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Media Platforms Design TeamBrent Bushnell (left), Eric Gradman, Founders, Two Bit Circus (Photo by Emily Shur)BREAKTHROUGH WHO Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman Two Bit Circus Los Angeles FIELD EducationACHIEVEMENT Making kids want to learn.Brent Bushnell can summarize his plan for overhauling how we teach kids the essential subjects of science, math, and engineering—all disciplines children have struggled with mightily in this country for nearly a generation—in three words: lasers, fire, and robots....

Killzone 2Platform: PlayStation 3Developer: Guerilla Games / SCEEPublisher: Sony Computer EntertainmentRelease: February 2008A sequel to the relatively underwhelming Killzone, this one might have topped our list if it had been playable. When the game’s director played through a scene during Sony’s press conference, it was literally awesome, as in awe-inspiring, as in this is what the PlayStation 3 is supposed to look like. The chaotic battle scene was a blend of Gears of War-style vehicles and weapons and a military shooter’s tight first-person controls, including sighting-down-the-barrel aiming mode....

Land Cruisers have always offered a dichotomy: They’re Toyota’s most luxurious SUVs on the road, yet also the most capable in the dirt. The new one feels every bit as bulletproof and adept as its predecessors–maybe more so. Much of the four-wheeling talent comes from a chassis with excellent wheel travel and some seriously trick technology. The Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System, which was previously available only on the Lexus GX 470, can essentially loosen the sway bar’s grip on the suspension for increased axle articulation and, hence, more traction when off-road....

When you buy a house, it’s amazing what you find left behind by previous owners. For the first several months after buying my house, I would come across large pieces of deer bones while working in my yard. This puzzled me—until a neighbor explained that the man who last owned my home was an avid deer hunter who butchered the animal himself on his (now my) property. The episode had been none too pleasing to my neighbor, who had moved to the area from Manhattan and wasn’t accustomed to looking out his window and seeing bucks strung from trees so their blood could drain....

Open the Usual SuspectsHave a set of websites you always open first thing every morning? Save yourself some time by setting up Chrome to automatically launch your favorite tabs in a single window. Go into the Preferences menu within Chrome, and in the menu called On Startup, select Open a Specific Page or Set of Pages. From there you’ll be prompted to enter the pages you’d like to see every time you launch your browser....

Media Platforms Design TeamLOS ANGELES — With NBA legend Jon Salley by his side, Volkswagen head of technical development Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg unveiled the Space Up! Blue electric-powered concept car to a large crowd here—its first in North America. Small in stature, Hackenberg warned us not to judge a book by its cover: “There is plenty of interior space for four full-size people.” Styled after the classic Samba Bus from the 1950s (a hippy favorite), this slick looking, zero-emission van is powered by an electric drive system that includes a 45-kW motor, 12 lithium-ion batteries with a total of 12 kWh, and a hydrogen fuel cell....

Media Platforms Design TeamBEST FILM EDITINGTHE NOMINEESAvatarDistrict 9The Hurt LockerInglourious BasterdsPrecious: Based on the Novel “Push” By SapphireTHE EXPERT Just a few years after making his auspicious debut as a feature film editor with Shaun of the Dead, Chris Dickens collected an Academy Award for his editing of Slumdog Millionaire. Currently, he’s teamed up with Simon Pegg again to edit the actor/writer’s latest film, Paul.THE CRITERIADickens says great editing happens when the individual choices of the editor support the film’s story on the whole....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: April 20, 2011Price: $16,000–$26,000 estimatedCompetitors: Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra, Chevy Cruze, Ford FocusPowertrains: 1.8-liter I4, 140 hp, 128 lb-ft; 1.5-liter I4 with electric hybrid assist, 110 hp, 127 lb-ft; 2.4-liter I4, 198 hp, 170 lb-ft; 5- or 6-speed manual, 5-speed auto, CVT, front-wheel driveEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 22–44/31–44What’s New: Mostly subtle revisions rule the new Civic, which isn’t surprise considering it was the sixth-best-selling car last year....

