Media Platforms Design TeamNOAAStop me if you’ve heard this one before: We just experienced the hottest year on record. Even with a few freak polar vortex snowstorms, 2014 was the hottest year ever recorded, beating out 2010. The 10 hottest years on record have all happened since 1997. The world is warming. Fast. (Over at Bloomberg, they’ve got an amazing visualization of how the planet has warmed over that past 135 years....
iPhone 6S and 6S PlusWe have new iPhones: Apple unveiled the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. The devices add a new feature called “3D Touch.” Sensors in the display can tell how hard you’re pressing on the display, allowing you to perform different functions based on how hard you press on the screen. For instance, you might apply a little pressure on the screen to quickly view an email, then release to go back to your inbox, without having to tap all the way into an email to read it....
All these years later, we still have a soft spot for Gak. And we still have no idea what’s in it. But this much is clear: Whatever the ingredients that make us this weird wonder material, they manage to make it heat-proof, as demonstrated in this video.These wonderful home scientists took a blazing hot ball of nickel and stuck it inside the Gak. Nickelodeon’s ubiquitous slime product sizzles a little bit, but it never quite ignites....
You’ve probably heard of Google’s 20 percent program—the tech giant’s policy of giving its employees time to pursue their own projects. Microsoft, as it tries to reinvent itself, is trying something similar. They call it Microsoft Garage, and, perhaps unexpectedly, one of the big trends so far has been building apps for Android.View full post on YoutubeMicrosoft rolled out several Android apps this week to highlight the work of the garage....
This month, with little fanfare, France made its warplanes eligible for “air policing duties” over its own airspace and that of neighboring countries. And as of yesterday, French airspace is now included in the NATO’s integrated air and missile defense system. NATO can now protect a seamless stretch of airspace—from Spain up to Norway, and from Europe’s Atlantic coast to the eastern border of Turkey.“As with every other ally, French sovereignty is maintained through air policing,” said Lieutenant-General Dominique de Longvilliers, Deputy Commander of Allied Air Command....
The Xbox One is slowly building a library of new games, but now it’s library is about to get a big boost. At E3 2015, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will now be able to play (some of) your old Xbox 360 games. This doesn’t run the original versions of the old games you actually have. Instead, if you have a digital game connected to your account you can download a new, retooled version that can run natively on the Xbox One....
NEW YORK (AP) — Heading into winter, fliers should take extra precautions with their checked luggage — December and January are traditionally the worst months for lost bags.To avoid problems, arrive at the airport early enough to let your bag get to the plane, and print out a copy of your itinerary from the airline’s website and stick it inside just in case all the tags get ripped off.In the U....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: mid-2013Price: TBACompetitors: Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Infiniti Q50Powertrains: 2.5-liter V-6, 204 hp, 185 lb-ft; 3.5-liter V-6, 306 hp, 277 lb-ft; six- or eight-speed auto, RWD or AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 19–21/26–31What’s New: The new IS boasts swoopier lines and a curvilinear spindle grille that ties this model to Lexus’s current sharp-edged look. It’s also longer, taller, and wider. Most notably, the wheelbase expands by 2....
3D Home TheaterRevenue from 3D cinema gave an impressive boost to Hollywood last year, but that boost is not as heartening as the decline in DVD sales is frightening. Viewers are buying fewer movies and stealing more content online. Studios have moved aggressively into online distribution, but still have no grand, unified format for downloadable movie purchases. Plus, Blu-ray sales have picked up, but the format is still not yet the cash cow that DVDs were....
Media Platforms Design Team1. When driving brads, finishing nails an inch long or less, it’s not easy to get them started with your fingers in the way. A better approach is to cut a narrow slot in a piece of cardboard that’s just smaller than the nail shank. Use this to hold the brad and keep your fat fingers a safe distance away—no offense.2. Another solution for tiny finishing nails is to find a brad pusher....
