Cut DrywallIf you use a utility knife only to cut drywall, then you’re getting your money’s worth out of the tool. The knife’s blade, which is super-sharp and very rigid, is perfectly engineered for slicing through drywall’s thick paper face and into its abrasive gypsum core.Tip: When cutting drywall, be sure to guide the knife’s blade along a T-square or other straightedge. Cut into the front of the sheet–1/8 to 1/4 in....
As the Syrian civil war deeper and tensions between the United States and Russia get even more tense, it’s starting to feel like the U.S. is running short on options. Geopolitics is a game of chess, and when your moves are limited, that’s a sign you’re probably losing. Here are three choices left to President Obama, and the steep drawbacks that come with them.1. Found, and defend, the quasi-nation of Kurdistan Our most reliable and capable allies on the ground in Syria are Kurds....
Aidan Fay has been obsessed with flying ever since he laid eyes on Microsoft Flight Simulator as an eight-year-old. But while the 17-year-old from La Jolla, CA, has completed initial ground school training and takes flying lessons with an instructor, the FAA barred him from flying solo because of a medical condition.So Fay did the next best thing: He built his own cockpit using virtual reality. Fay spent 200 hours designing and constructing this DIY Cessna 172 simulator....
Media Platforms Design TeamWhat would it be like to write the first novel? Capture the first photograph? Create the first motion picture? Director Danfung Dennis can empathize with the crushing weight of these questions. Dennis is a pupil of traditional filmmaking, a medium restricted to a flat two-dimensional state and guided by a century of established rules and examples. But with the help of the Oculus Rift, a device that’s been labeled a game-changer even before its commercial release, Dennis is close to finishing the first 360-degree 3D film and, in turn, creating a new medium....
Media Platforms Design TeamUse a shop rag pinched between your fingers to get lube into the sheath.Cable WoesThe cable that runs from my cruise control unit to the throttle is sticky. It hangs up and won’t let the cruise control engage. I went to the dealer to get a replacement cable, but the technician said he couldn’t even order one because my car is too old. I tried lubing it, but the aerosol lubricant wound up going everywhere except into the cable....
Recently, I discussed a couple of high-tech gadgets for fuel economy, the ScanGauge and the HKS CAMP2. Both plug into the OBD II port on your 1996-up vehicle to give you a real-time mileage readout. These devices are really great to help you fine-tune your driving style for the best fuel economy. And I’ve just started evaluating a third device, the PLX Kiwi, which is so consumer-oriented and so much fun to use, it might even help retrain the driving habits of all those nongearheads in your family....
Back in May, we published a story about how an iPhone saved a young man in Britain from major injury when he was blasted by a sawn-off shotgun. Like the apocryphal story of the soldier saved when his Bible stopped a bullet, it sounds unbelievable. So the guys at The Firearms Blog decided to do a little science on the iPhone shotgun story.In the video below, James from TFB fires a Remington 870 short-barrel shotgun at several iPhones from varying distances to put the tale to the test....
Media Platforms Design TeamAstronomers have found evidence of one of the very first stars. Not only that, but this star also had a probable mass more than 100 times that of the Sun.The scientists haven’t observed the enormous old star directly; in fact, they believe it ended its stellar life in a violent supernova that left nothing behind. However, they say they can infer the existence of this early giant from another star that appears to have formed from fragments of the first star’s explosion....
Media Platforms Design TeamMany beer enthusiasts and homebrewers know about the Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity law of 1516. Brewmasters certainly know it: Originally restricting the allowable ingredients in beer to water, barley, and hops, the law guided the next 500 years of brewing history away from experimentation by telling everyone what was—and wasn’t—a real beer.But don’t try telling that to the ancients. Thousands of years before Germany laid down its beer law, humans in every great civilization were experimenting with booze and letting their inebriated imaginations soar....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe traditional landline is already endangered by the rise of mobile devices—fewer people than ever are paying for such a connection in their home. And now the landline is being threatened by the cost of its own infrastructure. that Verizon, citing the high cost of copper-wire landlines, doesn’t want to replace those lines in Mantoloking, N.J., which suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Sandy. Instead, it wants customers to use its Voice Link wireless home phone system....
