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Media Platforms Design Team SANTA MONICA, Calif.—The convertible Solstice has sensual lines, short body overhangs and a clean profile. In turbocharged GXP trim the car has some serious thrust too. But the Solstice roadster suffers from cute-car stigma. For a brand like Pontiac—whose legendary muscle cars wore Screaming Chickens and packed Super Duty V8s that rumbled underneath shaker hood scoops —the Solstice is almost too tame and delicate-looking. Pontiac has fixed that particular problem with the Solstice Coupe....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: OnBeep)Sci-fi fans have eagerly awaited the moment when Star Trek technologies become a reality. Thanks to On Beep, at least one of them has. Sort of.It may not be as robust as Trek version, but the $99 Onyx allows users to communicate with up to 15 friends with a simple tap of the disc-shaped device. Onyx connects via Bluetooth to Android and iOS devices, which use a companion app to relay messages to your away team....

Continuing to strike fear into the hearts of, well, everyone, Taser has released an electrified round that works with any 12-gauge shotgun. The Wireless eXtended Range Electronic Projectile, or XREP, is a fin-stabilized, self-contained round with no wires leading back to the gun and a maximum range of 100 ft. Previous Tasers, such as the C2 civilian model I was hit with a few months ago, are only useful within around 30 ft....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn her nine years at Butterball’s Turkey Talk hotline (1-800-BUTTERBALL), Phyllis Kramer has heard every turkey problem imaginable—and some it’s practically impossible to picture. Once, she says, a whole roomful of people called her on speakerphone. The turkey was on the table, they were ready to eat, and they were angry.“They said, ‘We’re trying to carve this turkey, but there’s no meat on the bones,’” Kramer says. She thought for a moment, then suggested they turn it over....

Workers near the town of Senno, Belarus uncovered an abandoned Red Army heavy tank in a swamp. The tank may date back as far as 1941. The tank is a KV-1, or “Kliment Voroshilov-1”. Named after a marshal of the Soviet Union, the KV-1 was the standard heavy tank at the time of the German invasion in 1941. The KV-1 mounted a 75-millimeter gun and its heavy armored plate made it immune to most German anti-tank weapons of the time....

Do you like the ground? I like the ground. The ground is a beautiful thing we often take for granted. It’s warm, it’s supportive, but most of all, I know if I fall onto it from standing height, I’ll most likely walk away with nothing worse than a scab or a bruise. Some people don’t care much for the ground. Some people would much prefer the adrenaline of soaring through the air with nothing below them but jagged cliff edges and a snowmobile....

For the past two months, every bat broken in Major League Baseball play–over 1500 so far–has been collected, catalogued and stored at an undisclosed warehouse in Wisconsin. After a meeting in New York on Thursday with representatives from the league’s safety and health committee, top researchers tell PM that they’re now set to pore over the pieces of the Bat Cave.“You have to envision this as being a warehouse, like a wholesale retail place....

View full post on YoutubeOsmo, a new iPad-based toy by Tangible Play, melds the old-fashioned and new-fangled. While it runs on a tablet, the gaming system is based on a much more ancient technology: a mirror.To use Osmo, stand your iPad upright and place the mirror over its camera. The Osmo mirror directs the lens’ gaze downward, to the surface in front of the iPad, turning that into a playable surface....

When John M. Barry, a celebrated historian and New York Times best-selling author, decided to write a book about the 1918 pandemic, his reasons were simple: studying a society in crisis is like examining an x-ray, he says – past the surface and down to the nitty-gritty. Considering that a mysterious virus was killing more troops than bullets were during World War I, America was certainly in crisis mode in 1918....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Sept. 19 (sedan), Oct. 15 (coupe), early 2013 (PHEV)Price: $21,680–$33,430Competitors: Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Chevy Malibu, Ford Fusion, and Hyundai SonataPowertrains: 2.4-liter I-4, 185 hp, 181 lb-ft; 3.5-liter V-6, 278 hp, 252 lb-ft; 2.0-liter PHEV, 196 hp total systemEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 27/36 (I-4 CVT), 24/34 (I-4 MT), 21/34 (V-6)What’s New: For each of the past eight generations, Honda’s midsize sedan stalwart, the Accord, has always grown larger....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf humans cleaned floors the way most robots do, they would be fired, rushed to the hospital, or both. Not to disparage iRobot, but anyone who’s owns a Roomba has had to overlook just how loud, clumsy and random the robot is. Mint, a new cleaning bot from Evolution Robotics, is the next generation of robot servant. It uses wet and dry Swiffer pads, which makes the robot, light, quiet and particularly good at handling corners, where dirt and dust congregate....

