry Gurrola, a California-based geological consultant who specializes in landslides and fault hazards....
Media Platforms Design TeamFor the past two years, the long-awaited railroad line that would link Los Angeles and San Francisco has gone nowhere except to the courthouse. Now, builders are at last breaking ground on the California High Speed Rail Line, beginning work on the initial 29-mile segment of what will be a $68 billion project supposed to carry passengers from L.A. to S.F. by 2028.That first leg of track will be near Fresno in California’s Central Valley....
Detroit’s Dorais Velodrome, a 0.2-mile, heavily banked, concrete, oval racetrack, was built in 1969 by the Wolverine Bicycle Club. The site of several national bike racing championships, the Velodrome was actively ridden and maintained until 1986, when the city of Detroit essentially abandoned it to the elements. The last known race happened some time around 1990. In the next two decades, the Velodrome deteriorated to a pitiful condition, looking less and less like a racetrack and more like a jungle....
Media Platforms Design TeamMowing has gone keyless. Like cars and trucks, many tractors and zero-turn mowers now come with a start button instead of a key ignition. Why put such high tech into a yard machine? The technology has the potential to revolutionize mowing equipment by eliminating a variety of problems, such as children monkeying around with the machine if you’ve left the key in the ignition or you draining the battery by leaving the key in the Start position....
View full post on YoutubeNope, that’s not a translucent jellyfish floating in the deep ocean. It’s actually a tiny fireball in space. Astronauts are igniting droplets of fuel to learn more about how soot forms and how different mixtures of fuel burn in space. Understanding the process may help engineers build safer spacecrafts and design more efficient fuels. During this round of experiments, called FLEX-2, astronauts are observing flames under different conditions by changing the air flow, the kinds of fuel, and the mixture of gases in the combustion chamber....
Media Platforms Design Team10:00am, RIM stock price: $16.27On a pier wedged between squat New York projects and the East River, RIM became BlackBerry and launched a last-ditch effort at self-preservation: BlackBerry 10. If the operating systems works as well as it did during the company’s hour-and-a-half presentation, it just may do the trick. Even Alicia Keys, the company’s new Global Creative Director, is in on the excitement. “She works,” reminds CEO Thorsten Heins, “but she’s also—women, he’s talking to you!...
Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s extraordinarily difficult to get accurate statistics on the number of homeless people in the United States. That’s why it’s so interesting that Shaun Donovan, the secretary for Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced in late December a double-digit percentage point drop in the national number of homeless veterans over one year. “I’m thrilled to announce that we have evidence that this funding is making a real difference to getting homeless veterans off the street and into homes they can call their own,” Donovan said during a press conference....
Media Platforms Design TeamNext month at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, Hyundai will unveil this advanced fuel-cell concept vehicle. Details on the powertrain are few and far between, but we do know that the concept was developed at Hyundai’s Design and Technical Center in Chiba, Japan. The all-new i-Blue platform was constructed to use Hyundai’s new, third-generation fuel-cell technology. Back in 2002, we had a chance to drive the first-gen Hyundai fuel-cell vehicle, based on the Hyundai Santa Fe, in a rally down the California coast....
Developing a product in hopes that it becomes “Seen on TV” is an act of faith. Amateur designers in shops and basements across America cobble together prototypes using household items hacked up and rigged with bits of wire, perfecting their inventions for months before bringing them before the infomercial kingpin, arbiter of what is and isn’t seen on TV, Telebrands CEO AJ Khubani. Sitting beneath posters of past infomercial hits like the Windshield Wonder, Khubani and his family hold court in a New Jersey conference room, allowing a couple of dozen aspiring designers each 5 minutes to pitch whatever item they pull out of a duffel bag, briefcase or grocery sack from Reno, Chicago or Mooresville, N....
The billion-gallon sludge spill caused by a ruptured earthen dike near a Kingston, Tenn., coal plant last week was made mostly of fly ash–the by-product of coal combustion that goes up the chimney of a coal-fired power plant. After new regulations barred plants from just releasing all their ash into the atmosphere, plants must capture fly ash and store it. The Eastern Tennessee plant, like most, combines the ash with water and stores the resulting sludge in nearby lagoons....
Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS—At its press conference today, LG came out swinging with a slew of announcements, detailing its recently released LG G Flex smartphone and the new webOS interface to be used in its smart TVs, and revealing a number of other innovations by the company. Among those include the intelligent home-coordination system HomeChat, a new fitness tracker called Lifeband Touch, a 22-inch Chromebase, and a host of sound bars, Blu-ray players, and plasma TVs; even some home appliances....
