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To abuse a quote by Victor Hugo, there’s nothing so exciting as an old idea whose time has come. Especially if that idea is championed by little guys who have already capitalized on previous old ideas. In this case, the old idea is Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), which is, to be sure, not that old of an idea, but it’s one that’s been on the radar of big tech companies such as Microsoft, Verizon and AT&T for some time now (in fact, Bill Gates announced a few days ago at the Consumer Electronics Show that Microsoft intends to let Xbox 360 owners stream IPTV through their game systems)....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe spectacular crash of a B-2 stealth bomber in February could have been prevented by a simple, unofficial “bootleg” maintenance procedure that some ground crews have used for years. Small errors, it now turns out, caused a large accident. A B-2 has four computers, called the flight control system (FCS), that translate the pilot’s cockpit inputs into movement of the plane’s control surfaces. The $1.4 billion warplane was brought down by a few drops of water in three of the 24 air-pressure sensors that feed data to the FCS....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen it comes to ultimate velocity on land, nothing beats good old fashioned jet power: it propelled the twin turbofan-equipped ThrustSSC to a record busting 763.035 mph in 1997, and continues to taunt would-be record breakers like Craig Breedlove, who has vowed to break 800 mph in 2013.But for proof that die-hard internal combustion fanatics continue to push their particular envelope of technology, look no further than Danny Thompson, son of late offroad legend Mickey Thompson....

Designer Hadeel Ayoub, a Goldsmiths, University of London student, created a glove that translates sign language into text and speech. Actually, she’s created three different prototypes, the latest of which incorporates a text-to-speech chip to say out loud what’s being signed so that the blind can actually hear the deaf. As outlined in Ayoub’s full academic report, the main goal is to improve communication between “the hearing, speech and visually impaired....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s easy to marvel at how the late Ferdinand A. Porsche’s stubbornly rear-engined design of the 911 proved early critics wrong and became one of the most revered, easily identifiable silhouettes in the sports car world. But such was the purity of Porsche’s vision, encapsulated by his mantra that “A coherently designed product requires no adornment; it should be enhanced by its form alone.“My affection for the 911 began with childhood posters and Matchbox toys, but became more personal when I bought a 1983 SC coupe (pictured here) and drove it from Florida to California while researching and photographing my first book, Legendary Motorcycles....

THE ROUND-THE-GLOBE VOLVO OCEAN RACE pits the world’s most advanced sailboats against the world’s worst weather – gale-force storms, mountainous seas and sweltering doldrums. The seven Volvo Open 70s (70-ft. racing sloops) preparing to start the 32,000-mile, nine-leg rally from Spain on Nov. 5 make up the fastest class of monohulls ever built. In Apri 2005, a VO70 sailed a record 530 miles in 24 hours, topping out at 39 knots....

When he disappears, he disappears behind the walnut door to his room—the door, it seems, must always be closed to seal him in his private capsule—and then there’s the sound of banging and rummaging in the closet, the padding of feet, and the sudden jangly spill of Lego bricks. And that’s it. We won’t see him for two, three, four hours. He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t drink. We’ll crack the door to make sure he’s alive, and there in that slim line of light we can see the crown of his head bowed in concentration....

People have the wrong ideas about knives. A knife doesn’t cut like a razor or a plane iron on the push stroke. It’s somewhat like a saw with teeth that cuts in a sliding motion as it’s pushed or pulled. A properly sharpened knife is honed to a fine edge, yet has an appropriate roughness so that it has bite, or an ability to sink into the cut.Understanding the subtleties of sharpening is what we’re about at Bernal Cutlery, in the Mission District of San Francisco....

Observations of the Mars atmosphere performed over the last six years have given NASA scientists a powerful new hypothesis: Not only was Mars once a watery place, but its northern hemisphere may have been covered in an ocean the size of the Arctic Ocean here on Earth. The evidence comes from atmospheric observations by ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the W. M. Keck Observatory, and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. That evidence is the observation of traces of deuterium, also known as heavy water....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamClick here for our new supercar showdown in the desert: Corvette Z06 vs. Audi R8, Porsche 911 Turbo and Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe!DETROIT — Looks like the new, high-performance Corvette, which we broke down in detail earlier based on eight shots of the likely 600-hp and 200-mph sportscar in red, will come in at least two more colors: yellow and dark blue. Even though we were some of the first to spy what was then referred to as the “Blue Devil” ‘Vette in this darker hue on GM’s test track, these new shots (see more below at right) of the Corvette SS/ZRS/ZO7/Grand Sport S undergoing high-speed tests confirm that she’s still a beauty, and provide a few new details… —Jim Dunne The revised hood covers the supercharger intake scoop....

