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Media Platforms Design TeamBubbles may make for happy drinks but they don’t make for happy boaters. Propellers aren’t efficient in bubbly water. While your engine is screaming its little pistons out, your boat feels like it’s mushing through a bowl of oatmeal. Just about all outboards route the exhaust through the hub aft of the prop so the prop blades bite into clean water when you’re under way.The problem occurs when you’re in Reverse, like when you’re docking and braking, and you run over your own exhaust bubbles....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe loss of a helicopter carrying more than 20 U.S. special forces and as many as 8 other U.S. military service members is an unprecedented one in this war. The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru)—better known by its former name, Team 6-reportedly suffered the bulk of the casualties. The incident comes just months after DevGru’s raid that killed Osama bin Laden.Information about the incident is still trickling in, but these are a few of the most important questions in the immediate aftermath....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Now Base Price (est.): $245,000 Competitors: Audi R8, McLaren 650S, Porsche 911 Turbo SPowertrains: 5.2-liter V-10, 602 hp, 413 lb-ft; seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy, mfr. est.): 15/21 It’s not just that the Lamborghini Huracán looks like a fighter jet. Nor is it because the car’s aluminum structure mixes in carbon fiber to save weight. No, the biggest reason why the Huracán is a street-going F-22 is because it uses actual aerospace components to make it faster and easier to drive....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s important to associate a vehicle with its intended audience in order to pinpoint its personality. So when Airstream’s latest high-end creation debuted for “VIP travel” according to its press release, we couldn’t help but visualize a small band of roaming billionaires or a royal family en route to high tea at their summer chateau. Media Platforms Design TeamWhatever their lots in life, Autobahn passengers are apparently treated to rather posh furnishings; after all, the vertically oriented Mercedes-Benz Sprinters upon which this platform is based can seat up to 12, while this one’s decked out for 8 with wood and leather finishes, a 32-inch LCD screen, dual refrigerators, power footrests, and heated seats....

There is a cottage industry forming to thwart the twin threats of unexploded bombs and intentionally placed IEDs–by convincing the Pentagon to use long-range lasers in the warzone. Boeing, always at the forefront of a lucrative market niche, has mounted a solid-state direct-energy beam that can explode bombs in the clear before they can take out a convoy. And if the proving-ground footage we’ve been checking out is any indication, this zapper is definitely showing potential....

Media Platforms Design TeamJudging by the scale of the party they threw in Hollywood last night– red carpet, live performers, freeflowing drinks and bikini-clad Brammo Girls roaming throughout– you might’ve guessed that electric bike upstart Brammo had automotive levels of funding. But at least they worked with carbonfund.org to make the event carbon-neutral.We couldn’t tell you how much cash is flowing in and out of the Ashland, Oregon-based outfit, but here’s what Brammo revealed about their anticipated Empulse model: powered by a whopping 9....

Media Platforms Design TeamDuring testing yesterday for Saturday’s Petit Le Mans at the Road Atlanta racetrack, a Porsche 911 GT3 flipped the Deltawing prototype race car off the track. Thankfully, Deltawing driver Gunnar Jeanette suffered no injuries, and according to Highcroft Racing, the car—which is running unclassified—will be on the track again today for practice.Based on on-board footage of the crash, seen below, Jeanette begins to pass the Green Hornet Racing Porsche 911 GT3, driven by Peter LeSaffre, entering turn 11....

While the Professional Bull Riding circuit was in Detroit last weekend, Ford took advantage of the rodeo-like atmosphere to launch a new beast of its own. As country music blared from the Ford Field speakers, a 2013 F-Series Super Duty Platinum pickup got the honor of towing a trailer holding two competition bulls out onto the stadium floor.The Platinum Series dethrones the King Ranch as Ford’s high-end heavy-duty pickup, offering a new option for drivers looking to spend upward of $64,000 (the sticker price on the 2012 Super Duty F-450 King Ranch) for a gussied-up pickup that’s exactly the same under the hood as the other Super Duty pickups....

Media Platforms Design TeamUpdate, March 7, 2014. A judge today threw out a $10,000 fine that the Federal Aviation Administration had levied against Raphael Pirker of Team BlackSheep. Pirker is the only person that the FAA has fined so far for violating its rules against flying small drones below 400 feet, . FAA could appeal the decision to the National Transportation Safety Board.Reuters saysFor more about Pirker and the future of small drones in American skies, check out our feature, “Drone Skies: The Unmanned Aircraft Revolution is Coming....

Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS — Honda is displaying no fewer than 17 sky’s-the-limit project and concept vehicles at the 2007 SEMA show, but their Accord Coupe HF-S Concept explores styling and technological possibilities that might be seen in future production vehicles. Cues include LED driving lights that wrap around the bumper, vortex generating bodywork and drag-reducing rear diffusers. The exterior paint color, Cadmium Orange Pearl, was inspired by superheated metal, and asymmetrical, rectangular cutouts on the seats reveal a similarly hued background....

Philips is easing some of the sticker shock that comes with buying an LED bulb. Today the manufacturer debuted a 60W-equivalent LED bulb that costs less than $5. Similar fixtures on the marketplace retail for more than double that amount.If it’s half the price, is it half the power? Yes and no. Cnet explains that the bulb puts out 800 lumens, which is on par with comparable LED bulbs. The drawback is that it has just a 10-year lifespan....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen English physicist William Crookes first discovered plasma in 1879, he did not propose any use for the stuff. Crookes found that he could make gas behave differently than other forms of matter by stripping electrons from it with electrodes. What we now call plasma is used in arc-welding torches, neon signs and high-end television screens. Scientists are still finding novel ways to manipulate plasma. For example, Jamey Jacob, an aerospace engineer from Oklahoma State University, has replaced mechanical parts on the wings of aircraft with arrays of tiny actuators....

What could be more intense than being in the cockpit of an F-16? How about climbing into the air intake of an F-16. I hope you’re not claustrophobic. This mechanic, performing some basic maintenance at Kunsan Air Base, clearly isn’t!View full post on YoutubeThe footage of a guy climbing into a jet’s air intake, recently surfaced on Reddit, definitely gives me the willies, but the prospect of sliding out does seem sort of fun....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhether you’re steering through skyscrapers in a new city or just making your way to a familiar bathroom, the neurons inside your skull are frantically juggling and crunching all kinds of complex calculations whenever you navigate. It’s a formidable task, and just how the heck brain cells do it is still largely a mystery.Today, in a groundbreaking study in the journal Nature, as a team of Israeli neuroscientists report found that acrobatic bats have an intricate kind of mental compass that works in three dimensions....

Media Platforms Design Team"Two words: Group texting. With Fast Society and GroupMe out with a slew of new features, and Beluga’s recent acquisition by Facebook, I think this will be the year that we see group-texting apps acquire a sizable foothold in the tech geek zeitgeist."—Brenna Ehrlich, Mashable, associate editor of media and entertainment"Group texting could be that next most-obvious service that doesn’t only catch on with early adopters. Also, I’m expecting to see a lot of food and photo-sharing updates in my feeds from apps like Foodspotting and Instagram....

Media Platforms Design TeamOnly a few boys have ponds of their own, in a pasture, perhaps. But there are miniature lakes in our city parks, pools at our summer camps, and old water holes in the woods. If all of these fail, a boy can still sail his ships on the bathtub sea. A simple side-wheeler, built of wood, is shown in the sketch. It winds up with a crank and runs 15 to 20 ft....

Media Platforms Design TeamChatbots: They’re just like us. They have complicated politics, they flirt, they deny their most shameful secrets, and they shame each other for drunkenness. We got a little of each when Zabaware had two of its robots talk to each other, and sparks really flew between Hal and Hallie. Ultra Hal reportedly learns from previous conversations, and it shows. While the conversation is incoherent on a whole, there’s an obvious thread from response to response, as the bot has seemingly learned from human chat participants how to respond to certain situations, whether it’s talking about politics or being condescending to women....

During a trip to the optometrist 20 years ago, Elizabeth Goldring became inspired to create a seeing machine for the visually impaired. That’s when Goldring, who is legally blind in one eye and partially blind in the other, first encountered a Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope. The SLO is a tool that uses an infrared laser to shine an image onto the retina, bypassing hemorrhages and other defects within the eye. The patient reports when he is able to see the image, allowing the examiner to identify areas of healthy and unhealthy retinal cells....

There are lots of proposals to clean up near-Earth space. There’s Clean Space One, a plan to basically build a space junk-eating robot that deorbits small satellites. There’s also the laser broom, which shoots it out of the sky. But a new concept involves, essentially, doing both. The Debris Engine will work in two ways: it will fire lasers at space junk, and consume smaller bits and convert them to fuel....

Summer is most definitely here (albeit unofficially), so print out this checklist and get to work. Leaky plumbing alone accounts for 14 percent of water we use in the home, for crying out loud—and that’s just the start of it… —Roy Berendsohn ___ Apply no more than 1 in. of water per week to your lawn in two applications. Water in the morning, if possible, to ensure that the water soaks in....