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The first step in cutting through the hype surrounding green jobs is simply to define them. Some workers, such as energy auditors and solar-panel installers, have plied their trades for decades. But even jobs in emerging fields, such as smart-grid and electric vehicle development, repurpose age-old professions such as electrician, mechanic and engineer. If you count all the people working in clean energy, environmentally friendly production, energy efficiency and pollution mitigation—as the Pew Center on the States recently did—and discount the people indirectly linked to those fields, such as accountants, there were 770,000 green jobs in the U....

The LeakMedia Platforms Design Team4.9 million: Barrels of oil (205.8 million gallons) leaked from the Deepwater Horizon well, about half the amount of crude oil the U.S. imports per day19: Times more oil leaked from Deepwater Horizon than spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989 (10.8 million gallons)62,000: Barrels leaking per day when the wellhead first broke, roughly the amount of oil consumed in Delaware each day53,000: Barrels leaking per day when the well was capped on July 15, roughly the amount of oil consumed in Rhode Island each day397....

Media Platforms Design TeamCall it a case of defense-press diplomacy: An Iranian colonel this week spoke publicly about a “special weapon” that was tailor-made to destroy U.S. Apache attack helicopters. The government-run Iranian news agency also released images of the shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile. In the photo, the launcher is to the left, in green, and the grey missile is also to the left, with a white cap covering the guidance laser....

If you’ve ever waged war for a power socket at a Starbucks, begged a bartender to plug your phone in for a few minutes of extra juice, or drunkenly tried to use a stage prop at a Broadway show to charge your phone, you know the desperation a low battery can breed.But rarely does it lead to being put in handcuffs. Except in the case of Robin Lee, an artist headed home on the London Overground last Friday, who found himself hauled off in a police van for the crime of “abstracting energy” after plugging his phone into a power socket....

Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS—The International Builders’ Show has its share of glamour and high-end products—like digital door locks and whirlpool tubs that cost thousands of dollars. Underneath it all, though, it’s still about hammer and nails. The busiest booth I saw was at Stiletto Tools, a maker of titanium hammers, products that range from $90 to $250. Burly carpenters hovered nearby, swatting nails, trying different models the way teenagers can converge on a shoe store and try on every running shoe or sneaker in the place....

Just got back to NYC from a weeklong skiing vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire (no, didn’t have time to drive up Mount Washington). And we drove the 350 miles there and back with PM’s long-term Toyota Highlander Hybrid test car (to be introduced in an upcoming issue), loaded with three people and lots o’ gear. Ninety percent of the trek was Interstate driving, with the rest on rural two-lane at 50 to 60 mph....

Update, March 27: Today, Thailand added to the tally of objects in the Indian Ocean spotted by satellites that could—could—be debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Thailand’s pictures, taken a day after the photos by Airbus showing 122 pieces of debris, show 300 objects floating about 120 miles west of that location Airbus photographed.March 26: Today’s big news from the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Airbus Defense and Space reports that its satellites have seen a field of debris in the Southern Indian Ocean, the same general area previous satellite pictures have also seen possible debris, and where investigators are now concentrating their search in the hopes of confirming whether these objects are or are not pieces of the lost Boeing 777....

The trouble started on Nov. 2, when a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C crashed during an exercise. The incident quickly blossomed into a temporary, global shutdown of all F-15 flights, so that the planes–including those owned by overseas customers in countries such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Japan–could be examined. This was the fourth crash involving an F-15 model this year. “First, only noncritical flights in the U.S. were grounded,” says Guy Ben-Ari, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies....

Media Platforms Design Team01 YemenDIRECT ACTION: AirstrikesOBJECTIVE: Hunt members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula who are seizing towns and attacking government officials. UPDATE: Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the CIA pick targets for drone and manned aircraft attacks against al-Qaida leadership and clusters of fighters. The website Long War Journal estimates that 23 strikes have been carried out since December 2009.02 PhilippinesINDIRECT ACTION: Foreign Internal DefenseOBJECTIVE: SOCOM deployed to the island of Basilan to counter gains made by the Islamist insurgent group Abu Sayyaf....

Media Platforms Design TeamImage: NOAAThe United Nations’ chief geophysical science group, the World Meteorological Organization, has confirmed what we’ve already heard: 2014 was the hottest year on record. Yes, even with the Polar Vortex that seemed to never end.Compared to an average year during its reference period, the years, 1961 to 1990, the global temperature was up by 1.03 degrees Fahrenheit in 2014, the WMO says. Last year beat out next-hottest years, 2010 and 2005, by a fraction of a percent....

