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LOS ANGELES — We’ve been seeing various versions of the Buick Enclave for what seems like years. In fact, we reported on it at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last January. Now, Buick is finally showing us the finished vehicle. Of course, it won’t be at dealerships until this coming summer, so it’s still not exactly here.Basically, Enclave is a seven- or eight-passenger crossover. It shares its basic architecture with the GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook and, like them, is a front- or all-wheel....

GM officially opened its new vehicle crash facility with a bang today, demonstrating the auto manufacturer’s ability to study vehicle rollovers in laboratory-exact conditions. Using a ramp that lifted the two right wheels of a speeding (unmanned) Buick Rainier, GM engineers flipped the vehicle over on its top – it then skidded for several feet before being caught in a safety net. The test simulates a “corkscrew” or “ramp” rollover event, an accident that stems from an asymmetric upward force on one side of the vehicle (a “ditch” rollover directs one side of the vehicle downward instead of upward)....

The Tightwad ToiletMedia Platforms Design Team(Photograph by Nick Ferrari)Toilet technology is a little like limbo—how low can you flow? The bar now sits at 1.28 gallons per flush. But Niagara’s Stealth toilet sips only 0.8 gallons per flush thanks to a dual trap system that uses an air-transfer valve to pressurize the trapway, requiring less water to get something that early, primitive low-flow toilets lacked: “nice, complete rim cleaning,” says Niagara’s Paul Kwiat....

Q: Even when I haven’t been using the cartridges in my inkjet printer very much, the ink levels still seem to decrease. Is the ink simply evaporating over time? Is there a way to prevent that?A: Ink is designed to evaporate quickly – the faster it dries, the faster your printed page is safe from smudges. It is possible to lose ink out of the cartridges due to evaporation, especially if you have poked holes in your ink cartridges by using refill kits or unplugged your printer without turning it off first....

Media Platforms Design Team GENEVA — Just months after it launched the Cooper Clubman, BMW’s Mini division presented two new models here: the new Mini Cooper John Cooper Works (JCW) and the Mini Cooper JCW Clubman. In the engine bay of both models lies a new four-cylinder engine with a twin-scroll turbocharger and direct gasoline injection. Displacing 1.6 liters, the engine’s output offers a stout 211 hp and peak torque of 192 lb....

Researchers operating fusion reactor experiments at MIT, along with partnered scientists in Brussels and the U.K., have developed a new type of nuclear fusion fuel that produces ten times as much energy from energized ions as previously achieved. The experiments with the new fusion fuel, which contains three types of ions—particles with an electric charge due to the loss or gain of an electron—were conducted in MIT’s Alcator C-Mod tokamak, a magnetic confinement reactor that holds the records for highest magnetic field strength and highest plasma pressure in a fusion experiment....

Media Platforms Design TeamA new report on the Yarnell Hill fire that killed 19 “hotshot” firefighters this summer places blame for the tragedy with the Arizona State Forestry Division. , commissioned by the Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH), concludes that the Forestry Division mismanaged the fire from its early hours, neglected to follow its own rules for managing a complex incident, and ultimately failed to prioritize firefighter safety over the protection of non-defensible structures and property....

Media Platforms Design TeamBMW isn’t alone in needing to make its small cars more fuel efficient, and like Ford, which is trying to sell America on its 1.0-liter three-cylinder, Bimmer sees fewer cylinders as part of the solution. The automaker says its 1.5-liter three-cylinder is up to 15 percent more efficient than the current 2.0-liter four, weighs nearly 25 percent less, and is likely to power a number of new models....

On Thursday, I was a judge for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) inaugural Formula SAE West collegiate competition. It was a blast. The three-day competition, an offshoot of the original Formula SAE competition that started way back in 1981, pits university teams against one another in a competition to design, build and race small formula-style autocross race cars. The teams generally use tube-frame or carbon fiber chassis with four-cylinder sport bike engines to power them....

Media Platforms Design TeamOutfitting a Party Is Very ExpensiveIf you bought a 3D TV, it may not have come with even a single pair of 3D glasses. And with sets of glasses costing $100 or more per pair, making sure a party of five can keep their eye on the ball could cost you an extra $500 or more. The bigger the party, the bigger the bill. And even if some of your friends are among the few early adopters who have their own 3D TVs, the lack of a universal standard across glasses manufacturers means that they probably won’t be able to use their own....

