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Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamTHIRD REPORT - August 2010Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph by Doug Adesko)The Insight continues to grow on us as a practical, no-frills car that delivers high mileage—PM drivers topped EPA figures on a number of trips. When it comes to hybrid performance, though, the Insight just isn’t as much fun as the Toyota Prius. It doesn’t have its techier competitor’s acceleration or true electric-only mode. But the Insight also costs $3000 less than the Prius and gets comparable mileage....

If you’re like most homeowners, you probably dream of one day completing a major home-remodeling project. And I’m not talking about retiling a tub here. This is the once-in-a-lifetime renovation–the kind that dramatically changes how you live, energizes the entire household, and makes all the neighbors really jealous.Perhaps your dream is to build a two-story addition with a family room below and a master bedroom and bath above. Or maybe you’ve always wanted to expand the kitchen and install French doors leading to a wraparound deck....

If you’ve gone off to some special place like, say, the Eiffel Tower, chances are good you’re going to want to take a picture to document the momentous occasion. Chances are also good that you won’t be the only one, with dozens of other tourists milling about at the same time. Adobe wants to help.View full post on YoutubeThe company demonstrated a prototype camera app (with help from Nick Offerman for some reason) at their MAX conference in San Francisco that removed wandering bystanders from the photo attempting to be taken....

On the outskirts of Garnett, Kan. (pop. 3362), the horizon is broken by what at first sight seems to be a grain elevator rising above the cornfields. But closer inspection reveals a tall, skinny distillation column among the silos and fermenters, identifying the complex as part of the nation’s energy future: It is East Kansas Agri-Energy’s ethanol facility, one of 100 or so such heartland garrisons in America’s slowly gathering battle to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels....

View full post on YoutubeIf anyone were going to build a real version of the angry, angular batmobile from Christopher Nolan’s movies, it’d be the Pentagon’s mad scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). And on that front, we’ve got some good news.Last Friday, the agency sponsored a “Proposers’ Day” so industry could get a better idea as to what DARPA had in mind. The latest project it wants to build: a stealthy off-road vehicle that can detect and dodge incoming rockets and, when needed, engage an autopilot-like function....

Sync, a joint effort between Ford and Microsoft and winner of a 2007 PM Breakthrough Award, is essentially a small PC running on a version of Windows called Windows Auto. At $395 (when not standard), Sync will be available in all Ford vehicles in less than two years. We tested it in Ford’s least expensive vehicle, the Focus. Sync has a zippy 400-MHz processor with 256MB of flash memory and 128MB of RAM....

Media Platforms Design TeamA major overpass in Beijing known as the Sanyuan Bridge was demolished and completely replaced in just 43 hours. Unlike China’s other efficient method of building bridges, the 300-foot, 580-ton machine known as the SLJ900/32, this freeway overpass was constructed as a single prefabricated piece and slotted into place.Authorities told the Shanghaiist that a similar replacement project using conventional methods would have taken at least two months to complete....

Media Platforms Design TeamMy lawn was wrecked by last summer’s drought. I was going to renew it last fall, but then I got busy at work. Can I do it this spring, or should I wait until next fall and overhaul it then?Go for it. Sure, it’s true that late summer and early fall are the ideal times to rejuvenate a patchy or threadbare lawn. Soil temperatures are high, which leads to quick germination of grass seeds, especially tall fescue....

Media Platforms Design Team"Earthling" begins with a husband who comes home to surprise his wife for a wedding anniversary, only to be killed by ghostly shadow. A card that reads, “I know how you like surprises…” awaits his wife when she returns home, but when she does, he’s no longer in great shape. As she nudges her eerily still spouse, he crumbles into ash. Cue the screaming–and the entrance of the Fringe team....

On Sunday, the Cygnus robotic spacecraft built and operated by Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation successfully berthed with the International Space Station at 8:44 am Eastern time. Orbital Sciences joined SpaceX in reaching the ISS with a privately built spacecraft.“It was a great day,” Alan Lindenmoyer, Manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program, said in a press conference following the berthing. “We now have two new launch vehicles, two new state-of-the-art autonomous spacecraft capable of carrying cargo to manned destinations—human destinations—in space....

