Posts

Media Platforms Design TeamAccording to the International Maritime Organization, world shipping is dominated by only a handful of countries, at least in number of boat registries. Panama, Liberia, the Bahamas, Greece and the Marshall Islands account for 48 percent of the world fleet between them.The “Ports and Ships” collection began, as many watery adventures have, in Venice. MIT lecturer Andrea Frank was on a two-month fellowship in the old Italian city when she and a friend were struck by the look of the giant tankers and industrial shipping boats in the harbor....

The Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon between 1969 and 1972 did so with chest-mounted Hasselblad cameras so they could record every piece of history. Now you can see what they saw on the lunar surface, and plenty of other shots taken from space.The Project Apollo Archive, created by Kipp Teague in 1999, just uploaded a treasure of 8,400 Apollo photos to Flickr. Go ahead, go there and flip through them....

Media Platforms Design TeamUpdate: The finished unmooring from the seafloor early this morning (Nov. 8) and got under way, bound for Dutch Harbor, Alaska.KullukRoyal Dutch Shell is finding that getting out of the Arctic Ocean can be tougher than drilling wells in it. More than a week after drilling stopped for the 2012 season, some of the oil giant’s vessels are still in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of the Alaska coast—and the winter ice is forming....

In January, NASA made a series of tourism posters for some awesome Kepler-discovered exoplanets. Now, SpaceX has dropped some fantastic Mars posters for a tourist trip that’s maybe a little more doable than something light years away.Elon Musk has made no secret of his plan to take his company to the Red Planet someday. These posters are just a little teaser that makes us want to get to Mars any way we can, except however Mars One thinks they’re going to do it....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen watching the pros at the U.S. Open hit with superhuman pace, it’s natural to look for a shortcut to attain that kind of power. Most weekend hackers might focus on the racket, assuming that if they could dip into a top pro’s racket bag, they too could pummel the ball like a pro. They may be only part right. Defending champion Roger Federer uses a frame that is a direct descendent of the racket used by Pete Sampras—a small-head, low-power model introduced way back in 1982....

One of Hollywood’s most classic geeks–a man as gadget hungry as he is clumsy, as surprisingly suave as he is accident-prone–crashes back into theaters today with Get Smart, an adaptation that does the 1960s cult TV hit justice in both the knee-slapping and shoe-talking departments. Maxwell Smart has always been something of an anti-Bond: For every Sean Connery mission gone right, there was a Don Adams mishap-and-a-half. From Bunsen-burner phones and steering-wheel phones to watch cameras (thank you, Dick Tracy) and briefcase guns (you’re welcome, Desperado), the original program parodied the tedious impracticality of spy gizmos better than anything on TV before or since....

Dirt BikeMedia Platforms Design TeamYou could forgive the looks of confusion and disbelief on the faces of the weekend fixer-uppers who ventured to the Home Depot in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn on Saturday. Just over a chain-link fence, between a local public school and the hardware store, hundreds of grimy men, women, and men dressed like women, assembled for Bike Kill VI. The event is a hodgepodge of Halloween-inspired costumery, Sturges Rally-like debauchery and destruction on the scale of the wickedest demolition derby that’s ever rolled into town....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’re wondering how to use Pinterest, you’re not alone. According to comScore, Pinterest received 11.7 million unique visitors from the United States in January 2012, which made it the fastest website ever to surpass the 10-million mark for unique visitors. In February 2013, that Pinterest had 48.7 million users. It is especially popular among women, who are a large reason its most popular categories are Food & Drink, DIY & Crafts, Women’s Apparel, Hair & Beauty, and Home Decor, according to Pinterest’s Directory & Stats....

Media Platforms Design Team1.) Find Parts This March in Minnesota, our solar oven got hot enough to bake a killer batch of scones—and in the summer, it can whip up brownies in a brownout. The project makes use of scraps (or full 4 x 8 sheets) of ¾-inch and ½-inch plywood. It also requires 4d trim nails, a 6-foot length of 1½-inch-wide flat wood trim, 36 inches of ¼-inch-square molding, a half-sheet of ½-inch rigid foam insulation, a half-sheet of ½-inch drywall, two white ceramic knobs, eight 3-inch mending plates, construction adhesive, high-­temperature flat black spray paint, heavy-duty aluminum foil, No....

Officially, there are no 2007 Dodge Vipers—the 520-hp 2006 Viper was the last of the third-generation sports cars. Dodge decided to simply build enough ’06s to satisfy most of their gotta-have-one-now customers, and have the rest wait for the third-gen ’08s to start production. Boy, is it worth the wait. The new car is still all Viper—unmistakable from a block away and packing enough torque to tow a battleship. It’s got the same no-compromises, no-holds-barred sports car attitude that smells like leather and testosterone even before you open the door....

