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The Gearwrench multi-function ratchet is a great tool in its own right. What’s even better is that it comes along this time of year: It’s amazing usefulness, size and shape make it a perfect stocking-stuffer. Maybe it’s a bit expensive by stocking stuffer standards, but any mechanically inclined person would be overjoyed to find this one on Christmas morning.The tool’s design takes a smart idea, a double-ended ratchet, and adds two articulating heads, both of which lock into seven position with the flip of a lever....

A futuristic weapon that uses electricity rather than traditional propellant to shoot high-speed projectiles took a step closer to the battlefield last week. The U.S. Navy fired the first live demonstration of its prototype electromagnetic railgun at a test range, program manager Roger Ellis says. Now some military officials at the Office of Naval Research say that it might even be possible to have the weapon—which had been plagued by delays and technical problems—ready sooner than previously planned....

Thomas HosfordAnn Arbor, Mich.Age: 28Years on Job: 14A busted clutch drove Thomas Hosford to a job that turned out to be his calling. It was 1998, and “my time was cheaper than buying a new clutch basket,” he says. So he headed to his father’s fab shop—which the elder Hosford has operated since 1979—and milled a new part from an aluminum slab. After that, Hosford worked summers alongside his dad, but didn’t realize he wanted a fabricating career until he studied business for two years at Indiana University....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhile Volvo isn’t completely overlooking hybrid technology, they are a European car company—and Europeans buy diesels. So it makes sense that the Swedish automaker would focus on oil burners for ways to get big results in lowering CO2 emissions and reducing fuel consumption.The introduction next month of the 2008 Volvo C30 1.6-liter turbo diesel at the Frankfurt Motor Show is, for obvious reasons, being tagged as the Efficiency Concept....

View full post on YoutubeBad news, everyone: The Internet was wrong. And this time it was about something important: toasters.Apparently, rumors have been spreading that those numerals on the side of the appliance actually stand for the number of minutes it will cook your bread. To disprove it, the guys in this YouTube video set up a test of four different toasters all set to 2. They pop at different times and well before two minutes is up—with the exception of the nicest toaster, which pops right at the two-minute mark....

Raking or blowing leaves is not only laborious, it’s wasteful. This fall’s growing movement is to mulch leaves in place, letting the shards decompose during winter to nourish your glorious, green lawn in spring.The “love-em and leave-em” trend saves you backaches and saves your town headaches from collecting and dumping tons of leaves each year. The Village of Irvington in New York says vacuuming, carting and dumping leaves costs the town over $100,000 each year....

Media Platforms Design TeamBoat ramps on weekend mornings buzz with promise. Families organize coolers and gear, anglers stow tackle, and uncooperative boat trailers are coaxed into the water. Then outboard motors howl as weekend helmsmen warm them up, filling the air with an acrid cloud of blue exhaust. Why blue? That’s the universal indicator of an old, simple two-stroke (aka two-cycle) engine burning special oil mixed with its fuel for lubrication....

Media Platforms Design TeamGENEVA — The Volvo XC60 was introduced here at the Geneva Motor Show today as the newest member of the fastest-growing market segment in the business—crossover SUVs. In fact, Volvo says that by 2009 this segment should expand by 75 percent, with the XC60 hitting Stateside showrooms just in time, about a year from now.The new crossover will initially be available with the six-cylinder turbocharged 3.2-liter T6 engine, producing 285 hp....

On Sale Date: MarchPrice: $16,000 to $20,000 (est.)Competitors: Honda Civic, Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus, Dodge Dart, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai ElantraPowertrains: 1.8-liter I-4, 148 hp, 131 lb-ft; 2.0-liter I-4, 173 hp, 154 lb-ft; six-speed manual, six-speed automatic, FWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy, est.): 28/38What’s New: Just three-and-a-half years after it launched the original Forte, Kia has created an all-new one. That haste is a clear indication of how competitive the compact-sedan segment has become and, perhaps more telling, a sign of how competitive Kia has become....