Media Platforms Design TeamInnovators: Harry Atwater, Michael Kelzenberg, Nathan Lewis, California Institute of TechnologyChemist Harry Atwater’s gift for manipulating light has led to some eye-opening innovations, including an “invisibility cloak.” His most recent feat: reinventing the solar cell. More than half of the silicon acting as a semiconductor in standard photovoltaic (PV) panels—made of wafers—winds up as shavings on the factory floor. Atwater’s team at Caltech wastes virtually nothing, instead growing silicon microwires using vapor deposition....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn The Bourne Legacy, Jeremy Renner takes his turn in the starring role of this spy series. Renner’s character Aaron Cross, a genetically enhanced agent like Jason Bourne, must go on the run when the program that created him is exposed. In the clip below, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton) stresses the seriousness of a mission to Cross.To mark the film’s Blu-ray release on December 11, Popular Mechanics has a sweepstakes going in which you could win a Bourne Legacy combo pack featuring a Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download of the film....

A robot cook from the 2009 Robot Show in Tokyo.Media Platforms Design TeamFrom DIY woodworking projects to instructions for dialing in your carburetor mixture to hundreds of baking recipes, you can learn almost anything from YouTube. The problem is that any given video could be full of bad information. But what if you could watch every single video on a given subject and analyze them simultaneously? Patterns would emerge that effectively guarantee you come away with reliable information....

Media Platforms Design TeamI’m from the Pittsburgh area, so I have no small love for professional athletes—particularly those who play football. When Troy Polamalu intercepts a pass and dashes downfield, my spirits soar. When, say, the Ravens score a touchdown in the last few seconds of the fourth quarter, clinching the win, my hopes are crushed along with the rest of the Steeler Nation’s. Like most sports fans, we celebrate with the team’s successes, we share the anguish of their defeats, and then we place way too much weight on how those events will impact the future....

Media Platforms Design TeamEasily lost among a flurry of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court this week is the news of one case they didn’t take. The nine justices declined to hear a challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s choice to approve E15 (gas mixed with up to 15 percent ethanol) for vehicles from 2001 and newer. A group of organizations led by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers challenged a lower court’s ruling that EPA’s mandate was okay....

Media Platforms Design TeamBREAKTHROUGH WHO Boston Dynamics Waltham, Mass. FIELD Humanoid RoboticsACHIEVEMENT Creating a semi-autonomous search-and-rescue robot.There’s an amazing video on YouTube of the world’s most advanced humanoid robot. The footage shows it in a series of testing rooms, with engineers popping in and out—monitoring the machine, tapping out commands on keyboards, smiling at one another with what looks like pride, or shock, or both. In one clip the robot walks on a treadmill with astonishing smoothness....

In the battle for buzz, E3 2009 has a clear winner, and its name is Project Natal–Microsoft’s controller-free future interface that will allow players to play Xbox 360 games by waving body parts in the air. Microsoft’s gauntlet-laying message to Nintendo is clear: The only thing better than a wand-like motion-sensitive controller is no controller at all.But before consumers get their hopes up about the too-cool-to-be-true Project Natal (which sounds more like a covert military operation or ’70s prog-rock band than a game interface), they should approach the “product” with a heaping dose of skepticism....

View full post on TwitterThese new mannequins may not turn into Kim Cattrall (or Kristy Swanson), but they will whisper in your ear—or, at least, your phone. Universal Display is hard at work on “smart mannequins,” a move aimed at bringing customers back to brick-and-mortar stores.The smart mannequins are outfitted with transmitters that send messages to nearby cell phones (they have beacons that can tell when a customer with a store’s app comes within reach)....

Media Platforms Design TeamMitsubishi PX-MiEV ConceptThe SpecsThis plug-in hybrid is loaded with hardware. We’ll start with the battery, a lithium-ion pack that has enough energy storage to power this SUV for the first 30 miles. The electricity flows to a pair of 80-hp electric motors–one per axle. When the battery is depleted, a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine kicks on and can either charge the battery or contribute motive power. That’s right, this car has three modes–EV, series hybrid and parallel hybrid....

In July 2012, when scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider culminated decades of work with their discovery of the Higgs boson, most physicists celebrated. Stephen Hawking did not. The famed theorist expressed his disappointment that nothing more unusual was found, calling the discovery “a pity in a way.” But did he ever say the Higgs could destroy the universe?That’s what many reports in the media said earlier this week, quoting a preface Hawking wrote to a book called Starmus....