(Published in the May 2005 issue) border=“0” cellspacing=“2” cellpadding=“0” bgcolor="#f5f5f5" align=“right”>TUNED MASS DAMPER STATSWhere it dangles: Taipei 101Diameter: 18 ft.Cost: $4 millionWeight: 730 tonsNumber of steel plates: 41Cable thickness: 3 1/2 in.Protects against: Earthquakes, high winds, oversize gorillas.The new Taipei 101 holds the title of world’s tallest building (for now) at 1667 ft. Sitting just 660 ft. from a major fault line in Taiwan, the tower could be subjected to earthquakes, typhoons and fierce winds–major challenges to the rigidity of the building....

In 1984 about a million tons of cargo passed through the Suez Canal every day. Last year that number was up to 2.6 million. Over the same period, the number of ships traversing the canal every year dropped, from more than 21,000 to about 17,000. How? The ships got bigger. The highest-capacity container ship at sea today holds more than four times as much cargo as the record holder in 1984....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe year is 1949. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (predecessor to NASA) has just come into 50 twin-engine cargo planes, a few dozen tired aircraft aching from their service in during the Berlin airlift. It’s a fleet of prop-planes just ripe for exploding. In the name of safety of course. This is was the young, pre-NASA organization’s attempt to help solve the problem of crash fires, that troubling tendency that crashed planes have to explode....

Autonomous vehicles will be good for more than transporting people. They’ll also be great for driving freight, and the new Freightliner “Inspiration Truck” will be one of the first to do it. At a ceremony last night at the Hoover Dam, the self-driving big rig got its autonomous vehicle license place, and now it’s good to go for testing on the roads of Nevada. Like most current autonomous vehicles, the Frieghtliner can’t completely drive itself....

Media Platforms Design TeamPony cars seem to make the biggest impression when equipped with snorting V8s, but the 2011 Mustang V6 that’s scheduled to debut at the 2009 LA Auto Show proves a six-cylinder can still pack a potent wallop. The Mustang’s new aluminum 3.7 liter Duratec 24-valve V6 pumps out a healthy 305 horsepower and a respectable 280 ft-lbs of torque–considerably more than its 4.0 liter iron block predecessor. The dual overhead-cam mill uses low-friction components and a deep sump oil pan that enables 10,000 mile oil change intervals....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team CHICAGO — Paul Sidlo doesn’t see solar power toppling king coal’s reign in the energy kingdom any time soon—not today and maybe not tomorrow. But he does see it seizing at least a portion of the fossil fuel’s territory. On Friday, Sidlo’s SUNRGI startup introduced a solar panel he claims will generate electricity cheaper than coal using only a fraction of the space needed by conventional photovoltaic panels....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamFINAL REPORT - April 2008Media Platforms Design TeamIn the life of every car there’s a bit of fantasy and a whole lot of reality. The typical SUV, for example, might promise the fantasy of hardcore off-roading, but deliver the reality of interstates and shopping malls. The gorgeous little G35 conjures up images of leafy back roads, constant radius turns and empty straightaways. In our year with the G, we actually had plenty of drives like that: summer road trips, college tours and an exhilarating jaunt to a PM retreat in New York’s Adirondack Mountains....

Media Platforms Design TeamTrack-day junkies can finally get their hands on a street-legal racing version of the Viper to drive to the course—because railering is just so unccool. The Viper SRT10 ACR’s prodigiously powerful 600-hp engine remains unchanged from the standard, but the suspension is hardened up to improve the Viper’s already impeccable racetrack manners. StopTech provides lightweight, two-piece vented rotors for sustained racetrack braking performance. The exterior package includes hinged front splitters, an adjustable rear wing and a sporty hood stripe....

Building a LEGO model or contraption by following the directions in the box is one thing, but it takes ingenuity and, yes, engineering ability to create an original LEGO composition. And there is no shortage of tinkerers determined to push the LEGO-mod envelope. The biggest drawback of the medium, according to LEGO artist Henry Lim, is also one of its most redeeming qualities. “If [the object] gets knocked over, it falls apart,” he says....

Format obsolescence is a huge problem, but Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, is working on the solution for how we’ll access our digital files decades and centuries down the line. When hardware or software goes obsolete, the ability to access those files is eventually lost. (Just try running an MS-DOS program now.) So it’s not enough to save a file format—you need to save the tools to interpret a file format as well....