On-Sale Date: Summer 2012Price: $24,495 to $28,930Competitors: Mazda Mazdaspeed3, Volkswagen GTI, Subaru WRXPowertrains: 2.0-liter four-cylinder; 252 hp, 270 lb-ft of torque; 6-speed manual, FWD EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): TBDWhat’s New: The 2.0-liter turbocharged and direct-injected EcoBoost engine are new. So is the killer 15-second “overboost” feature, which temporarily bumps torque when the driver mashes the throttle to the floor. The suspension is unique to the Focus ST, too, featuring redesigned knuckles and a reworked antiroll bar out back (compared with the stock Focus’s suspension)....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Now Price: $40,570 (not including $3334 federal tax credit)Competitors: Ford Fusion Energi, Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid, Ford C-Max Energi, Chevrolet VoltPowertrains: 2.0-liter I-4, 141 hp, 161-hp electric motor; CVT; FWD EPA Fuel Economy: 115 mpge (electric mode); 47/46 (city/hwy, gasoline mode)What’s New: Essentially the Accord Plug-In works both as a serial hybrid similar to a Chevrolet Volt and as a parallel hybrid like the familiar Toyota Prius....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor the last year, YouTube has been abuzz with of users playing their own laser harps, hand-built synth instruments in which red beams take the place of real strings. Sure, they look awesome—really awesome. But making one yourself is a tough task for even the most skilled woodworking masters, so the closest most of us will ever get to one of these lustworthy faux-harps (to us, at least) is our computer screen....

Media Platforms Design TeamCome winter, Vermont’s Lincoln Gap Road undergoes a radical transformation. As mounds of fresh snow turn the region into a frozen Narnia, the rustic thoroughfare over the Green Mountains becomes inaccessible to traffic and converts to an informal test track for snow-sport maniacs. The road twists and turns as it winds down the 2400-ft pass through a wooded terrain larded with frozen waterfalls and cliff faces perfect for hucking off....

Beats aren’t particularly great headphones, but the $200 b-emblazoned cans are ubiquitous and somehow feel premium enough to justify the pricetag. That’s thanks in large part to four little metal parts that are there just to add some premium-feeling heft. Avery Louie, a Prototype Engineer for a company called Bolt, did a teardown of the a pair of Beats for a post on Medium and found that just four small parts cast in metal contribute to a full third of the headset’s weight....

NASA is fast at work on plans for its next generation optics. While the James Webb Space Telescope is the headline grabber, the agency has another plan straight out of the Cold War: they’re going to recycle two satellites given to them by the National Reconnaissance Office to peer deep into the universe. If the NRO is unfamiliar to you, it shouldn’t be: it’s the spy agency watching the world from above, with spy satellites zipping in orbit snapping pictures of the sky below....

View full post on Youtube On the topic of the autonomous car, I recently wrote: “As long as there is a traditional steering wheel in your car, you’ll be able to drive.” Yeah, about that. Yesterday Google released a promotional video of its very own self-driving car. The two-seat prototype, which the company has been developing in secret, doesn’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal. The car relies solely on the carmaker’s self-driving software and hardware to navigate roads and traffic....

In our connected world, distance is a relative concept. It takes less time to cover the 800 miles between New York and Chicago by air than it does to reach Albany, 150 miles north, by land. And that is as true for the flu as it is for you.We know speed of air travel makes it easy for disease to spread between major transportation hubs, even ones separated by hundreds or thousands of miles....

UPDATE: There is a new site – How BB-8 Works – with new insight and links to the patent on BB-8. Disney’s patent pre-dates the Lucasfilm purchase, but the mechanics seem to be the same. An internal mast magnetically keeps the head attached, with a control system inside the mask ensuring that it’s always vertical. Rollers on the head of the droid give it seamless movement across the surface. This is pretty close to what we theorized....

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and preparing for disasters. To tell the truth, I started out on the fringe, buying enough military surplus Meals, Ready-to-Eat, or MREs, to put me on a government watch list. But then about a year ago, I realized my plan was absurd: My kids won’t want dehydrated veggie burgers. During the apocalypse, your duty is to keep up morale—and nothing is better for that than a great meal....

NASA has identified the glitch that struck its Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft, mission scientists said during a press conference today. But the problem should be fixed in plenty of time for the Pluto flyby later this month.The July 4th anomaly that set back the New Horizons spacecraft owed to a hardware error: The process of compressing data to clear room on the solid state drive for the flyby caused the processor to overload, NASA says....

Today, while Tim Cook was showing off the new MacBook and Apple Watch, Disney decided to sneak one by us with this new trailer for Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof’s upcoming sci-fi/mystery/adventure movie Tomorrowland.Starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, and Hugh Laurie, Tomorrowland is based on the futuristic utopia depicted at Disney theme parks around the world. While we still don’t know a whole lot about plot details, we can infer from this trailer that a girl played by Robertson finds a pin that transports her to another world where “nothing is impossible,” as her scientist friend (played by Clooney) says....