Tony events like the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Quail Gathering, and countless other automotive festivities surrounding Monterey Car Week encourage a healthy (if envy-tinged) appreciation for the precious aspects of the automobile. It’s an opportunity for premium brands to play up their heritage while a wealthy, usually champagne-buzzed clientele allow their future purchases to be swayed by the tantalizing goods being hawked.Mercedes-Benz was among the usual suspects guilty of flaunting their past to sell their future, and as an automotive writer partaking of the weekend as a guest of the brand, I borrowed a 2014 S-Class, which helped me blend with the billionaires as I tooled around 17 Mile Drive....

My new book really started as a casual conversation with my publisher at Motorbooks. But it took a decidedly concrete turn two summers ago, when my I found myself in the middle of America’s breadbasket driving an old Porsche 911 that I had just purchased. I was chasing bikes, but I was searching for the people behind them, too, weaving through the tangled thread of their histories and the hints as to where they might be parked today....

Media Platforms Design TeamTeam Germany’s members may all be new to the Solar Decathlon this year, but they learned from the previous team’s house–and though it won first place in 2007, they strived to improve upon it. The team increased the size of the building but decreased the area of the windows in order to reduce solar gain; they also placed them more strategically within the structure. As a result, Germany’s house is a two-story cube with windows concentrated on the northern and southern sides....

Media Platforms Design TeamIntel CEO Brian Krzanich unveils a wearable processor called Curie.(Photo Credit; Ethan Miller/Getty Images)Meet the Curie Module. It’s Intel’s new attempt to scale down wearable technology to the size of a button, enabling devices to fit more places on your body and without the need for bulky wrist bands or clasps.Intel used a small Quark SE chip and low-power Bluetooth integration to shrink the wearable to such a small size that it could blend in as a jacket button or be clasped on a ring....

As I approach the massive Texas Motor Speedway, my excitement over attending my first air race is suddenly mixed with intimidation. This is the second largest track on the NASCAR circuit and has a capacity of more than 190,000 motorsports-loving fans. But I don’t hear the reverberating roar of V8-powered stock-cars lapping the track. Instead, I follow the drone of a little rocket with wings as it rises above the top of the grandstands, flips over, and dives back down out of sight....

It’s not one of our more celebrated scientific axioms, but it’s true nonetheless: Plowed fields dampen noise. After this fact was discovered in 2008 by a group trying to reduce ground-level noise at Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam, architects, designers, and engineers decided to build a landscape in the airport’s surrounding fields that could quiet plane traffic for communities adjacent to the international hub. As Gizmodo reports, the project enlisted the aid of Dutch artist Paul de Kort, who designed an 81-acre park that has reduced noise at Schiphol by 2 or 3 decibels....

Media Platforms Design TeamCall it the best of both worlds: The Hybrid Quadcopter UAV has the extended air endurance of a Predator but can take off like helicopter from the back of a frigate. No wonder the U.S. Navy has expressed interest in this unmanned helicopter–airplane hybrid that , a small drone company from Tucson, Ariz., is showcasing this week at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Washington, D....

Twin Cities Public Television’s “MN Originals,” which “celebrates Minnesota’s creative community,” just aired an episode featuring an excellent segment (see below) on Matt Thompson, a glassblower who has been making neon signs for 30 years.The segment shows Thompson explaining his apprenticeship learning the art of glassblowing and neon signage, which, it turns out, is a surprisingly old-fashioned art. The video also includes lots of footage of Thompson carefully heating, bending, and blowing phosphor-coated glass tubes, which (be honest!...

In 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)—which was absorbed by NASA in 1958—conducted an experiment to find out how extremely high winds would affect a human passenger. Rather than test high-speed winds on a synthetic material, like we do today with ballistics testing, NACA did things the old fashioned way, as it was wont to do. So the agency strapped a guy down in the recently built 8-Foot High Speed Tunnel at what is now Langley Research Center and just let her rip....

Media Platforms Design Team Browse expert reviews and compare info on the C30 at the Media Platforms Design Team Spunky, fun, hip. Those are certainly not the first words that come to mind when you think of Volvo. But after spending a few days with the new C30 in San Diego recently, we can say this hatchback is the most youthful Volvo yet. It’s cool. Think of it as Volvo’s answer to the Mini Cooper....