Media Platforms Design TeamCurrent Great Lakes water temperatures. Credit: NOAA.This past horrible, polar-vortex-choked winter still won’t let go of Lake Superior, where chunks of ice remain just a week before the official start of summer. Although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared the five Great Lakes to be ice-free this week, eyewitnesses—and their photos—say otherwise.In the biggest of the Great Lakes, ice usually disappears by the end of April....
Media Platforms Design TeamA natural gas leak of mostly methane was discovered in October at the Southern California Gas Company’s Aliso Canyon site near Porter Ranch. Since then, over 2,100 families have been placed in temporary housing due to adverse health effects suffered by people living near the methane leak. But the actual leak is mostly invisible, until you turn on the infrared cameras. Because methane is colorless in the visible light spectrum, infrared is really they only way to spot it....
Media Platforms Design TeamWith two wars ongoing, and an economy still hemorrhaging jobs, it’s not surprising that the American public has largely overlooked the half-decade-long debate in Congress over the state of United States patent law. Now, after a raft of failed bills, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a general vote on the Patent Reform Act of 2009, or S. 515. (A similar bill, H.R. 1260, is floating around the House, but has yet to make it through committee....
Media Platforms Design TeamJay’s 1955 Buick Roadmaster (top) is just one of his four-wheeled fascinations. Hemi engines such as this 426-cu-in. V8 (left) are coveted by collectors. So are Duesenbergs—like this 1935 Model J (right).One day I was driving my 1955 Buick Roadmaster and spotted two older, gray-haired guys (meaning they were probably my age) in a 1956 Buick, a lot like my car. They were wearing hats and satin jackets with Buick logos on them....
On Monday, I whined a bit about the deep cold and the need to constantly stoke the fire. On Tuesday evening, I found myself outside under a frigid, star and moonlit sky, hauling in yet another load of firewood, as happy as can be. There are times when being energy self-sufficient (ok, almost energy self-sufficient) feels like a burden. Cut the wood, replace the fuse, sweep the snow; none of it is overly daunting in and of itself, but on certain days, it adds up to more than I want to be dealing with....
The Endeavor space shuttle has been living out its retirement at the California Space Center in Los Angeles, but now it’s been called back into service. Or a part of it, that is. The potable and waste water tanks from the shuttle will be removed and sent up to the ISS, creating a new water tank for the orbital station. Essentially, ISS water is currently ferried up via resupply missions. There’s also a waste water treatment system that can recycle potable water, but at the expense of lots of time (and lack of storage)....
(Published in the January 2004 issue)More: Read up on the U.S. Formula One Racing Team.They’d even open the door for you–if the racing kart had one. Door service aside, valet karting elevates the humble go-kart to a country club experience. The valets, in this case, are the folks at F1 Outdoors, located in East Bridgewater, Mass. F1 is one of a handful of distributors for the new Rotax RM1 race kart program....
Spokes with SparksMedia Platforms Design TeamWhen a normal reflector won’t do, try one of MonkeyLectric’s wheel lights, which simply attach to the spokes. Scatter squirrels and perhaps other bicyclists as you bask in the glow of excessive electricity—and rest assured that cars will notice you from miles away. Blazing Booze[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/Zp-0BnTiHNU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1[/youtube]Concerned about maintaining your status as the life of the party? Look no further than the sound-activated T-shirt by TechnoTeez. The LED display rises and falls with music (or voices), and sensitivity-adjusting options are available....
Finally, a solution to bifocals is in sight. Optical scientists at the University of Arizona are refining prototype glasses that use liquid-crystal leses that can switch focus on command. The lenses use a layer of liquid crystal sandwiched between two pieces of flat glass spaced five microns apart—roughly one-twentieth the diameter of a human hair. The lense is coated with an ultrathin layer of indium tin oxide, which acts as an electrode....
Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s past 10 pm, and we’re standing alongside the main runway at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. The night air is thick with humidity and bugs, both of which cling to any exposed skin. Glowing green, red, and white lights dot the sky, moving over our heads in every direction.These flashes are the signs of dozens of aspiring fighter pilots from around the world flying patterns over the base tonight....