Media Platforms Design TeamCharging the Ford Focus EV, one of the current crop of electric vehicles running on Lithium-ion. Credit: FordLithium-ion batteries have become standard for portable electronics because they don’t require a lot of power to run. However, using Li-ion batteries for bigger purposes, like powering an electric car, does not bode as well. Many of the newest electric vehicles can run for only 100 miles (if that) before needing a recharge....
Bill Gates may have recently drank water that used to be human waste, but astronauts on the ISS have been doing that for years, as their sweat and urine have been recycled back into potable water. Now that system is getting better. The European Space Agency made a deal with Aquaporin Space Alliance to use a sort of hybrid biological-nanotech system to filter the waste and turn pee and sweat into clean water....
Evander Holyfield, the former heavyweight boxing champion, remembers the hardest hit he ever took in the ring. It came from George Foreman. “It was like an 80-pound sack of sand,” Holyfield says. “I wonder how hard it really was, though—you know, scientifically speaking.“Holyfield won’t ever know the answer. (And if he did, he may have forgotten by now, given the number of shots that rained down on his head during his long career....
Hair-Dryer ExplosionHomeowner Richard Kampf of Cape Coral, Florida, formerly worked for the EPA and has testified before a congressional committee about his drywall problems. “All we spend our life doing is fighting this,” Kampf said. “It’s difficult.“Recently, his wife’s 3-week-old hair-dryer “caught fire in her hand,” Kampf says. He suspects corrosion to the copper wiring of the outlet, behind walls made of Knauf Tianjin board, caused an electrical short that set the hot blower ablaze....
Media Platforms Design TeamPM salutes the civic-minded, inventive and frugal founding father on this, the day of his birth in 1706. Franklin lived in a time rife with upheaval and new beginnings, and his many firsts molded the shape of life in the United States.Franklin was the first American celebrity and the first ambassador for America. He had a hand in the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, and the Constitutional Convention....
Media Platforms Design TeamAt the beginning of this month, hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy was sitting at his desk at the University of Miami looking at the different weather models for storms in the Pacific. Then, on November 3, the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tropical cyclone formation alert. “You could tell early on that this had the potential to be big,” McNoldy says. “Not 195 mph big, but big....
Boeing has confirmed it will build a sprawling 108-foot-wide wing for the next generation of its 777 aircraft. The new wing borrows design cues from a sailplane and the manufacturing process from Boeing’s all-composite 787 airliner. With 20 percent more wing area than the current fleet of 777s, the 777X will become the largest twin-engine jet in the world.This increased wing length and area will create more lift, decreasing fuel consumption and operating costs by more than 10 percent....
Media Platforms Design TeamWhen I set out to build a portable telescope, known as a Dobsonian telescope, the first step had me stymied—where do you find 6 ft of 8-in.-dia cardboard tubing? I’m a physicist by training, an amateur astronomer by inclination and an occasional visitor to the home center for DIY projects. A massive tube is not usually on my shopping list. I stood in the store with meticulous notes on the materials I needed, but no one could find them....
Media Platforms Design Team LOS ANGELES — Forget the cheesy-suited, high-pressure stereotype of your everyday car dealership (“How can we can get you in one of these today?”). With its exposed wooden rafters, slick concrete floors and chatty central bar, Tesla Motors’ first store on Santa Monica Boulevard here is an art gallery/coffee house/Apple store hybrid for plug-in vehicles—and the salespeople want you to gawk as much as buy. “Have a look around, have fun, and if you have any questions, ask,” a friendly employee told us within three steps of our first visit to the store, which opened here on Tuesday....
UPDATE, May 30: CLICK HERE FOR POPULAR MECHANICS’ HANDS-ON, BEHIND-THE-SCENES COVERAGE OF MICROSOFT’S NEW SURFACE COMPUTER TABLE, WITH FIRST-LOOK VIDEO! REDMOND, Wash., March 6 — When technology companies become big and successful, they invest in research and development. When technology companies become humongous and really, really successful, they establish dedicated research divisions, which are granted the freedom to pursue pure research that may or may not find its way into product development....