Media Platforms Design TeamThirty years ago, Volvo engineers were tasked with creating a drivable car that weighed less than 1500 pounds, could safely seat two people, and achieved at least 58 mpg. The result of the company’s Lightweight Component Project was the LCP 2000, a diesel-powered hatchback constructed of aluminum, magnesium, high-strength plastic, and carbon fiber. PopMech drove it a few months after its debut, and found it to be “a viable proposition....

Media Platforms Design TeamWe’re all email power users, based purely on the hundreds, if not thousands, of messages we get each week. So it’s easy to assume that we all know the best tips and tricks for managing that deluge: Keep your inbox lean, set up multiple accounts to stay organized, devise a strong password. It turns out that some of the conventional wisdom is outdated, and most of it is incomplete....

In August 2014, a 737 owned and operated by Australian Qanta airlines had a little bit of a rough takeoff. On its way into the air, it performed a tailstrike and lightly smacked its behind onto the runway before going airborne. Now, an investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has determined the cause: fat fingers mistyping on an iPad. When calculating variables like takeoff speed, pilots for Qantas use the airline’s on-board performance tool (OPT)....

The Arctic Ocean was last ice-free in summer millions of years ago, and it seems nearly that long since NASA climate scientist James Hansen first testified to Congress on the dangers of global warming in 1988. Now, legislators are preparing a bill to limit carbon emissions, but, speaking at a World Science Festival panel discussion in New York City last night, Hansen said the House’s Markey-Waxman bill wasn’t worth the wait....

Media Platforms Design TeamHow do you come up with the ideas for show?Adilman: One show started with the idea that it would be really great to have a picnic in the wintertime. And that ended up morphing into transforming a horse trough into a hot tub, and then having Japanese shabu shabu outside when it’s 19 degrees Celsius. So it started with a desireone person will throw out some wishand then everyone will build off that idea....

Q: It seems like your magazine features at least one excessively over powered gas guzzling car every issue, which seems to be in keeping with our country’s obsession for ever more horse-power. The Japanese seem to hit their stride in terms of efficiency and reliability in the 1980s, and ever since, with a few exceptions, they have been jumping on the horse power wagon too. I had the opportunity to borrow a friend’s late 80s 4-door Civic and was pleased with the car’s acceleration and amazed by the gas mileage, 44 miles per gallon on the highway over two tanks....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen this warning lamp illuminates on your instrument panel, at least one of your tires is 25 percent below its correct pressure. This TPMS sensor uses a lithium battery with a five- to 10-year life span. But you still need to keep a decent tire gauge in your glovebox.It’s hot. Real hot. Fortunately, the new car you bought right before that Arizona spring-break road trip has air conditioning that works great, in spite of the heavy pop-up trailer and loaded roof rack weighing it down....

Media Platforms Design Team2009 DETROIT AUTO SHOW PREVIEW:• BUICK: 2010 Buick LaCrosse• CADILLAC: 2010 Cadillac SRX• FORD: 2010 Ford Shelby GT500• CHEVY: 2010 Chevrolet EquinoxWe dug the Jaguar XF right from the get-go. Swoon-inducing styling, dramatic and inviting interior, and power, brakes and handling in full concert with Jaguar’s sporting-yet-luxurious brand heritage. That’s why we awarded it a Popular Mechanics Automotive Excellence Award last year. But as good as the XF is, under the hood there was something lacking—an engine capable of taking on the 500 hp monster-sedans from Mercedes-Benz’s AMG and BMW’s M divisions....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou won’t get an extra full day added to your year until February 29, 2016. But this year we at least get to have a leap second.The reason is that Earth’s rotation isn’t a perfect 24 hours thanks to some fluctuations from tidal effects and changes under the surface that perturb the spin of the planet. As a result, we often need to add an extra second or two to our clocks to keep pace with the changes, lest those fractions of a second throw us off in the long term....