Drivers are supposed to learn the supposedly universal arm and hand signals that cyclists are supposed to use when dictating turns. But as Brakepack creator Tucker Spofford told Fast Company,“the truth is that while hand signals are a vernacular everyone is supposed to understand, many drivers don’t,” thus leading to accidents.That inspired Spofford to invent Brakepack, a backpack for bikers that is equipped with turn signals and brake lights. He hopes make the roads safer for both riders and drivers....

After a nuclear catastrophe like Japan’s Fukushima disaster, or in the hypothetical event of a dirty bomb, doctors and first responders have an insanely difficult job. They must figure out how much radiation each victim has been subjected to and, because of limited resources and time, make tough calls about who to treat and who has no hope of surviving their radiation poisoning.Before now, it’s been effectively impossible for a doctor to inspect a patient and accurately diagnose the radiation damage he or she has borne, especially within the first 24 hours....

Media Platforms Design TeamSpore is finally, almost, upon us. We had a chance to play the full version at this year’s E3, but on Sunday, players around the world will discover what happens when a game of epic scope and unparalleled ambition actually lives up to years of hype. Most players will be content to create a spastic race of brightly colored Muppets, or a more random, dog’s breakfast of spiny bits and oddly placed eye-stalks, and dutifully grind through the various stages of the game....

An American F-16 crashed today in a forest in southern Germany. The Fighting Falcon had reportedly just left the training range at Grafenwöhr when something went wrong while the pilot was executing a maneuver. According to German news sources, the plane experienced engine trouble that may have led to the crash, but investigators aren’t saying any more right now. The pilot ejected safely and escaped with minor injuries.View full post on TwitterStars and Stripes reports that the fighter wasn’t carrying any live munitions when it went down at 9:38 local time Tuesday morning....

Media Platforms Design Team Just because some ammunition is made for practice doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. For decades, soldiers in training have fired explosives like the M918 40-mm shell, which is less powerful than battlefield munitions, but still explodes to simulate the “bang” of a real round. However, a few of those old-style munitions—about 3 to 8 percent of current shells according to the Department of Defense—are duds that get stuck in the ground without exploding, creating a cleanup nightmare for the military....

In a tragic update to our flight blog and story last year detailing how I learned to fly (in a week), Jim Pellien, the owner of Mid-Atlantic Sport Planes in Basye, Va., died Saturday when the single engine Zenair Zodiac CH 601 XL he was piloting crashed in the Shenandoah Valley. He was 58. The aircraft Pellien was flying, registered N601VA, was the single-engine plane in which I learned to fly....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhether you’re an aspiring or professional artist, Wacom is a name you should know. This Japanese tech company is the leader in drawing tablets and knowing what they offer is a benefit for any graphics professional. Those familiar with Wacom products (I’ve been a professional artist for more than 25 years) have been wishing that we could untether from our bulky desktops and make our talents more mobile....

The best build by the weapons gurus at Man at Arms might be one of their smallest. In this clip, the smiths took on the challenge of crafting a real-world version of cold-blooded killer Arya Stark’s small sword called Needle from Game of Thrones.It’s eight solid minutes of old-fashioned weaponry jargon as the team crafts the small blade from scratch, perfectly reproducing what appears on the show. If you don’t have eight minutes and just want to know the secrets of crafting a stabbing weapon, one designed for sticking somebody with the pointy end, then skip ahead to the work done at about 4:30....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team Change is rarely cheap, but over half a century ago, audiences accustomed to viewing a perpetual grayscale were just hearing rumors that their screens would be exploding with rich, detailed color. In the same year when a Supreme Court ruling ignited the Civil Rights Movement, Popular Mechanics was already saying goodbye to black-and-white. “According to the big networks, color TV is here to stay....

Two and a half days after AirAsia flight 8501 went missing en route from Surabaya to Singapore, search teams finally found the plane’s remains on Wednesday, pulling bodies and debris from Indonesia’s Karimata Strait between the islands of Belitung and Borneo. It will take weeks for a more thorough investigation, but here’s what the wreckage tells us right now.This Was a Fast DiscoveryIn the age of universal connectedness, two and a half days sounds like a long time (If they can find a cell phone, how come they can’t find a plane?...