Media Platforms Design TeamElectric-powered, self-extending antenna masts used to be a telltale sign of a fancy, feature-laden car. As is the case with many electromechanical parts, however, power antennas usually end up requiring repair. Run through a carwash with one extended and you’ll have what looks like a bent hanger sticking out of the fender. Today, power antenna masts have been replaced with fixed antennas or wires embedded in windshields, but there are still plenty of cars out there with these telescoping menaces....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s a dark and stormy night. Made even darker because the headlights on your car have suddenly quit. The car runs fine–but you have to have it towed to a garage. Tow: $85. Labor to replace headlight fuse: $25. One 10-amp blade-style fuse: 65 cents. The realization the next morning that there was a spare fuse already in the fuse box that you could have swapped in yourself for free in a few seconds: Priceless....

Nazi concentration camps such as Auschwitz sent millions of people to their deaths during World War II. But after the war, thousands of Nazi prison guards walked free afterward, claiming innocence or ignorance of the atrocities. Concentration camps were enormous, and many former Nazis maintain that while they prepared the meals or guarded the gates, they never knew about the gas chambers.Seventy years later, German prosecutors are ready to disprove some of those claims, thanks to advanced 3D modeling....

Today marks the 45th-ever Earth Day, which, depending on your world view, is either encouraging (Hey, look how long it’s lasted!) or incredibly discouraging (There have been 16,436 days since Earth Day debuted, and we’ve chosen only this many to honor our natural world).In any case, there’s little doubt that the ideals of Earth Day are rapidly gaining significance. This is good news. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do....

Criola, a civil rights group in Brazil, has a confrontational way to show the harms of racism: it geotags social media posts and posts them to billboards near where they were tweeted or otherwise posted. It’s not digital – at least it’s not yet – though it’s not hard to imagine someone making that happen here.The campaign, called Racismo Virtual, involves finding racist internet posts, renting billboard spots, and plastering the message near where they were written....

Home maintenance isn’t restricted to repairs. In fact, certain tasks– when performed regularly–may actually prevent things from breaking in the first place. But when things do go wrong (and it’s inevitable that they do), we have some backup plans that you can try before you grab the phone to call for pro. Appliances and plumbing are the most frequent offenders, but they also often can be the simplest to care for....

How has the Internet changed maps?Beyond anyone’s imagination, really. The effects have been colossal and irreversible. If you were to say 20 years ago that we would all be walking around with free maps on our phones that placed us at the center of the world and told us where to go and how to get there, I would have thought you were crazy. The Internet has had more effect on maps, cartography, and the way we get around than anything else in two thousand years of map history....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn 2010 Eric Butler developed Firesheep, a Firefox extension that allowed anyone on a public network to access websites—including email and Facebook—visited by anyone else on that network, to demonstrate just how vulnerable public networks are. Firefox has since patched the vulnerabilities exploited by Butler’s program, but we contacted him to find out how to protect oneself from prying programs such as his. “People should really avoid any service that requires them to log in unless that website is 100 percent secure,” Butler says....

THE TAPE WHAT IT IS WHAT IT’S FOR Electrician’s Putty Synthetic rubber compounds, carbon black, granular filler on peel-off backing Starts as tape, molds into putty. Forms around cable and pipe where they pass through siding, framing. Blocks water and bugs and other vermin. Glue Strip Wax paper with adhesive beadChris Eckert/Studio DPeel-off paper backing leaves 1/16-in.-wide glue strip for light duty fastening, such as attaching small pieces of wood trim (dap....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn the seven years since its creation, graphene has been praised as the marvelous material that will make cellphones and other electronics even smaller, thinner and faster. The graphene revolution has happened in incremental steps, but this week IBM engineers announced a significant one: They published a paper in Science announcing that they have built an integrated circuit using graphene, bringing graphene-based technology closer to reality.Graphene is a two-dimensional solid made up of a single layer of carbon atoms....

Media Platforms Design TeamMyth No. 1Nuclear Power Isn’t a Safe SolutionIn a recent national poll, 72 percent of respondents expressed concern about potential accidents at nuclear power plants. Some opinion-makers have encouraged this trepidation: Steven Cohen, executive director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, has called nuclear power “dangerous, complicated and politically controversial.” During the first six decades of the nuclear age, however, fewer than 100 people have died as a result of nuclear power plant accidents....