Media Platforms Design Team JUKKASJARVI, Sweden — This very potent limited-edition model comes as either a 9-3 Sport Sedan or SportCombi station wagon—both powered by a 24-valve, 2.8-liter turbocharged V6 generating 280 hp and 295 lb.-ft. of torque paired to a six-speed manual or automatic. But how the heck does Saab get all this power to the ground? Well, for the first time this genuine Saab has all-wheel drive cooked up entirely by Swedes—not Japanese (9-2X) or Americans (9-7x)....

Q: I inherited my grandfather’s torque wrench. It’s still in good condition, but when I showed it to my mechanic, he said the wrench was so old that it was probably out of calibration and that I should just hang it on the wall as a curio. What do you think?A: I’d get a new mechanic, because although torque wrenches do need to be calibrated annually (more often if they’re in daily operation or used for really critical applications like engine assembly), your wrench should work fine after an adjustment and a little TLC....

Scott Kelly, a decorated astronaut who’s been with the agency since 1996, is heading to the International Space Station for a year-long stay. During that time, he’ll become the American with the longest duration in space, and will provide NASA with useful information on the long-term effects of microgravity on humans as the agency looks forward to new deep space missions in the coming decades.Kelly’s flight will be an important one for the agency....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe aquatic robot twists in a split second. Water ripples around its sleek body, and a splash announces its escape. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a robotic fish buckles its silicone rubber frame into an impressive—and utterly realistic—evasive maneuver.“Evolution has tried all kinds of experiments, and the organisms that move best don’t get eaten,” says George M. Whitesides, a chemist and professor at Harvard University who was not involved in the study....

Rumors that Apple’s next big secret project is a car have been circulating since early 2015, and over two years later, there’s finally some confirmation in the way of public record. Apple is now on the list of companies with permits to test self-driving cars in California. View full post on TwitterEarly reports indicated that Apple’s initial plan was to debut an electric car by 2019, but those rumors were followed by reports of layoffs in the division and an apparent plan to pivot from building an actual car to working on autonomous driving software for use in other vehicles....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: January 13, 2014Price: $99LAS VEGAS—The Typo keyboard came into existence after TV personality Ryan Seacrest, along with his friends, kvetched about the burden of carrying two phones with them at all times. They used phones with keyboards for typing out longer correspondences, and they also used iPhones for everything else smartphone-related (i.e., for the apps). So Seacrest tried out other keyboard models available on the market and hated all the prototypes they saw—except for Typo’s fledgling product....

Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS—Gabe Newell, co-founder of the the increasingly influential Valve Corporation, announced all 13 manufacturing partners—a Knights of the Round Table collection of gaming hardware—who will provide eager gamers with Steam Machines in the coming year. And with 65 million members on Steam—Valve’s online video game distribution service—they’ll definitely have a captive audience. The companies include Alienware, Alternate, CyberPowerPC, Digital Storm, Falcon NW, GigaByte, iBuyPower, Maingear, Material.net, Next Spa, Origin PC, Scan, Webhallen, and Zotac....

Chesley B. Sullenberger, the pilot whose splashdown in the Hudson River has been described as perfect, miraculous and even heroic, has a storied aviation career. He was a flight instructor, an airline accident investigator, an F-4 pilot in the United States Air Force, and, maybe most relevant to yesterday’s crash landing, a certified glider pilot. More specifically, Sullenberger has earned a “C” badge from the Soaring Society of America (SSA), which oversees gliding (or soaring) clubs around the country....

Media Platforms Design TeamFall chimney maintenance and proper cleaning are key steps to keeping your family safe and warm as the temperatures drop. Neglected chimneys accumulate creosote, a combustible byproduct of charred wood, along their walls. Add to that a high internal flue temperature and you’ve got a potentially dangerous chimney fire on your hands.The best way to avoid a house fire caused by the fireplace or chimney is to hire a professional chimney sweep to inspect for cracks and loose bricks....

Media Platforms Design TeamDangerous debris from the collapsed Interstate 35W bridge and rough conditions in the Mississippi River continue to slow underwater divers in their hunt for victims in Minneapolis, but it turns out the elements have also prevented response teams from using the newest high-tech rescue equipment in the first place. In at least one instance, officials at the wreck sight rebuffed an offer of sea-seeking robots from nearby authorities, while the shallow water may be presenting problems of its own....